Car dashboard. Radio closeup. Man sets radio

Autos

Are Better Speakers The Key To Maximizing Vehicle Efficiency?

Author: Jarret HendricksonEdited by: Madison Cates January 31, 2024

Who doesn’t love a car with a sweet sound system? It’s a feature that car owners universally admire. Thankfully, automakers are producing vehicles with increasingly impressive sound systems. However, these advanced sound systems require a lot of energy and computing power to operate, which means that your car’s audio setup could be using so much power that its efficiency and overall performance start to suffer.

According to a report from Motor Trend, companies like Panasonic are joining forces with automakers like Infinity and Fisker to produce audio setups for vehicles that both sound killer and will allow cars to maximize their efficiency.

How Audio Setups Can Effect Vehicle Efficiency

Since a vehicle’s audio and speaker system is ultimately just a hardware and software setup, the more streamlined those packages are, the less power they require to operate. So, making audio and speaker systems with lighter, more compact hardware and quicker software can increase a vehicle’s overall efficiency.

The Chief Technology Officer for Panasonic Automotive, Andrew Poliak, told Motor Trend just how extensive this efficiency increase would be, “We’ve done some technology like making smaller speakers sound better than a larger speaker. That means you’re reducing weight in the door, reducing wiring in the doors, thereby reducing some of the hinge support in the doors; it takes less power to drive the amplifier, and the speakers are more efficient, so it reduces weight, but also power draw. Any power and weight reduction is added range in an EV, same for an ICE vehicle.”

There’s a similar concept behind how Stellanti’s STLA Large platform will use less wiring (via their 400- or 800-volt architecture) to make their future vehicles run more efficiently.

And That’s Not All

According to Poliak, even audio technology like active noise cancellation will make vehicles more fuel efficient, “Some vehicle OEMs will lock up torque converters at different RPM, or there’s cylinder deactivation that creates a booming noise, so often they don’t do the optimal engine tune because it’ll be” uncomfortably loud “for the driver,” but “technologies like active noise cancellation” can resolve “those problem frequencies” by playing the “inverse waves so it’s not uncomfortable for the driver,” which allows the automaker to “optimize performance for fuel economy.”

Poliak even cites an automaker that found real-world success using noise cancellation to increase their vehicle’s fuel efficiency, “One US automaker did active noise cancellation for cylinder deactivation and got between one and two miles per gallon more on an ICE vehicle.”

Moreover, Poliak alleges that vehicle sound setups will soon come with options for over-the-air upgrades that will make the system sound better while also increasing the car’s operational efficiency. While we know that not everyone is fond of modern cars essentially being computers on wheels, it’s hard not to admit that the option to upgrade a vehicle’s performance through OTA updates is pretty cool.

Author: Jarret Hendrickson

Autos

Accelerate Your Refund: 7 Tax Breaks for Smart Car Owners

Author: Madison CatesEdited by: Madison Cates January 31, 2024

Share on X (Twitter) Share on Facebook Share on Pinterest Share on Reddit <use href="#<svg width="1em" height="1em" viewBox="0 0 32 32" class="scriptlesssocialsharing__icon flipboard" fill="currentcolor" aria-hidden="true" focusable="false" role="img"> <title>flipboard</title> <path d="M24.997 13.001h-5.998v5.998h-5.998v5.998h-5.998v-17.995h17.995zM1.004 1.004v29.991h29.991v-29.991z"></path> </svg>" xlink:href="# flipboard “> Share on Flip itWho doesn’t love a car with a sweet sound system? It’s a feature that car owners…

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