Forgot Your Keys? If You’ve Remembered Your Head, Genesis Facial Recognition Has Got Your Back

Lost your car keys again? Seriously, you’d lose your head if it wasn’t screwed on. Well, provided it is still screwed on you’ll still be able to get into your 2023 Genesis GV60 even if you have misplaced your keys because the Korean automaker is the first to add smartphone-style facial recognition tech to its cars.

By looking into a sensor located on the B-pillar European GV60 owners can lock and unlock their electric crossovers just like they’d unlock their phones. The tech works in a similar way and drivers will only need to access the car with the physical key once to set up their profile. Once inside, they use a fingerprint scanner on the console to activate the ignition and start the car.

An LED indicator on the B-pillar lets you know if the car is locked or unlocked and Genesis assures us that the all-important biometric info is stored securely via encrypted software in the vehicle and is never uploaded anywhere or stored remotely.

We imagine this tech is going to spread rapidly to other cars, and it’s going to prove useful for people who enjoy activities like surfing and running and can’t, or don’t want to, take a car key with them when they park up before jumping in the ocean or head off on that 10k. Though since most our houses don’t have facial recognition tech to open the front door, meaning we still have to cary a bunch of keys with us, it’s questionable exactly how much more useful it’s going to prove in day to day use than the keyless entry systems we already have fitted to our cars.

Facial recognition arrives on the 2023 GV60 as part of a suit of updates that also includes a new Digital Key features allowing owners to access the car using their phone or watch, and to share access with up to three people using a digital app. There’s no need for a physical key to be present and the primary driver can set a limit on the time the digital key is available to the other users before expiring.

Other upgrades include the Comfort Seat Pack and Ergo Motion massage seats, which now come as standard on every model, along with a new air purification system.