Automakers must scrutinise what biometrics should and should not do

It did not take long for enterprising tech enthusiasts to break Apple’s Face ID. Introduced on the iPhone X in 2017, it replaced the fingerprint-based Touch ID previously used to unlock the device, allowing for removal of the home button. Yet just a week after release, Vietnamese security firm Bkav released a video that claimed to show how a composite 3D mask, costing just US$150 to make, could fool the system. Later, at the 2019 Black Hat hacker convention in Las Vegas, researchers from Tencent showed how a pair of spectacles and some tape could also unlock the phone, provided they had access to a victim who was in some way incapacitated—whether sleeping, unconscious or dead.