To Ride the Subway of the Future, All You Need Is Your Face

Subway tokens are history. (Sorry, Bernie). Magnetic-strip cards are quickly becoming passé. Instead, Mastercards, Visas and smartphones are now being touted as the latest in swift and fritction-less mobile ticketing systems for metro riders. But an emerging technology may soon bypass all of these: All you’ll need to ride this subway of the future is your face, your hand, or some other biometric marker that makes you you.

In the past two years, three-dimensional face-scanning has evolved to a point that the next generation iPhone is rumored to have the capability out of the box. The federal “biometric entry-exit tracking system” for all U.S. airline arrivals demanded by President Trump in his January immigration order could actually be cost efficient. And some of the world’s highest-tech transit systems are eying the technology as a solution to backed-up subway gates.