Many of us happen to be looking for the wallet with the public transport card or ticket pennies, which are usually always at the bottom of the bag. While we are looking forward to our discovery a little later, the subway has already flown from our station.
From this week, passengers on the Moscow metro will no longer have to waste time looking for hidden items, thanks to an innovative form of contactless payment. The underground capital of the Russian capital, which dates back to the 1930s, has been testing a facial recognition system since December 2020, with thousands of Muscovites already registered to participate.
FacePay will be available to passengers at all 241 stations on Moscow’s 14 metro lines from October 15, city officials said.
“Passengers do not need to carry their phones or have a card or a ticket. They are only required to upload their data as well as their photo in the app,” Anna Laposhkina, head of the press service of Moscow’s transport department, told Euronews. . Meanwhile, customers who prefer to do it the classic way still reserve this right.
Passengers can use the technology at each of the designated subway entrances if they have an account with their personal bank and biometric data. The scheme is simple – once the passenger approaches one of the cameras at the entrance, thanks to facial recognition, the barrier is raised. The good news is that the system can be used without having to remove the masks from the face.
“There is no need for the passengers to take off their mask, the camera will recognize them and release them without any problems,” Laposhkina added. This is the first time that facial technology has been used so widely to make it easier for travelers, according to the Moscow Ministry of Transport. The truth is that we have to admit that Covid-19 also has its positive sides – it allows us to look beyond the well-known, without being colorblind to the many shades of black to white.
