In a recent patent filing Tesla has revealed that they plan to make use of face recognition to avoid wasting driver and passenger preferences.
The patent specifies that it would “store information usable to acknowledge passenger’s face.” One obvious use-case for Tesla is that they may set the motive force’s profile based on who’s in the motive force’s seat, but this also opens up the power for Tesla to begin offering passenger profiles, something that has not been offered to date.
Passenger profiles could take note of the seat position, seat heater, climate temperature and the direction of the air vents. It’s possible they could even include the power to hold over some “Driver” preferences over to the passenger. For instance, in the event that they detect Driver A is within the passenger seat, they may arrange his passenger preferences but in addition bring a few of his driver preferences with him, like favorite music stations or map favorites.
This patent could eventually result in Tesla removing ‘Driver Profiles’ all together and simplifying the entire thing. They may not need you to explicitly say who you’re, or whether you are in the motive force or passenger’s seat, but all the pieces shall be determined routinely. Tesla’s interior camera will analyze your face and determine whether it is a face it has seen before. If it detects a well-known face then it may load up the newest preferences it has for that face and seat position. If it’s a brand new face, then it may start saving a brand new set of preferences for that driver.
Camera-based facial recognition has been a trouble spot prior to now when used for security. It is too easy to bypass and manipulate. The iPhone’s FaceID feature uses depth sensing sensors and eye tracking to make it way more secure. Since Teslas don’t have these additional sensors I might not expect Tesla so as to add any security-based features based on its face recognition, corresponding to starting the automobile.
Elon Musk has mentioned before that Tesla shall be moving Driver Profiles to the cloud. They could possibly be waiting for this feature before they try this. How amazing would it not be that you just enter another person’s Tesla as a passenger and it recognizes you and adjusts your seat to YOUR preference.
