​Hyundai develops fingerprint tech to unlock and start cars

Hyundai Motor has developed a car system that will allow drivers to unlock and start their cars using their fingerprints, it announced.

The system will be installed in the 2019 Santa Fe with the aim of launching in China during the first quarter next year.

Drivers can register their fingerprints to the car before using the system.

There will be a fingerprint reader in the door handle that will send the encrypted data to the system and unlock the car.

There will also be a fingerprint reader installed on the car's ignition button.

Multiple drivers can register their fingerprints, and depending on the fingerprint in use, the car will automatically adjust seat positions as well as the angle of the rearview mirrors.

Hyundai will also later add customized temperature, humidity, and steering settings, it said.

This is not the first time that fingerprint has been used to start cars, but Hyundai will be the first to put the tech on door handles which was considered as difficult due to concerns about security and durability.

Fingerprint readers within door handles must resist sun rays, low temperatures in the winter, and rain.

Hyundai says its method to adding fingerprint technology uses human's capacitance; the reader differentiates between the electricity levels in various parts of the finger to prevent hacking or forged fingerprints. The reader has an error rate of 1 in 50,000, the South Korean auto giant said.

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