LG Uplus will cooperate with spatial information specialist All4land to advance a next-generation bus information system (BIS) based on high-precision positioning technology.

The two companies signed a business agreement on March 16 at LG Uplus headquarters in Yongsan-gu, Seoul, to expand BIS. Attendees included Bae Jun-hyung (배준형), head of LG Uplus' mobility business TF, and Nam Sang-gwan (남상관), head of All4land's business division, along with other key officials.

All4land is a service company that creates synergy by linking big data processing, cloud computing and blockchain technologies with spatial information. Last year, it jointly developed the RTK-based BIS, AI Live Bus, with LG Uplus.

Under the agreement, the two companies will upgrade AI Live Bus and launch it on a subscription basis. LG Uplus' RTK applied to AI Live Bus links ground reference stations with dedicated devices to reflect location information in real time down to the centimetre level. AI can analyse road conditions, weather, time and past arrival times to provide an expected arrival time without errors.

AI Live Bus provides an integrated management system that covers not only real-time location information but also maintenance of related devices and operating status statistics. The two companies plan to strengthen AI functions applied to the service to improve the efficiency of the integrated management system. They also plan to upgrade AI Live Bus by applying newly developed RTK equipment.

LG Uplus and All4land will also jointly develop a bus stop bus information terminal (BIT) that provides bus arrival information at low power using solar energy without separate electrical line construction.

Existing BITs had high initial installation costs because they required separate electrical line work and used electronic devices. The low-power BIT being developed by the two companies features solar panels and e-paper to reduce the burden of line construction and device costs. They aim to complete development in the second half of the year.

The two companies will review a plan to launch the low-power BIT as a subscription product and provide it together with AI Live Bus. They also plan to upgrade AI Live Bus by adding functions such as route editing and bus operation management to improve user convenience.