We’re all very used to noise on the road. Whether it’s the grind of tyres on tarmac or the whoosh of that insane driver overtaking you at twice the speed limit, road travel comes with more than its share of aural distraction. But not for much longer: Meet audio company Harman’s HALOsonic Road Noise Cancelling (RNC) tech, which is being developed in conjunction with Lotus.
What Harman’s noise cancelling tech does is use accelerometers fitted to a vehicle to measure vibration from the road, which is then picked up by the in-system controller. An algorithm is used to create a series of inverse sound waves from the vehicles speakers that will cancel out the sound that would generally transmit through to the cabin.
According to the company, “HARMAN’s uses its patented True Audio technology to ensure that only unwanted engine or road noise is cancelled, while preserving music signals in a similar audio range.”
Harman’s Lifestyle President Michael Mauser said in a statement “By taking disturbing road noise out of the mix, we can provide automakers with greater opportunities to exploit lightweight materials without the risk that the perception of quality and harmony in the car will be compromised.” Sounds good to us.
While the road noise will be taken out of the equation, there’s still no way to prevent the bedlam that is restless and overly-vocal passengers. So you’re still going to have to threaten to turn this car around, right NOW! Unfortunately there’s no actual timeline for this but we should see it in action some time next year.
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Source: Harman via Digital Trends