FPC Exploring Automotive Sector

Having established a leading position as a hardware supplier in the smartphone fingerprint sensor market, Fingerprint Cards (FPC) is preparing to expand into the automotive sector, the company has announced.

In a statement on its website, the company suggested it has been working with major car makers interested in experimenting with automotive applications of its FPC1025 sensor module, and that it expects “a number of public demonstrations” of these applications over the year ahead.

While commercial launches of such integrations likely won’t take place until after 2016, FPC is evidently eager to extend its reach into new sectors. Commenting on the strategy, CEO Jörgen Lantto said that after FPC’s success with smartphone OEMs, “We are now investing in adapting our leading technology for other market segments, such as smart cards as previously communicated, where our ambition is to extend our leadership to these new market segments,” adding that the automotive sector is “another market segment where FPC’s technology is well suited.”

FPC won’t be alone in competing in this area, however. Synaptics, for example, is already going to be showing off the automotive applications of its technology at CES this week, and that could include automotive fingerprint sensors. Still, it’s a relatively unexplored area, and given FPC’s prominence as a sensor maker overall, it could find a lot of success in helping to pioneer automotive applications.

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January 5, 2016 – by Alex Perala