Volvo scores an autonomous car soundtrack to settle your stomach
Chris Davies - Feb 10, 2021, 2:00am CST
The whirr of electric motors is increasingly familiar as we shift away from internal combustion, but autonomous vehicles may need a soundtrack of their own, a new project by Volvo and partners concludes. Focusing on how passengers in self-driving cars will build trust in autonomous systems, as well as ways to use sound to avoid motion sickness, the two year project has come up with a recipe for a “sonic soul” that could make future transportation feel less alien.
Right now, sound tech in cars generally falls into one of three categories. Most familiar are the audio systems we use for music; a more recent addition has been active noise cancelation that some vehicles rely on to help oust road and wind noise. Most controversial is the noise enhancement that’s sometimes piped into the cabin to emphasize engine sounds, with the assumption that because of it