Samsung, Hyundai advance biometrics, digital wallets as car keys

Both vehicle manufacturers and tech companies have been vying to put biometric technology into our cars. The mass adoption moment is not here yet, but firms such as Samsung, and Hyundai are getting closer to that goal, thanks to innovations such as digital wallets, liveness detection and even biometric sensors which detect if the driver is drunk. Mercedes-Benz is at least working on it.

This week, Samsung announced that its Samsung Wallet will start supporting Digital Key compatibility for certain Toyota vehicles, enabling users to unlock, lock and start their Toyota cars from their smartphones. The feature will first be rolled out to the 2026 Toyota RAV4, the company’s new hybrid SUV.

The Digital Key function was first introduced by Samsung in 2022 in its digital wallet. The key is now available for more than 800 car models, including those from brands like Audi, BMW, Ford, Hyundai and many more.

The key is protected by Samsung Wallet’s biometric and PIN authentication and relies on Ultra-Wideband (UWB) and Near Field Communication (NFC) technology. One of its more attractive features is the ability to share your car key digitally with friends.

Hyundai patents deepfake detection tech

Deepfakes are coming to steal your car. Hyundai wants to stop this with a new patent for deepfake detection that would prevent car theft with spoof attacks, or impersonating the owner.

According to the firm’s WIPO filing, the technology will receive “a bitstream of an image; obtaining syntax information from the bitstream; calculating a unreliability measurement value on the basis of the syntax information; and determining whether the image is a deepfake on the basis of the unreliability measurement value.” If the “unreliability measurement” is too high, the vehicle will not unlock.

The patent was first discovered by CarBuzz.

The South Korean car manufacturer has been offering a facial recognition system called FaceConnect to unlock the vehicle. The technology was first introduced on the Genesis brand.

The company has also developed other biometric-based solutions in recent years, including fingerprint readers and gesture-controlled door handles.

Mercedes withdraws palm biometrics filing

Mercedes-Benz, on the other hand, is looking towards a completely different solution than facial biometrics. The German patent office published a patent application from the company showcasing technology that would allow drivers to start their cars with their palm. But the application was withdrawn just over a week later.

The withdrawn application describes the car using infrared cameras to detect the palm veins of its owner and check their liveness. The technology could potentially be more energy-saving than other technologies, although it is still unclear where exactly the palm scanning device would be placed.

Mercedes’ engineers also suggested that the device measures the static charge on a person to detect their body, according to CarBuzz.

TrinamiX demos fingerprint drunk driving prevention at CES

Each day, about 34 people in the U.S. die in car accidents related to drunk driving. German chemical company trinamiX and its partner Aumovio have presented their own solution to this issue: A fingerprint detection system that relies on near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy to detect alcohol molecules.

The system was presented by the two companies at CES 2026 and could hit production already in 2028, according to Motortrend.

trinamiX introduced the blood alcohol detection technology in late 2025. The solution consists of a small infrared dot projector placed close to a 5MP occupant-sensing camera, which performs facial recognition of the driver or passenger. The system can confirm they are alive, assess their position to adjust airbags and confirm if they are using seatbelts. Another liveness detection feature is heartbeat and respiration detection.

The dot-matrix projector is expected to be an inexpensive addition to the biometric camera system, within $10, the report notes.

Article Topics

access control  |  automotive biometrics  |  biometrics  |  digital wallets  |  face biometrics  |  patents  |  research and development  |  Samsung Wallet  |  trinamiX