“In the age of electric vehicles, car manufacturers are looking for innovative solutions to drastically reduce the weight of their vehicles and gain space for passengers and new technologies,” said Johann Hiebl, Continental’s head of business unit infotainment and connectivity. “Our approach is to treat the car itself as an instrument. We use compact actuators to excite suitable surfaces to thus generate a natural, 3D sound experience.”
Without getting too technical, the concept here is that certain parts of the car are naturally well-suited for various frequencies. According to Continental, A-pillars are good for high frequencies, which would make them the tweeters. Door panels can handle good mid-range frequencies, while areas like the roof and rear shelf apparently make awesome subwoofers. Instead of having actual speakers in these spots, Continental would use the aforementioned actuators – not unlike the core of a speaker with a coil and a magnet – to send out vibrations in these areas. The car then does the rest.
Read Article