What's the news?
Hyundai will copy smartphone technology later this year to add fingerprint detection to its cars, allowing you to unlock and start your car with the simple swipe of a digit.
The technology, which has been available on smartphones for some time, will be first introduced on the Santa Fe SUV later this year. You'll need to encrypt your fingerprint with the car's on-board electronics, just as you do with a phone. After that, unlocking is simply a matter of placing your finger on the sensor mounted in the door handle, and hey-presto, your car unlocks.
There's an identical sensor mounted in the ignition start/stop button, so you only need to rest your finger on that to fire up the engine. The tech also allows the car to recognise which individual driver is sitting behind the wheel, and it will automatically adjust seating positions, connected car features, and side-view mirror angles according to that person's preferences.
"In the future, Hyundai Motor 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 driver's preferences" said Albert Biermann, President and Head of Research & Development Division of the Hyundai Motor Company. "This will ultimately offer quality driving experience to each and every Hyundai customer."
To allay fears of fake fingerprints or scans being used to access the car, Hyundai has used a capacitive sensors, which doesn't just read the visual print, but also detects differentials in the electricity level in various parts of the fingertip, which should protect against forgery or fakes.
According to Hyundai: "The technology's chance of misrecognising other person's finger print as the driver's is only one in 50,000 making it five times more effective than conventional vehicle keys, including smart keys. Moreover, through real-time learning of fingerprints supported by 'dynamic update' system, the fingerprint system can continually improve its success rate."