LONDON --- Advancements in biometrics will radically transform the driving experience, health wellness and wellbeing (HWW), and security of vehicles by 2025. As one in three new passenger vehicles begin to feature fingerprint recognition, iris recognition, voice recognition, gesture recognition, heart beat monitoring, brain wave monitoring, stress detection, fatigue monitoring, eyelid monitoring, facial monitoring, and pulse detection. These will be driven by built-in, brought-in and cloud enabled technologies, the automotive biometrics ecosystem will surge ahead. Major automotive original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and Tier 1 suppliers must stay abreast of technologies, business models, and regulations shaping this dynamic space.
"Partnerships between automotive OEMs and wearable companies will result in faster penetration of biometrics within the automotive industry, allowing OEMs to save on biometrics related R&D expenditure, while creating growth avenues for wearables companies," said Frost & Sullivan Intelligent Mobility Industry Analyst Joe Praveen Vijayakumar. "New business models such as device as a service and health as a service will also emerge."
The Biometrics in the Global Automotive Industry, 2016–2025 analysis, a part of Frost & Sullivan's Automotive & Transportation Growth Partnership Service program, finds that OEMs and suppliers are investing in advanced biometrics based on human machine interaction (HMI) concepts such as natural language and gesture recognition. They are also vertically integrating and funding relevant start-ups to build a stronger portfolio.
"Urbanisation will continue to fuel emphasis on biometrics-driven advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) features to navigate heavy traffic while ensuring, safety and comfort," noted Praveen. "However, customer concerns surrounding the safety of the sensitive data collected through biometrics will compel suppliers to also invest in cybersecurity measures to build credibility and increase growth."
Some emerging innovators in the automotive biometrics space currently include:
•Empatica – for its watch to monitor the vitals of drivers with history of epilepsy and predict an attack before it happens
•Gestigon – for a software system to interpret a multitude of driver movements and draw actionable insights
•Optalert – for eye glasses which use infra red rays to monitor the eyes of the driver to detect the onset of drowsiness
•Sober Steering – for sensors which can be embedded in the steering wheel to check if the driver is drunk and whether the alcohol level is within permissible limits.
•Vigo – for smart headsets which can monitor head movements to monitor driver distraction, slouching posture and drowsiness