Hyundai is launching world-first smart fingerprint recognition technology on the 2019 Santa Fe SUV, allowing owners to use their finger to unlock and start the vehicle.
A fingerprint sensor on the doorhandle unlocks the car, and another one on the ignition scans the finger again before starting the engine. A built-in fingerprint controller makes the match.
This, reckons Hyundai, makes traditional car keys redundant.
The new tech is much more secure than existing smart keys. The chance of misrecognising a fingerprint is 1 in 50,000. That makes it five times as secure normal car keys, says the firm.
The system uses capacitive recognition to detect different levels of electricity in the fingerprint, which “effectively prevents forgeries and faked fingerprints”. It is also self-learning, so becomes more accurate the more it is used.
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Once a fingerprint is recognised, the 2019 Hyundai Santa Fe will also auto-adjust seat positions, door mirror angles and other connected car features.
“In the future, Hyundai plans to further expand the application of the technology to allow the adjustment of temperature, steering wheel position and many other features which will be tailored to the driver’s preferences” said Albert Biermann, the firm’s president and head of R&D.
