In-car biometric sensors will monitor your health, make sure you're really you

By Bruce Brown Published November 25, 2016

Within the next decade, our cars will know more about us than we can imagine today. Driving will be a different experience when our cars are equipped with biometric sensors to track our health and monitor our mood, according to NFC World, based on a report by Frost & Sullivan’s Intelligent Mobility Team. The report predicts one in three cars will have biometric sensors by 2025.

The report, Biometrics in the Global Automotive Industry 2016-2025, claims that wearable health tech companies developing products with cloud-backed data storage and analysis will team with automotive component manufacturers to transfer the sensors and scanners into vehicles. This transfer will “radically transform the driving experience, health wellness and well-being, and security of vehicles,” according to the report.

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On the security side, biometric identity features in cars can include fingerprint, iris, voice, and gesture recognition. Once your car is sure you’re really you, then it will get busy monitoring your heartbeat and brain waves, your stress levels, fatigue, and pulse and monitor your eyelids and face for good measure.

Frost & Sullivan analyst Joe Praveen Vijayakumar said, “Urbanization will continue to fuel emphasis on biometrics-driven advanced driver assistance system features to navigate heavy traffic while ensuring, safety and comfort.”

By partnering with the companies now working on wearable health tracking and monitoring, automotive OEMs will be motivated by the chance to “save on biometrics-related research and development expenditure, while creating growth avenues for wearables companies”.

Examples of current innovative health tech companies with technology that could transfer to cars included Empatica’s watch that detects oncoming epileptic episodes, Optalert’s eye glasses that monitor drowsiness with infrared, and Sober Steering which, as you can guess, has sensors that can be built into a steering wheel to track blood alcohol content and drunkenness.

Since in many cases, we’ll just be passengers in autonomous vehicles by 2025, we might as well get a mini-physical while we ride.

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Bruce Brown Contributing Editor As a Contributing Editor to the Auto teams at Digital Trends and TheManual.com, Bruce…

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This is a brand new electric version of the Jeep Compass, and being built on Stellantis' STLA platform—the same architecture underpinning models like the Peugeot E-3008 and E-5008—it looks much slicker and packs a lot more inside than previous versions of the Compass.
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The design's been refreshed too, and inside you’ll find the kind of tech and comfort you’d expect in a modern EV—sleek, smart, and ready for both city streets and dirt trails.
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Plans to build it in Canada were recently put on hold, with production now delayed until at least early 2026. Some of that might have to do with possible U.S. tariffs on Canadian and Mexican vehicles—adding a layer of uncertainty to the whole rollout.
According to Kelley Blue Book, a Stellantis spokesperson confirmed that the company has “temporarily paused work on the next-generation Jeep Compass, including activities at” the Canadian plant that was originally meant to build the model. They added that Stellantis is “reassessing its product strategy in North America” to better match customer needs and demand for different powertrain options.
So while Europe and other markets are gearing up to get the Compass EV soon, American drivers might be left waiting—or miss out entirely.
That’s a shame, because on paper, this electric Jeep hits a lot of sweet spots. Let’s just hope it finds a way over here.