Hyundai makes owning a car a little more ‘Mission Impossible’ announcing it will introduce fingerprint technology onto the Santa Fe SUV in early 2019.

Finger print confirmation is considered one of the most secure ways of doing just about anything. And that’s because everyone’s fingerprint is unique. You can fake a signature but you can’t fake a fingerprint.

And that’s why Hyundai has announced it will be introducing fingerprint technology for the unlocking of car doors and starting vehicles, and more besides, in early 2019. The technology will roll out on the Santa Fe in “select markets” although it hasn’t yet said which markets.

In a statement, Hyundai said: “To unlock the vehicle, the driver need to place a finger on the sensor located on the door handle. The encrypted fingerprint information will be identified and delivered to the fingerprint controller inside the vehicle. The driver can also easily start the vehicle by touching the ignition that is also equipped with a fingerprint scanning sensor.

“The technology also provides a customised driving environment. Matching information of driver preference with fingerprint data, the vehicle automatically adjusts seating positions, connected car features, and side-view mirror angles according to the driver.”

According to Hyundai’s head of R&D, Albert Biermann, the technology will eventually be expanded to incorporate “the adjustment of temperature, steering wheel position, and many other features which will be tailored to driver’s preferences”

“This will ultimately offer quality driving experience to each and every Hyundai customer,” he added.

Despite the fact everyone’s fingerprint is unique, Hyundai admits there are security issues but said the system is five times more secure than either a conventional key or a smart key.

“With capacitance recognition, which detects differentials in the electricity level in various parts of the fingertip, the fingerprint technology efficiently prevents forgeries and faked fingerprints. The technology’s chance of misrecognising other person’s finger print as the driver’s is only 1 in 50,000 making it five times more effective than conventional vehicle keys, including smart keys. Moreover, through real-time learning of fingerprints supported by ‘dynamic update’ system, the fingerprint system can continually improve its success rate.”

Question: Some companies are implanting microchips into employees hands to allow them to open doors and now we have fingerprint ID for cars. You can open your house door with your smartphone…is the key dead?