Sound on the Move: Engineering for the Automobile

I am in the auto industry and the trends I've seen have been toward smart phone integration. Just recently, clients ask me about Apple Car Play and Android Auto systems, so I checked them out at the LA Auto Show last weekend. They are an extension of the smart phone, which is integrated into the car touch screen.

As I think about the new smart phone integration into cars, I come up with the idea that car stereo systems will need to allow more control of the pre-amplifier. Think about this for a second. If the smart phone is feeding the pre-amp, then the smart phone can also be the sound processor. It can listen to the sound, hear the road noise/engine noise at different speeds (and even remember certain roads - noisy pavement, etc), then compensate by mixing in noise cancellation. The smart phone can also be used to direct the sound at different passengers and with multiple riders using their own smart phones, each passenger can listen to their own media in their own space.

So, feeding the pre-amp with digital streams from a smart phone(s) seems like the way future car infotainment systems will be headed.

My 2006 NC MX5 Miata has an exceptional sound system in which the volume adjusts for top down and up depending on road speed via a setting on the radio/cd player. This is the way to go.