Car manufacturers to require face recognition to drive their vehicles in the near future

The automotive industry is moving quickly now to take away one of the last freedoms most Americans still have: the ability to get in one’s own vehicle and drive anywhere one wants, whenever they want to.

In an announcement this week, Biometric Update reported that almost all of the major automakers have either recently announced or have already patented facial recognition technologies that will require drivers to supply a scanned image of their faces in order to use their autos in the near future.

Sony, Honda, Ford, Genesis, and Mullen Automotive nod toward facial recognition tech

by William McCurdy
BiometricUpdate.com

A slew of the world’s largest automakers, including Sony, Honda, Ford, Genesis, and Mullen Automotive, have all either recently announced or patented facial recognition technologies.

A newly unveiled prototype car from Sony and Honda, called “Afeela,” is set to employ facial recognition to unlock the vehicle and open its door.

The semiconductors and chipsets set to underpin this biometric tech will be provided by electronics giant Qualcomm.

The firms will start taking orders in 2025, with U.S. deliveries set to start in 2026.

Commenting on the move, Sony Honda Mobility President Izumi Kawanishi told Axios, that though the automotive industry has been “a very traditional business,” it is “growing up” by adopting products and software from the IT world.

Ford is yet another example of a major automaker that appears it could be getting into the action. In June, the auto giant filed a patent application for “enhanced biometric authorization,” which includes but is not limited to facial recognition.

Beyond just controlling access to the vehicle, the newly published patent filing covers technology where the user’s biometric data stored on the system can be updated automatically.

Read the full article at BiometricUpdate.com.