According to “Toyo Economy” recently reported, business across musical instruments and transportation Yamaha announced to enter the electric car analogue sound market. Yamaha will combine its own technology in the field of music and the experience of its subsidiary Yamaha Engine to jointly develop the sound system αlive AD for electric cars and promote it for the electric car industry and the motorcycle industry.
▲ alive system, image source: Yamaha official website
The inquiry found that the system can collect information about motor speed, pedal opening and speed, and based on this information to issue a comfortable sound to make the driver feel happy. But the report points out that so far no vehicle manufacturer outside of Yamaha has adopted αlive AD. On the one hand, automakers do not want power-consuming parts to affect the range of electric cars, and on the other hand, Harman and Bose have previously launched similar products and have been adopted by car manufacturers, to the detriment of Yamaha, which is late to enter the field.
▲ Lexus LFA sound shattering champagne glasses, photo credit: Lexus official website
Yamaha believes that, compared with Harman and Bose, Yamaha’s advantage is from the perspective of the automotive industry, to provide customized engine sound for different car models, drivers will not be driving a small electric car to hear the simulation of large-displacement SUV sound. In addition, Yamaha wants to make αlive AD another form of human-computer interaction beyond the dashboard. For example, the Lexus LFA, a supercar with a Yamaha engine, was well received because of its strong acceleration, and the traditional speedometer was too late to respond, and even though it was replaced with an LCD speedometer, the driver was still used to judging the speed by the sound of the engine.
Yamaha said that although some drivers and passengers hope that the quieter the better, there is still a certain percentage of drivers, especially sports car drivers will rely on sound to judge the car’s condition. Yamaha believes that as long as the 1% of customers, is also a sizeable market.
