(Yicai Global) Dec. 20 -- The world's first artificial intelligence double-decker sightseeing buses developed by Beijing-based tech giant Baidu and Shanghai New Heights Travel started pilot runs in Shanghai yesterday.

Riders, who can take the bus by paying via face recognition, enjoy onboard machine translation services.

Passengers can use their mobile phone camera to scan their faces and link their tickets to them when they buy them on WeChat, after which a screen recognizes their faces and confirms their ticket purchase in one or two seconds, thus allowing them to board very conveniently.

The buses will run in two routes. After trials, the first 20 will start official operation in January, and face recognition, and the smart translation and audio guide will start service and later improve.

The trial run of the buses marks the first important project that Baidu has put into use in Shanghai after it signed a cooperation framework agreement with the city government late last month.

Editor: Ben Armour