CES 2024: Mercedes-Benz Introduces MBUX Sound Drive and Partners with Musician and Entrepreneur Will.i.am to Create an “Interactive Music Experience” for Its Cars.
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At CES this year, the company announced MBUX Sound Drive, a new feature that uses sensors and software to connect music to driving. It calls it an “interactive music experience,” as the music adapts to car functions like energy recovery, acceleration, steering, and braking.
Drivers choose to participate by selecting Sound Drive via the car's infotainment system display, which then connects the car's hardware to the music software via "precise in-car signals" that allow the music to respond to driving characteristics in real time.
Mercedes envisions multiple ways this system could work, such as starting soft music when the wipers are activated – essentially matching the unsettled weather with lo-fi beats for driving. At the same time, an EDM beat would play louder the faster you accelerate on the highway.
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Mercedes wants Sound Drive to be an “open music platform,” so that any musician can create their own soundscape for driving. Using the company’s MBUX operating system, artists from around the world are invited to “create tracks” for various driving modes.
This project between Will.i.am and Mercedes seems like a better fit for him, considering his mixed track record in tech ventures. His smart home startup, Wink, has struggled, and he has made several appearances at CES in recent years with varying, if sometimes confusing, appearances. Sound Drive will be available to owners of Mercedes-AMG and Mercedes-Benz vehicles with the second-generation MBUX system starting in mid-2024, with the option to download via an over-the-air software update. Pricing was not immediately available.
Source: theverge
