Tour buses are always happy to see 'new' faces
A new sightseeing bus featuring face recognition and machine translation runs in the city.
Routes of the two sightseeing buses
Twenty new sightseeing buses featuring facial recognition and AI have been put into service in the city.
Developed by Baidu and a Shanghai tour company, the hop-on/hop-off buses run on two routes between tourist attractions such as the Bund, Oriental Pearl TV Tower and Waibaidu Bridge.
The first service operates every 15 minutes between 9am and 8:30pm, on a circular route starting and finishing in Gucheng Park in Huangpu District. The No. 2 circle operates between 9am and 8pm from the Oriental Pearl TV Tower in the Pudong New Area.
Both trips last about one hour. A single-day ticket costs 30 yuan (US$4.4); 50 yuan for two days.
Paper tickets are not necessary because the bus uses facial recognition technology. Passengers’ faces are recorded as they scan a QR code when they first board the bus.
Translation devices provide audio guides and question-and-answer services in eight languages including Arabic, Russian and Spanish.
