Shanghai to monitor driver training with biometrics

Shanghai’s driving schools will install biometric fingerprint scanners in driver training cars to ensure that student drivers spend the required 55 hours practising behind the wheel before they get their licenses.

The biometric devices require students to have their fingerprints and identification cards scanned each time they start up a driver training vehicle, said Xu Youlong, general secretary of the Shanghai Automobile Driver Training Trade Association.

The information is then forwarded to the Shanghai Police and Shanghai’s transportation department.

“Students who have not logged enough time will not be allowed to take the driver’s license test,” said L Gaosheng, director of the Shanghai Transportation Management Office, which oversees driving schools in the city.

Local police and transportation authorities are spearheading the initiative to stop driving schools from falsifying how much time students spend behind the wheel in order to circumvent the 55-hour requirement.

The new initiative is a response to the authorities’ demand for improved road safety after a high number of traffic accidents were reported last year.

Some 62,400 people died in 210,800 traffic accidents in mainland China last year, according to the country’s Ministry of Public Security. About 14 percent died in crashes in which at least one driver was speeding.

 

Article Topics

automotive biometrics  |  biometrics  |  fingerprint scanning  |  fingerprint verification