Qualcomm explores automotive use cases for biometrics, FIDO passkeys

Still known primarily as a chip and semiconductor company, Qualcomm Technologies has been gradually diversifying into different areas – including automotive. In a talk at Authenticate 2024, Nimish Shrivastava, senior director of product management for Qualcomm, discusses the firm’s advances integrating biometrics in the automotive sector, where it has established a decade-long track record of working with most of the world’s major automakers to offer hardware, software and services.

Shrivastava says “automotive is the fastest growing area” for Qualcomm, and that many of its present projects depend on FIDO authentication or passkeys. Its Snapdragon Digital Chassis product integrates Qualcomm connectivity, telematics and in-cockpit infotainment. Next in line is its autonomous driving stack.

“Safety is again very important,” he says. “For authentication, you need to be able to control or create rules within the car based on who’s driving.”

It’s a key part of the bigger picture for Shrivastava, who oversees Qualcomm’s connected services platform, the car-to-cloud infrastructure that powers many in-car security, data and personalization features – the latter of which he says is the “near future of the vehicle and the consumer.”

“One of the key areas of personalization is, of course, identification and authentication of the driver.” That means FIDO and passkeys for ID verification are likely to play a strong role in the future of automotive.

Other drivers of personalization include the shift to EVs, predictive maintenance and data insights. And offering personalized payments is of great interest to automakers, for in-car purchases via integrated apps. GenAI brings new interfaces and options for interaction. Use cases branch off in every direction.

With biometrics, a burger for mom and fries for the kids, charged to dad’s wallet

Shrivastava gives the example of two people in a car who want to place separate orders. Can the car recognize who’s who? Can it split the bill or charge the requisite amounts to the corresponding users’ wallets? (Never mind who gets access to user data.) It’s possible, he says, using GenAI and anonymous QC ID tokens to represent every authenticated user in the car and sort them by category and access level. The in-car menu might even be personalized for each.

Overall, Shrivastava says, identity and personalization are strongly linked in the automotive ecosystem, from wallets to biometric authentication. Qualcomm is working with Daon to integrate biometrics into its system for a smoother driver and passenger experience. But he underlines that biometrics and FIDO passkeys for automotive use cases is “truly an ecosystem story” that will bring many along for the ride.

Article Topics

Authenticate Conference  |  automotive biometrics  |  biometric authentication  |  biometrics  |  Daon  |  digital identity  |  digital wallets  |  FIDO Alliance  |  passkeys  |  personalization  |  Qualcomm