I walk up to the car, press the door handle while looking at the door and the indicators flash as the doors unlock. I slip into the driver's seat and put my finger on the scanner, allowing me to start the car and drive away.

No key, no phone, nothing but my face and my finger.

Sure, cars already unlock when you have the key in your pocket, but this time I didn't. The key was nowhere near the car. Instead, it has unlocked using biometrics, like something from the future.

Instant unlocking without a key

A decade ago, biometric security was the stuff of fiction. It was the James Bond's palm-locked Walther PPK, or Ethan Hunt's retina scan to access an IMF briefing. But with the growth of smartphones, biometric security has become part of the everyday. You use your fingerprint to unlock your phone or your face to unlock your laptop - but that's never applied to cars before.

In December 2022, Genesis - the luxury arm of Hyundai - announced that it was bringing biometrics to its cars; the 2023 Genesis GV60 is the first car to offer biometric security, meaning you don't need your key or even your phone to lock and unlock the car. The system is called Face Connect.

Genesis GV60

We already have keyless entry - why do I need this?

Keyless entry has been a feature of cars for a number of years. While most will want the key to be in the car, in more recent years we've seen card entry from Tesla, smartphone entry from the likes of BMW and wristband entry from Jaguar.

Removing the need for that additional device opens up a range of options. It means you don’t even have to think about it, you just go to your car, jump in and off you go. And you're not going to lose your face or your fingertip - unless Ethan Hunt steals it, of course - but it's pretty easy to lose or misplace your key.

As someone who has taken part in various offroad running races, open water swimming events, and a whole lot more, being able to unlock your car with your face and finger has a real benefit, as you never need to think about where you will leave your key. But the real reason for doing it is that it's cool, and it's easy.

Importantly, however, biometrics deals with one of the problems that plagues keyless entry and that's remote key theft, or relay theft. Where car thieves used to force open locks to steal cars, now they use signal boosters to ping keyfobs and relay that information to remotely unlock the car. Thanks to biometrics, you'll be able to put your key out of range and not have to worry about relay theft.

genesis gv60 face connect camera

How does Genesis Face Connect work?

Sitting in the B pillar - that's the pillar behind the door - there's a short-range IR camera. It uses infrared to scan your face, comparing what it sees to the scanned image you've stored on the car. It's a 3D scan, so won't be fooled by a photo, and that encrypted biometric data stays on the car and isn't shared with the cloud.

Fingerprint scanning isn't technically new, because the Genesis GV60 offered it when it launched in 2022. But at that time it was linked to your profile in the car, so you could touch the scanner to load your profile, returning your personal preferences, such as seat position, customisations as so on. Now you'll also be able to use the fingerprint to unlock the car so you can start it.

Genesis GV60 fingerprint scanner

There's also a manual PIN code you'll have to register, entering that whenever you want to make changes to your biometric data, so there's another layer of security. Of course, you'll have to use your key to open the car for the very first time - but once you have your data stored on the car, you can potentially leave the key at home and never use it again.

To lock or unlock the car you actually have to touch the door handle. That way it won't unlock accidentally when you walk past the car or anything like that. It's a deliberate action, but pretty much seamless - you just walk up, touch the centre of the door handle and look at the camera, and the door unlocks. You can do the same thing to lock the car when you leave.

How easy is it to setup face unlocking on the car?

It's as simple as it is on a phone. The setup can be run on the screen in the car and it only takes a couple of taps to start adding your fingerprint and face to your profile. This is important, because you can have a number of different profiles, so you and your partner, for example, could both access the car without the key - no more stress over who has the car key!

The fingerprint is registered in the exact same way that you would on a phone - you just tap the sensor as it scans your finger and that's it.

When it comes to scanning you face, you'll be prompted to step out of the car and look at the camera - with an LED ring illuminating it on the side of the car, turning green to acknowledge that it's done. It's incredibly simple.

Genesis GV60 Face Connect setup

What about digital keys?

The 2023 Genesis GV60 actually offers Digital Key entry too. This allows you to register the key with your phone, so you can access and drive the car with just your key, again allowing you to leave the key elsewhere. You'll have to use a compatible smartphone or watch - like the iPhone or Apple Watch, or recent Samsung phones, as the system uses UWB - ultra wideband.

UWB is a short-range communication technology that's used to verify the proximity of the device that's doing the unlocking. Again, this is so that it doesn't unlock as soon as it's connected to the car - which for something like Bluetooth might be from 10 metres away. The system actually uses NFC (near-field communication, like your contactless cards), BLE (Bluetooth low energy like your smartwatch) as well as UWB.

The advantage that a digital key offers over biometrics or a physical key, is that you can easily share it. That will allow you to grant temporary or more permanent access to someone via your phone. It can be shared with up to three additional users, so you could, for example, give you kids access to the car for a weekend.

Genesis Face Connect

Is Face Connect available on all Genesis GV60 models?

Unfortunately not. The all-electric Genesis GV60 launched in 2022 and has had something of an upgrade in 2023, adding a range of luxury options - as well as the hardware needed for Face Connect. That sees the addition of the camera, as well as the hardware needed for the digital key, like that UWB chip.

Unfortunately, without the hardware you can't get Face Connect, so if you bought the GV60 in 2022, you'll sadly miss out.