According to the Deputy Mayor of Moscow Maxim Liksutov, the city authorities plan to simplify the process of entering the metro by using a face recognition payment system. The technology will start operating in test mode in the spring of 2021.

So far, face recognition technology is used to track and arrest criminals. Currently there are 5 thousand cameras with face recognition technology at the subway stations.

Answering the question about how a person will be linked to an account or a bank card, the press service of the metro said that “several options for working with data are being considered”.

To use the new payment method, a person has to to download the Moscow Transport application, link a bank card to it, and take a picture (the photos will be sent to Rostelecom’s unified biometric system).

Closed testing has shown that the face recognition system allows passengers to enter the subway faster than a traditional turnstile with transport cards.

Moreover, Liksutov says that the Troika card used in public transit systems will become personalized and virtual.

Original (in Russian)