What’s in store for the future of the automotive industry? According to Inside EVs, the future is electric: total U.S. electric vehicle sales increased in 2018 by a whopping 81%.
As the electric vehicle continues its breakthrough to consumers, the pressure is on for these green, clean, silent machines to produce external noises for greater pedestrian safety. Notoriously difficult to hear when travelling at lower speeds, the U.S. Department of Transportation will require electric vehicles and hybrids to emit external sound alerts by September 2020, while the European Union will require the same beginning in July 2019.
And yet the question remains: what might the electric vehicle of the future sound like?
HARMAN’s Lifestyle Automotive team sought to find an answer. In order to address this largely untapped ‘wild west,’ HARMAN sound engineers developed unique, synthesized engine sounds and tested a focus group to pinpoint specific sound preferences. Next, we invited CNET Roadshow to spend a day at our Novi facility for exclusive access to the project. There, reporter Andrew Krok learned about how HARMAN is working to define EV sound through world-class engineering, acoustics and trained listener input.
We took CNET Roadshow along for a ride in a Tesla Model S, equipped with a digital signal processor and a pair of external speakers for the emission of sound inside and outside the cabin. Disparate worlds united as we showed Andrew how an EV would sound with a roar of a V8 or the intergalactic hover of a UFO.
Please click here to view the full press release.
SOURCE: HARMAN
