Dystopian, ingenious or a total waste of time? Patent filings reveal a strange new design from one of the world’s biggest automakers.
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Hyundai and its subsidiaries could ditch traditional car keys for futuristic eye scanners, recently released patents suggest.
Since 2016, the Korean auto giant has filed for protection of at least five models in the United States referring to “an iris recognition device”.
the documents suggest the feature would be used to verify a driver’s identity before the vehicle could be turned on.
According to the designers, the technology would include “a camera configured to acquire image data from the eyeball” and “a computer program to extract [this] information.”
JaeHo Lee and Seon A Kim are listed as the inventors of the eye scanner. According to LinkedIn, the two are currently employed as research engineers at Hyundai.
It wouldn’t be the first time that biometric devices have been incorporated into vehicle design by the automotive industry.
Since 2019, Hyundai and its luxury brand Genesis have installed a similar fingerprint feature on select models, including the Santa Fe SUV and GV70.
It’s worth noting that Genesis’ GV60 electric SUV offers some form of facial recognition – but patents suggest an expansion of this technology.
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