Biometric tech part of the allure of Genesis GV60.

WHAT personal electronic device has facial recognition and fingerprint recognition smarts … and it isn’t your phone?

It’s a car. The car that could reintroduce Hyundai’s upmarket Genesis to New Zealand next year.

Having unveiled the car itself recently – just to recap, it’s a medium five-door based on the same platform, and like to have the same powertrain choices, as Hyundai’s Ioniq 5 electric now filtering into NZ showrooms – Genesis is now starting to share some of the cool features that come with it.

 Basically, they’ve set out to make the model the mobile phone of cars.

In that regard, it’ll deliver ground-breaking biometric technology for owners.

The so-called ‘face connect’ is recognition software that provides keyless access to the car in the same way a smartphone can be unlocked by scanning its owner's face.  

Using Near Infra-Red cameras and deep learning technology to open the car's doors, up to two faces are able to be registered to the vehicle.

This doesn’t mean you don’t have a key. The car still provisions one of those, in a smart format of course, but utilising the Face Connect system means it can be operated without one, with the doors able to be locked even if the key is inside.

The system will also trigger memory functions for the driver's seat, steering wheel and head-up display, allowing it all to be restored to the owner's preferences as they enter the cabin.

Facial recognition gets you in. To start the car without the key being in physical proximity, GV60 has a “fingerprint authentication system". 

Genesis also announced which features can be updated over-the-air, with the integrated control device, suspension, brakes, steering wheel, and airbags now able to be given OTA updates – on top of the existing navigation, digital cluster, and head-up display capabilities.

There’s another phone-like trick GV60 is set up to accommodate, but only for now in examples being sold in South Korea: Wireless charging capability.

Basically, the car can be driven over a supported wireless pad and it’ll charge up. US wireless charging company WiTricity will supply the hardware.

It’s designed as an overnight replenishment device rather, but will fully charge the GV60’s batteries in around six hours compared to 10 hours when using a conventional wall charger.

WiTricity’s technology uses magnetic resonance, allowing a current to flow through a magnetic field between the source and the receiver. It charges at rates of between 3.6 and 11kW.

Hyundai NZ has not completely confirmed it will release the GV60, but has been dropping big hints that this is the car is has in its sights. It has said in the past it is keen to have Genesis back but also said that an electric car is vital for that to happen. Genesis has electric versions of two orthodox fossil-fuelled models, but GV60 is the big headline act. It’s going to be Australia in the first half of 2022.