Genesis continues to release information about its new GV60 electric crossover, and the industry announced the latest tidbit on Thursday.
What is GV60 coming up with?
The GV 60 will be available with Genesis’s Face Connect. A biometric facial scanner that can unlock and enter the car with just one key. I haven’t seen Face Connect in real life yet, but it’s pretty smooth.
It uses a near-infrared camera located in the B-pillar of Genesis that is to recognize faces even at night or in stormy weather without sunglasses or a hat (it does not work with face masks). It could use to lock the car without a physical key inside. When you tap the driver’s door handle with your finger it will get active. Thus, it takes a second or two for the system to read your face. When it scans your face, the ring on the system turns green and unlocks the car.
How safe and secure is its new feature?
Since only two faces are registered simultaneously, the data is encrypted and stored in the vehicle, according to Genesis, and can be deleted at any time. Setting up a new face is as easy and quick as setting up face detection on an iPhone. There is no need to turn your head to indicate a different angle, but it takes a few seconds.
The fingerprint scanner in the center console allows you to start the car without carrying a key while in the car, giving two-factor authentication. The GV70 crossover also features fingerprint ID technology but is not used to create the vehicle. Instead, its fingerprint scanner using for in-car payments and can be disabled in valet mode for added security. The Face Connect system connects to the driver’s profile and scans the face when the car is set up in the seats, steering wheel, mirrors, infotainment, and audio settings.
Genesis
There is also a fingerprint reader on the front of the console. Genesis C supplied the fingerprint reader for the console itself. ‘It’s a bit of a gimmick. It seems tricky, but it is.
The Genesis pitch is that this new system is suitable for people with an essential active lifestyle, such as Jaguar and Land Rover Activity Keys, but it requires something physical. I hate to carry a car key around with me, and modern cars have keyless entry and push buttons. This is a simple set-up of the phone key, but other vehicles need me to carry and charge my phone.
Genesis also announced that the GV60 will feature advanced software update capabilities previously limited to infotainment features. Now Genesis will upgrade things like airbags, brakes, steering, suspension, and other critical electronic components. Face Connect will be launching with the Genesis 2020, but Genesis says it will also be available for other models in the future, as well as a new, updated fingerprint scanner.
Genesis can update drivers on some vital car components via OTA software updates. While the Face Connect feature is taking a bow with the GV60, Genesis plans to have its software inside more models in the future, along with new functions offered by OTA updates and fingerprint scanners.
