The Black Eyed Peas founder has collaborated with Mercedes on tech that turns the driver into the DJ
Seeking fresh sound for its battery-powered vehicles, Mercedes-Benz chose Will.i.am as its collaborator - producer, technologist, philanthropist, Black Eyed Peas founder, and Grammy award winner.
Black Eyed Peas' Will.i.am and Mercedes have debuted an app that uses sensors to give users control over the way recorded music plays in the car.
The result is Sound Drive, a production-ready app. Utilizing a suite of sensors connected to a car's accelerator, steering wheel, suspension, and brakes, the system registers inputs and uses them to affect how recorded music is transmitted through the speakers, transforming the driver into something of a DJ.
"That means every single drive will have a different version of whatever song that they've been driving to," Will.i.am tells us in an interview at CES in Las Vegas. "It's a pretty transformative technology."
The technology, dubbed Sound Drive, was rolled out during the CES technology show in Las Vegas last week.
People love to play their music while driving, but unless you’re some sort of wizard with control over time and space, rarely does the beat actually match up with the rhythm of acceleration and steering. Mercedes-AMG aims to change that with a new “interactive musical experience” that it’s created along with musician and entrepreneur Will.i.am.
Mercedes-Benz and Will.i.am Turn Electric Cars Into Musical Instruments with 'Sound Drive'
At CES this year, the automaker announced MBUX Sound Drive, a new feature that uses sensors and software to link music to driving. It’s hard to describe, but Mercedes says it’s composed musical tracks to pair with regular functions like recuperation, acceleration, steering, and braking, turning the whole car — as Will.i.am puts it — into its own “orchestra.”
Drivers would opt in by selecting Sound Drive through their infotainment screen, which then connects the car’s hardware with the music software through “precise ‘in-car signals’ that enable the music to react to the driving characteristics in real-time.”
Mercedes envisions this working in several different ways. For example, soothing music would start playing when the windshield wipers are turned on — in essence, matching inclement weather with lo-fi beats for driving. Meanwhile, an EDM beat would get progressively faster as you accelerate down the highway.
It’s an interesting idea, mainly because sound and music have always played a central role in driving. Whether it’s Carpool Karaoke or Ansel Elgort’s getaway driver character rocking out to the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion in Baby Driver, the inclusion of familiar lyrics or a heart-thumping beat can turn any errand or road trip into a memorable experience.
Of course, in the era of electric vehicles, music and other diegetic sounds become more heightened thanks to the absence of an internal combustion engine. But while some try to fill the void with fake exhaust through external speakers, others are aiming for something more pleasant. The Fiat 500e, for example, uses classical music as its automatic low-speed sound, which is legally required to alert pedestrians and others who are visually impaired.
Mercedes says it wants Sound Drive to be an “open music platform” so any musician can create their own auditory soundscape for driving. Using the company’s MBUX operating system, artists from around the world are invited to “create tracks” for a variety of driving functions. Imagine telling someone you’re an aspiring Sound Drive musician or that you composed the windshield wiper beat.
Sound Drive will be available to owners of Mercedes-AMG and Mercedes-Benz vehicles equipped with the second generation of the MBUX system starting in mid-2024. The feature can be downloaded via an over-the-air software update. Pricing information was not immediately available.
Sources: theverge.com; caranddriver.com