It’s the buzz of the automotive world. Hyundai, the South Korean automotive giant, has just unveiled to the world its latest car addition. The new Hyundai car will feature a brand new smart key technology that will allow drivers to unlock and start their car using only their fingerprints.
As mentioned earlier by Engadget, the fingerprint technology is built into the door handle and ignition button of its new 2019 Santa Fe SUV, which the company showcased at last week’s China auto show.
The Korean company said that the fingerprint technology will allow multiple owners to register their encrypted fingerprint data on the single car. It can also record certain driving preferences, according to Engadget.
The system automatically adjusts seat positions and mirror angles based on who occupies the driver seat. It collects encrypted fingerprint data from the highly-sensitive fingerprint sensor in the door handle before it unlocks the vehicle. To prevent hacking and faked fingerprint, the system uses human capacitance to effectively track the electricity levels in different parts of the finger.
The company claims that the system has an error rate of 1 in 50,000, which is identical to Apple’s error rate per finger on its Touch ID technology for MacBooks, iPhones, and iPads. Hyundai hopes to add even more in the future update, allowing the biometric technology to add personalized humidity, temperature, steering settings and more.
This isn’t the first time a smart key technology has been used in vehicles. US-based Tesla has already used a smartphone as a car key in its Tesla Model 3 units.
Hyundai will officially launch its new 2019 Santa Fe SUV in the first quarter of 2019. The company plans to limit the smart key technology to the Chinese market upon its release next year. Right now, there still no words if the smart key feature will make available to the US market and other top markets.