BMW has filed a patent application in Germany (DE102025114033A1) for a glass-covered car door handle with an integrated microLED display and a fingerprint sensor. In BMW's design, a thin microLED film sits behind transparent glass or plastic, so nothing protrudes from the car's bodywork. The display could show the car's lock status (one graphic when locked, another when unlocked), the BMW logo or animated light effects. Sensors would detect an approaching hand or a touch, and wake the display only when needed.

The fingerprint sensor would allow an authorized user to unlock the door electrically, without a key, and BMW says the fingerprint check could be paired with facial recognition using an interior camera. The patent application was filed in April 2025 and published this month. It is not tied to any specific car model, but BMWBlog suggests that the obvious candidate is the "Winglets" used in the new X5 (G65), gloss-black touch panels in the B- and C-pillars that open and lock the doors and light up at night.

A patent application of course does not mean that BMW will actually adopt this design, but it is interesting to see automakers consider microLED displays for car exteriors. MicroLEDs offer high brightness, a long lifetime, excellent durability and a wide operating temperature range - all important for automotive applications.

It's not clear why microLED is the chosen technology - this could have also worked with a flexible OLED, for example, that can also embed a fingerprint sensor of course. But BMW specifically mentions a microLED.

The first exterior microLED display in a car was the AUO-made "media bar" on Sony Honda's AFEELA 1, which never saw the light of day (as Sony Honda cancelled the AFEELA-1).

Other companies are developing microLED displays and lighting solutions for cars, such as VueReal, which collaborates with Continental on automotive microLED displays and co-develops microLED brake-light modules with Flex-N-Gate.

(Photo credit: BMWBlog)

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