Designing the EV Soundscape of the Future

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The Wall Street Journal

Technology

4.4 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 20 December 2024

⏱️ 19 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Electric motors are silent but electric vehicles are not. They make noise for safety, branding and to enhance the driving experience. And since they are no longer limited by the sound of the motor, these cars provide an acoustic blank slate. Jasper de Kruiff, co-founder and creative director of Impulse Audio Lab, has been working in interactive sound design for over a decade. He explains the tech and creative approaches that go into each vehicle’s sonic picture and why the roads of the future could sound like an electric symphony. What do you think about the show? Let us know on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, or email us: [email protected] Sign up for the WSJ's free The Future of Everything newsletter. Further Reading: Designing the Sensory Experience of an Electric Vehicle How New Motors Could Transform the EV Industry With an EV, I Had to Learn to Drive All Over Again Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:18.9	Do you recognize this noise?
0:25.6	How about this one?
0:29.6	That first one was a 1965 Chevy Impala.
0:33.6	The second, a Ferrari Monza SB2. The sounds we just heard, sounds that perhaps some of us
0:42.9	find compelling, thrilling, sexy even, mostly come from the combustion engine of these cars.
0:51.1	Electric vehicles, though, don't have combustion engines, so they don't naturally make the sounds we've come to associate with cars.
0:58.0	So how do you make something that's naturally so quiet still sound sexy?
1:06.0	Silence is incredibly important, and there are many moments where I think silence is the preferred way to go.
1:13.6	But I think at the end of the day, certain cars are sold not just as a means to get from A to B.
1:19.6	You're buying an experience, you're buying something that does more to you than just bring you somewhere.
1:26.6	It's supposed to excite you or engage you.
1:29.8	That's Jasper DeKroif.
1:31.5	He's the co-founder and creative director of Impulse Audio Lab,
1:35.3	which specializes in interactive sound and audio software development.
1:39.6	De Kroif started out as a musician.
1:41.7	His career in industrial design began 13 years ago working at
1:45.2	BMW in Munich, just as the field of EV sound design was beginning to take off. Since then,
1:51.2	his company has done work for BMW, Rolls-Royce, Mercedes, Toyota, Subaru, Hyundai, and Tesla,
1:57.5	among others. While a traditional car can grab your ears when it revs the engine,
	...

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