Biometric wearables poised to transform driving experience
According to a report by Frost & Sullivan's Intelligent Mobility team, advancements in biometrics will radically transform the driving experience, health wellness and wellbeing (HWW), and security of vehicles by 2025.
Source: Vigo
One in three new passenger vehicles will 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. Major automotive original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and Tier 1 suppliers must stay abreast of technologies, business models, and regulations shaping the automotive biometrics ecosystem.
“Partnerships between automotive OEMs and wearable companies will result in faster penetration of biometrics within the automotive industry , allowing OEM’s to save on biometrics related research and development (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 (DaaS) and health-as-a-service will also emerge.”
The report, titled 'Biometrics in the Global Automotive Industry, 2016–2025', 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 startups 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 that monitors the vitals of drivers with history of epilepsy and predict an attack before it happens
Gestigon – for a software system that interprets a multitude of driver movements and draws actionable insights
Optalert – for eye glasses that use infrared rays to monitor the eyes of the driver to detect the onset of drowsiness
Sober Steering – for sensors that can be embedded into the steering wheel to check if the driver is intoxicated and whether the alcohol level is within permissible limits
Vigo – for smart headsets that monitor head movements in order to determine driver distraction, slouching posture and drowsiness.
