New biometric vehicle partnerships, products and concepts unveiled for payments, personalization

A series of partnerships and announcements, including several at the Consumer Electronics Show, promise wider availability of biometric technologies in future automobiles. Cerence has a new partner for fleet safety, Azuga has launched a dashcam with facial recognition, Leapmotor’s connected car with biometrics has reached presale, and Cadillac presented a concept vehicle with biometrics at CES. Bittium and Thundercomm, meanwhile, are working to make implementation of advanced technologies like biometrics into vehicles easier.

Cerence partners with Xevo for fleet driver safety biometric

Connected car software-maker Xevo will offer contactless payments through conversational AI from Cerence Pay, which enables OEMs to secure transactions with face and voice biometrics, under the terms of a new partnership.

Cerence’s speech recognition technology will be integrated into the Xevo Market platform for commerce and services, which is implemented in millions of connected vehicles already on the road.

In addition to payments authorized with biometrics, the partnership makes it easy for consumers to find nearby retailers and order from popular brands in a variety of categories with their voice, according to the announcement.

“As we support our OEM customers in meeting increasing driver desire for intuitive, technology-forward experiences in the car, we are proud to partner with Xevo to offer a unified in-car payment and marketplace solution,” states Sanjay Dhawan, CEO, Cerence. “Together, Cerence Pay and Xevo Market deliver an all-in-one, integrated solution that supports drivers through the entire purchase process, enhancing their safety and productivity on the road and delivering new contactless payment solutions.”

Azuga launches facial recognition dashcam

Fleet telematics company Azuga has developed an AI-based dashcam with face biometrics as part of a driver distraction and drowsiness-detecting capability for business vehicle fleets, the company has announced.

The new Azuga SafetyCam AI builds on the existing safety framework from Azuga, and also provides alerts to fleet managers of potentially dangerous activity, and a neural network analyzes videos to identify the underlying causes of risky events. The dashcam consists of multi-sensor HD cameras, with artificial intelligence and computer vision technologies built-in.

“SafetyCam AI is the most anticipated product we’ve developed so far,” says Ananth Rani, CEO of Azuga, in the press release. “We were reducing accidents by 38 percent without dashcams and expect to cut accidents by half or more as more fleets adopt this technology.” Rani added the company hopes to protect drivers on the road in less-than-ideal conditions, while helping fleet operators reduce costs.

Leapmotor C11 with facial recognition reaches presale

Chinese automaker Leapmotor has launched presale of its C11 production model, with intelligent voice interactivity from iFlytek and a facial recognition camera, Gasgoo reports.

The cabin’s computing tasks are handled by a third-generation Qualcomm Snapdragon Digital Cockpit Platform.

The C11 is expected to retail for between 159,800 yuan (US$24,465) and 199,800 yuan ($30,590), once subsidies are subtracted, and is planned for volume production in 2021.

Biometric concept car, fleet management and edge support at CES 2021

Cadillac has developed a self-driving pod as a concept vehicle with biometric vital-sign sensors for personalization, revealing the strange personal autonomous vehicle Car and Driver refers to as a “toaster-shaped party bus” at CES 2021.

The PAV is intended to give passengers a social experience on their way to an event, with comfort features including humidity adjustments and aromatherapy, and interaction through voice commands and hand gesture recognition. Passenger biometrics are displayed on a retractable front display, along with welcome messages and the remaining trip duration.

The company has not indicated any future plans for the concept vehicle.

Also at CES 2021, Bittium showcased its Android Automotive reference design to deliver a personalized human-machine interface (HMI) and secure fleet management, including biometric driver recognition.

The Android Automotive reference design is integrated with Apple CarPlay and driver facial recognition for personalized experiences. The company also demonstrated its solutions for secure vehicle management and connectivity.

“As an engineering partner, we at Bittium help to accelerate the automotive industry evolution and delivery of systems to the market by leveraging our expertise in both information security and development of Android and Linux based solutions as well as our over 30-year track record in wireless connectivity,” explains Tommi Kangas, senior vice president of Bittium’s Connectivity Solutions product and service area. “Our high-quality solutions and services help automotive industry suppliers to create secure, reliable, intelligent, and easy-to-use connected car systems. The goal is to make the driving experience as comfortable and safe as possible.”

Thundercomm introduced a new Edge AI Box and digital vehicle cockpit solution at CES 2021, which could be used to implement face biometrics in smart vehicles.

The ThunderSoft-Qualcomm joint venture’s EB5 provides device-side processing for more efficient and cost-effective data transmission, and is the first edge computing box to support Linux and Android operating systems, as well as 5G connectivity, according to the company. The E-cockpit Solution 4.5 offers a fusion cockpit platform based on service-oriented architecture (SOA) to enable development of custom features.

Thundercomm launched edge face biometrics for retailers a year ago.

Article Topics

AI  |  automotive biometrics  |  biometric identification  |  biometric payments  |  biometrics  |  biometrics at the edge  |  cameras  |  Cerence  |  facial recognition  |  gesture recognition  |  iFlyTek  |  personalization  |  Thundercomm  |  voice biometrics