By Tom Phillips[1] • • Updated • nfcw.com[2]
Bus passengers in Japan are taking part in a pilot of self-driving buses equipped with facial recognition technology which enables them to pay for their tickets as they board using a ‘face pass’ system.
“Passengers have their face scanned and registered beforehand so that their account gets charged automatically once their face is detected boarding a bus,” according to Japan Today[3].
The Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry is testing the driverless buses and facial recognition ticketing system in a number of cities across the country with the next, in Maebashi City, “expected to begin this December”.
The Osaka Metro began testing facial recognition gates[4] on the city’s subway in December 2019. A video shows the launch of the Osaka Metro pilot:
