Taxi app Uber plans to use facial recognition to boost its operations in mainland China.The San Francisco-based firm said that facial recognition system forms part of its verification process for drivers in the Middle Kingdom.”For each and every one of the millions of rides we facilitate everyday in China, we are committed to providing both riders and drivers with the most convenient and secure experience,” said Uber China head of strategy Zhen Liu.”This new facial recognition feature enhances our already stringent control systems and provides an additional safeguard for drivers and riders.”Authorities in Shenzhen have been finding drivers working for various apps, such as Uber and its competitors, without any identity verification – leading to public safety concerns.Uber's facial recognition system, which started early March, uses sophisticated algorithms to match the driver partners' profile pictures against their official identification cards.”Facial recognition technology provides the same or higher level of security compared to password encryption, fingerprint scanning, or voice ID recognition, but is much easier for drivers to use,” Jack Yang, Uber's product manager for the facial recognition project, said.”Once they're registered on our system, when drivers need to be verified they simply can open the app and follow a few simple onscreen instructions such as turning their head or blinking.”Yang pointed out that “almost every phone is equipped with a camera, which means that anyone can use this system”.

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