Will.i.am’s new startup Sound Drive desires you to reboot the music trade in your automobile

You may spend all day lengthy curating customized playlists for each temper, selecting tracks primarily based on tempo or depth, however whether or not you’re corner-carving or simply commuting you’ll by no means completely match the cadence and vitality of each drive.

Will.i.am, the singer and songwriter turned entrepreneur, says he has cracked the code to doing simply that with a brand new firm referred to as Sound Drive, which made its debut at CES 2024. The brand new enterprise will launch this summer season in Mercedes-Benz’s electrical EQ fashions, will.i.am informed TechCrunch throughout a press occasion. The fundamental concept is not only to create an in-car soundscape that reacts to what you’re doing, however to create and remix tracks in new methods each time you drive. Tracks that, Will.i.am stated, are “conducted by the road.”

TechCrunch had an opportunity to check it at CES 2024 and regardless of some preliminary skepticism, got here away impressed.

Sound Drive finds concord within the quite a few channels of knowledge flying out of the ECU of a contemporary automobile, every little thing from throttle enter to brake strain, and hyperlinks that to a kind of clever multi-channel mixer. As a substitute of two turntables and a microphone, it’s two foot pedals and a steering wheel.

However that’s just the start. “It’s around 10 segments roughly that we are using at the moment,” Mercedes-Benz CTO Markus Schäfer stated. What he means is that the app will faucet into as many as 10 totally different automobile parameters that can have an effect on the tune. However, because the system will run as an app inside the MBUX infotainment system, it has the potential to entry far more.

Picture Credit: Tim Stevens

I’m the primary to confess that the idea seems like a gimmick, extra faux noises desperately attempting to make EVs sound rather less boring. After 30 seconds behind the wheel of a Mercedes-AMG EQE SUV, I used to be satisfied.

That automobile had 16 Sound Drive tracks loaded, some acquainted and others created particularly for the expertise. I sampled a number of, my favourite being Doja Cat’s “Woman” from her final album. Sitting idle, the rhythmic beat of the tune was current but delicate.

It wasn’t till I added some throttle that Doja’s sultry lyrics got here ahead. As I gained pace, the tune actually got here into its personal, which simply left me much more annoyed with the perpetual Las Vegas visitors.

I additionally sampled “Scream & Shout,” the 2013 banger from Will.i.am and Britney Spears, freshly re-tooled for Sound Drive. It’s a lot the identical story there, with the tune coming and going, swelling and retreating with my inputs and pace.

It’s essential to notice that Sound Drive isn’t simply modifying the amount ranges of various elements of the tune. Lyrics are available and drop out intelligently, selecting up the place they depart off and persevering with the thread of the tune, not simply going mute mid-verse.

It felt like driving via a film soundtrack, not totally of my very own making, however one which responded immediately to the tempo of my life.

Solely to a sure diploma, although. Mercedes CTO Markus Schäfer was fast to level out that the music won’t reward driving past the restrict.

Sound Drive isn’t fairly a efficiency as such, Will.i.am likens being a conductor or DJ, however that’s just the start. Down the street, Sound Drive will allow you to geotag samples, linking auditory cues with reminiscences. He stated you could possibly create a tune path to chart the ending of a relationship, dropping tags with reminiscences of the place you had your first kiss — or final combat.

Whereas reliving that type of trauma in each morning commute would possibly get just a little heavy, he assured me that even in case you cowl the identical street on the identical time on the identical pace caught in the identical visitors, you’ll by no means get the identical tune twice: “The song will be slightly different every route, even if it’s the same route,” he added.

Mercedes-Benz is the primary associate, the place the expertise will launch with 10 tracks this summer season as MBUX Sound Drive. That is smart, contemplating will.i.am has a longtime relationship with Mercedes as a model ambassador. It’ll initially be present in higher-performance AMG and AMG-Line EQ fashions and can lengthen past these to different trims within the Mercedes vary.

Sooner or later, Sound Drive might be obtainable in fashions from totally different producers as effectively. Will.i.am declined to present any timelines.

He did, nonetheless, say there’s no restrict to how far this could go. This expertise Will.i.am hopes, will drive us into a brand new period of music.

“Right now, still today, in 2024, people make music as if they’re still playing CDs, as if the main source of listening to music is vinyl,” he stated. “Beyonce and Taylor Swift told the world that live music is where the business is, and the only way to actually listen to live music is to go to a concert.” With Sound Drive, he stated, that dynamic music expertise will come from you — and your journey.