Audi are currently composing sounds for their new Audi R8 e-tron Supercar… because it’s too quiet. How mad is that?
In the video below you can see exactly what has to be done to make an electric car’s engine make a sound. Generally, the only noise that comes from an electric car is the sound of the tires on the road – and maybe the window wipers. Other than that, they’re virtually soundless.
This could cause a problem later in life when we’re all zipping around busy city streets in soundless cars, so Audi have put their heads down and come up with an innovative solution: they make a new engine sound with a keyboard. You’ll hear it in the video below.
It all sounds cool and futuristic but after the novelty fades off people will surely want to customise the sound for themselves. That’s the problem with technology these days. Nearly everything that has a CPU can be cracked and modified, so in the future you could very well see someone driving a tiny electric Smart car that has an engine sounding like the BMW Brutus.
The other problem is with so many people already plugged into earphones do we really need to have electric cars sounding so loud? Is the whole idea not to reduce noise pollution? Who knows?
It’s still pretty cool though.
audi e-sound for e-tron electric vehicles from designboom on Vimeo.
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