At an early time, a paper ticket was necessary even for passengers who bought tickets online. But now people are saying goodbye to paper tickets.

Passengers can swipe (刷) an ID card to pass through a gate before taking a high-speed train. This helps the railway operator (铁路运营公司) improve its e-ticket service.

“It’s very convenient and fast,” said Wu Yuanzhen, a passenger from Guangxi. “I am a salesman and travel a lot by train. For us, time is money. E-tickets save time picking up (取票的时间) and improve travel efficiency (效率).”

For passengers who need to change or return their tickets, they can change the tickets or get a refund (退款) through 12306.cn or the ticket office at the station.

Since 2011, passengers have been able to swipe their ID cards at self-service machines (自助操作机) to take the Beijing-Tianjin high-speed railway and Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway.

Checking in (办理登乘手续) by swiping an ID card is now available (可用的) at high-speed railway stations in most big cities across China, especially in Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Wuhan. However, at stations in some remote areas, passengers still need a paper ticket to get on a train.

Over a million people around the world lose their lives due to car accidents each year. While nearly all of these deaths are the consequence of human mistakes, there are no good ways to reduce the number of deaths. Surely the best plan is driver-less technology.

Driver-less cars are no longer an idea of the future. With the technology for the driver-less car already developed for quite a long time, and some important inventions already seen in some cars, the driver-less car could soon be with us.

This is wonderful because driver-less technology is expected to reduce the number of road deaths; a research group in the United Kingdom says that driver-less cars will lead to 2,500 fewer road deaths before 2030.

How are driver-less cars safer? Firstly, driver-less cars can help manage traffic. By using communication technologies to “talk” to each other, driver-less cars find the best roads. Information such as distance between cars, traffic and time it takes to get to the place is sent to the cars. This means fewer chances of these cars running into each other. Secondly, the use of driver-less cars means fewer accidents will happen because of human mistakes. For example, accidents caused by little sleep, drunk drinking or speeding will be avoided. Finally, the driver-less technology of the future, is expected to be more reliable than a human driver.

If lives can be saved by driver-less cars, let’s hope these cars are on our roads very soon.