EMT Pilots Facial Recognition and Blockchain Ticketing Project in Madrid

EMT, a public transportation firm in Madrid, has revealed intentions of running two transportation payment pilot projects. The first involves a blockchain-enabled mobility-as-a-service program, whereas the second entails a six-month facial recognition based ticketing project on the city’s buses. 

The primary goal of the blockchain project is developing a novel mobility-as-a-service (Maas) platform that can be used across Madrid’s scooter hire, motorcycle rental, electric vehicle charging, bus and taxi, car sharing, subway, and bicycle rental services. 

The pilot projects will require travelers to download a mobile app, avail their payment information and take a selfie-style picture with their smartphone’s camera. After this process is done, cameras located in the participating buses will identify the passenger automatically and charge them the relevant fare. Blockchain technology is set to propel this procedure in a single gesture. 

Additionally, the public transport payment system across Madrid is projected to be unified using blockchain. This is to be realized through the collaboration between Vottun, a blockchain certification startup, and leading Spanish bank - Banco Santander. 

Blockchain’s transformative potential is also being leveraged in different sectors across Spain. Previously reported on Blockchain.News,  Spain’s Tarragona port, Autoridad Portuaria de Tarragona, wants to be among the first modern ports to be blockchain-enabled. This approach is being prompted by the port’s initiative to ease complex processes and coordinate the various logistics actors through blockchain and distributed ledger technology.

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