Redefining the commute: The advanced audio technology transforming your drive

From the rush hour commute home to family road trips in the summer, driving is integral to life. Almost 1.5 billion registered vehicles exist worldwide today. Vehicles serve crucial functions, coordinating a person’s day and getting them from point A to B; but, they’re also personal. Given how many people spend time in their cars, visual and comfort preferences like choosing the right paint color or the most cushioned seats make a significant impact in people’s enjoyment of their vehicles. But what about the things that people hear, or don’t hear?

Advanced radar sensing technology using edge AI enables a safer driving environment, detecting things people in the car aren’t able to see; and now, processing technology is unlocking new possibilities for premium audio in vehicles.

“The nicest sound system most people own is the one in their car, and more people are prioritizing a premium audio experience,” said Matt Sullivan, an automotive systems engineer at our company.

Given this development for toward premium audio, while acknowledging considerations the proliferation of electric vehicles (EVs) bring, automotive sound system designers need to achieve new levels of quality.

As the in-vehicle experience continues to evolve, semiconductors are playing a significant role in redefining it, from safety to sound. Our engineers help electronics and automotive manufacturers meet higher performance levels through components that make it easier to design and build the sophisticated sound systems consumers want.

Canceling out the noise

There are unique challenges to a vehicle’s audio system, and EVs add a big one: the need to sharply trim vehicle weight. It’s not that sound systems are especially heavy; rather, it’s the cabin insulation that automakers have long relied on to muffle road noise. Traditional noise reduction has required more insulation, thicker glass, extra plastic, wheel dampers and more. These all add weight, which could reduce an EV’s driving range between charging.

Enter active noise cancellation, in which speakers produce “anti-noise” that cancels out most unwanted sounds, similar to higher-end noise-cancelling headphones that enables a listener to fully immerse themselves in sound.

Because most vehicle cabins are small, contained spaces, they offer an opportunity for designers to create an immersive listening experience. That means adding active noise cancellation to vehicle sound systems, and to EVs in particular.

“Active noise cancellation is much lighter and less expensive to implement than insulation,” Matt said. Although EVs don’t have significant engine noise, since electric motors are much quieter, active noise cancellation does have to eliminate other road noise, including the synthetic tones that EVs emit so that pedestrians can hear them coming.

Scalable audio for a wide range of vehicles

High-end audio enhancements such as prime surround sound in home entertainment systems have improved how people enjoy movies or television, and they want the same audio experience in their cars.

To deliver these enhancements and active noise cancellation, the processor handling the audio system must analyze the noise in the cabin, create the anti-noise to cancel it, and do all of that while managing high-end audio.

Devices such as our AM275 microcontroller (MCU) perform these functions in a single chip, saving manufacturers the complexity of designing a system around a separate processor, digital signal processor and memory components. Our devices’ scalability to offer different audio feature sets for different trim levels are met by a scalable portfolio of devices across a common footprint. Because of this, the AM275 MCU makes it easy to port audio system designs across different vehicle trim lines. Paired with our new Class-D audio amplifiers with proprietary one-inductor (1L) modulation technology, manufacturers can maintain high-quality sound, while decreasing the number of inductors per channel by half – reducing audio system cost, size and weight. The fewer components engineers need to consider in their designs, the simpler it is to build systems for different variants and trim levels, and the more accessible premium audio will be in any vehicle, from entry-level to luxury.

While the AM275 MCU can provide the high processing speeds and low latency required to meet the demands of active noise cancellation and sophisticated audio enhancements, it is also readily compatible with high-performance audio amplifiers, audio data converters and power-management for an audio control system. “With the AM275 EVM, we make it easy to design an entire premium audio experience within our product portfolio,” Matt said. “It’s a great way to get the best performance out any audio component or platform.”

Ready for the future

Exciting advances in automotive audio are coming, and our company is prepared to help manufacturers integrate them.

Automotive audio systems create audio “zones” within the cabin, so that drivers and passengers alike can expect a personalized in-vehicle experience. One passenger can take a phone call, while another one watches their favorite movie, and the driver only hears music. Enabling this personal audio experience involves tracking the head positions of the driver and passengers, and then adjusting the active noise cancellation and sound projection to get just the right sound to the right person.

These features require even more processing power and performance out of the audio components. Our company’s devices are ready for these innovations, enabling a more immersive driving experience at any vehicle price point.

At this rate, the commute may end up being the best part of the day.