On May 18th, according to a recent report by “The Nikkei”, Yamaha, a company that operates in both the musical instrument and transportation industries, announced that it will enter the market of simulated sound effects for electric vehicles. Yamaha will collaborate with its music technology and its subsidiary Yamaha Motor Co.’s experience to jointly develop the αlive AD sound system for electric vehicles and promote it to the electric vehicle and motorcycle industries.
▲ Alive system, image source: Yamaha official website.
This system can collect information about motor speed, pedal opening and speed, and based on this information, emit comfortable sounds that make the driver feel pleasant. However, reports indicate that no vehicle manufacturer outside of Yamaha has yet adopted Alpha Alive Drive. On the one hand, car manufacturers do not want power-consuming parts to affect the driving range of electric vehicles. On the other hand, Harman and Bose have previously launched similar products and have been adopted by car factories, which is not favorable for Yamaha, which entered the field later.
▲ Image source: Lexus Official Website
Yamaha believes that its advantage over Harman and Bose is that it offers customized engine sound effects for different car models from the perspective of the automotive industry. Drivers won’t hear the sound of an SUV when driving a small electric car. In addition, Yamaha hopes to make αlive AD another way of human-computer interaction beyond the dashboard. For example, the supercar Lexus LFA, which uses a Yamaha engine, is well received because its acceleration is so strong that traditional speedometers cannot keep up. Even if replaced with a liquid crystal speedometer, drivers still rely on the sound of the engine to judge the speed.
Although some drivers and passengers prefer quieter cars, Yamaha believes that there is still a certain percentage of drivers, especially those who drive sports cars, who rely on sound to judge the condition of the car. Yamaha believes that even if it can attract only 1% of customers, it is still a considerable market.