I drove a new Tesla rival that uses facial recognition and fingerprints instead of a key — but I think a regular key beats the futuristic feature 99% of the time

• I drove the Genesis GV60, a new Tesla rival from Hyundai's luxury brand. 
• It offers one of the coolest features in the entire car market: facial and fingerprint recognition. 
• You can lock, unlock, and drive around all without carrying the key fob. 

It's practically impossible to misplace your car keys if you buy the new Genesis GV60 SUV. That's because the key is you. 

The new electric vehicle from Hyundai's luxury brand uses a facial-recognition camera and a fingerprint scanner to let authorized users unlock the vehicle, start it up, and drive away. No key needed — unless, of course, you like being stuck in the past. 

I spent a few days testing the GV60 this month. While the experience wasn't seamless enough to convince me that biometric identification is the inevitable future of cars, I did find the system useful sometimes and was impressed overall by how well it worked. 

So who knows? These sorts of features felt out there when Apple and other smartphone makers first started rolling them out, and now we can't live without them. Maybe cars are next, if manufacturers can iron out the kinks. 

The set up

The set-up process will be a breeze for anyone who's ever bought a new smartphone. 

I got in the car with both key fobs provided, went into the settings on its touchscreen, and indicated that I wanted to add a new fingerprint to my user profile. The GV60 instructed me to repeatedly place my finger this way and that on the little circular sensor near the gear selector. After six or seven taps, I was good to go. 

Unexpectedly, getting the face scanner up and running was way quicker despite being the more newfangled feature. When prompted, I hopped out of the vehicle and stared straight at the camera located by the driver's window. Within just a second or two, the GV60 robotically shouted "facial recognition set!"  

Using it 

Driving around keyless is a two-step process. First, you walk up to the vehicle and press on the driver's-side door handle while looking at the exterior camera. That unlocks the GV60. The first few times, I stooped down to put my face closer to the car, but then I realized it worked just as well — maybe better — to just stand up naturally. 

After getting in, you touch the fingerprint reader. Once a message pops up saying the driver has been authenticated, you can go ahead and start the car. To lock up, you repeat step one. 

To my surprise, the whole system worked flawlessly, never failing to recognize my face or fingerprint. I even found it helpful sometimes — for example, when I wanted to grab something from the car on my way out the door. Another time, I needed to reposition the GV60 in a friend's driveway before hopping in his car to drive somewhere. Both times, it was kind of nice to not carry the key fob with me for the rest of the day or run back inside to ditch it. 

Once I had used the feature a handful of times, I mustered up the courage to actually go for a drive without the key. It's a weird feeling to drive a car without a key. But once again, everything went off without a hitch. 

Cool, but not revolutionary — yet

The biometric ID system performed nicely, but I don't think I'd use it all that often if I actually owned the GV60. 

I'm not someone who's terrified by facial recognition or business interests invading my privacy. In fact, I'm actually that idiot who just clicks "accept all cookies" because they're too lazy to check a few boxes. So it's not a matter of principle.

I just don't think it makes things any easier. On the contrary, it actually slows you down. With the regular key, you can walk up to the SUV, instantly unlock it, hop in, and drive away, all without even removing the fob from your pocket. It's seamless. 

The biometric system adds a few seconds of lag time to each step that can feel unbearably long when your brain has been irreversibly decayed by modern technology and the instant gratification it provides. It can be nice to lighten your pockets by not carrying a key — and I have to give major props to Genesis for trying something cool and new — but at least for now, the key provides a better user experience. 

I could see myself leaving the key at home in specific, rare situations when it's best to carry as little as possible, like going to the beach or on a bike ride. 

So should we expect facial and fingerprint recognition to take over the auto industry like it took over smartphones? 

I posed the question to Ed Kim, president and chief analyst at AutoPacific, an automotive market research firm. He said biometric identification needs to get quicker and more convenient for drivers to really embrace it.

"One of the general rules of product design is if you're going to introduce a whole new way of operating something, it's kind of got to be better in every regard," Kim said. "But I do think that as time goes on and as the technology gets better, which it inevitably will, it really could have potential."