In its role as an equipment manufacturer, Continental is presenting at CES 2024 a facial recognition system allowing you to unlock your car, but also to start it.
Opening your vehicle’s doors via a facial recognition system is not entirely new. Genesis, Hyundai’s premium brand, already offers this function on its GV60 electric SUV. However, to start the South Korean model without using a key, it is necessary to go through a fingerprint sensor.
As with Genesis, the solution developed by Continental includes a camera embedded in the central pillar of the car. The equipment manufacturer has also integrated a screen, invisible when turned off. It allows you to display the name of the recognized person, or the charging status of an electric car, for example. Thanks to this system, it is not necessary to take your car key, or even your telephone, with you, as is possible with code systems such as Ford’s SecuriCode.
A second camera placed behind an Oled screen
But where Continental’s solution really innovates is by also allowing the car to be started by facial recognition. The interior camera is this time positioned behind an Oled screen. It would be possible to define different door unlocking and starting methods, to “allow all family members access to the car at any time, while preventing children from starting the engine”for example, explains Continental.
The facial recognition system used, developed by trinamiX, would be able to recognize human skin. It would therefore be impossible to create a mask bearing the image of one of the vehicle’s drivers to override its security, according to Continental. However, the system would be limited to one camera and would not integrate any other sensor, unlike Apple’s Face ID technology, in particular. If Continental ensures that its system “meets the highest requirements for biometric security”, no safety standards are unfortunately cited. It remains to be seen whether manufacturers will be interested in this technology for their production models.