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.

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 on the city’s subway in December 2019. A video shows the launch of the Osaka Metro pilot:

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