will.i.am believes that his latest collaboration with Mercedes-Benz has the power to do for music what Instagram did to photography.
In January, the luxury manufacturer announced that it had entered into a “industry-first partnership” with the Black Eyed Peas founder to create “a ground-breaking interactive music experience”: MBUX Sound Drive.
“The technology connects the car hardware with the music software through precise ‘in-car signals’ that enable the music to react to the driving characteristics in real-time,” explains a press release about the partnership.
While the MBUX Sound Drive system won’t be available until late this year, will.i.am recently offered HipHopDX the opportunity to experience the groundbreaking system in real time.
The concept was born from Mercedes’ idea of creating a simulator for its electric vehicles that would recreate the sound of a V8 engine in response to acceleration or any other action that would cause a car’s engine to make a noise.
“I came up with the idea April of 2022,” he tells DX. “I’ve sat in a lot of companies’ future departments; and in this case I went from being an ambassador at Mercedes, to being in their work sessions, their thinktank brainstorming sessions. So they showed me their electric vehicle that had a V8 simulator.”
will.i.am immediately realized two flaws in the prototype: first, the sound was not dynamic or realistic in all situations; and two, the system was pushing engine noises into the cabin through the speakers.
After pointing out that this probably wasn’t the ideal experience, the “Scream & Shout” hitmaker requested a car equip with the experiential new tech and built a team that could help transform the sound output into something that actually should be coming through a driver’s speakers. He then replaced the traditional revving that engines make with an actual song that is remixed with every action a driver takes.
“We took these sensors and we aimed them at our sound generation engine that we created called Sound Drive,” will.i.am explains. “And what happens with that combination is every commute will rearrange/compose the drive.
“A lot of folks are thinking, ‘Oh wow, Mercedes did some research and they picked Will to be the face and they paid him some money.’ In this case, I invested alongside Mercedes to materialize on a concept I pitched them with a team that they vetted.”
The goal is to eventually create an open platform that would allow drivers to share their audio with listeners and other drivers.
“Every musician will want to create soundscapes. And every driver will want to publish their journey,” will.i.am wrote in his breakdown of the concept to Mercedes execs. “TikTok made millions of people feel like they’re a creative. Instagram made millions of people realize they’re photographers and creative influencers. We will make every driver a composer by simply driving. Because the future of cars don’t make sounds that go ‘Vroom vroom.’ They sound like orchestras.”
Check out our MBUX Sound Drive experience with will.i.am below.
