DETROIT -- Your inexpensive compact could be as quiet as a Cadillac or roar like a Corvette, thanks to a technology that may be on the road soon.
English engineering wizards Lotus Engineering and German audio specialist Harman Becker have signed a deal to sell automakers a system that can reduce wind and road noise inside a car or simulate engine sound.
Surging interest in improving fuel economy is one of the factors likely to sell the system to automakers. Lotus has been developing the system, which is not unlike the noise-canceling headphones aircraft pilots and passengers wear, for about 20 years.
The noise-cancellation ability relies on a computer, microphone and speaker in the passenger cabin. The computer monitors the engine, road and wind noise in the cabin. It then tells the stereo system to generate sound waves that cancel that noise.
The idea is to make the cabin a quieter and more relaxing place, because the sound waves are precisely generated so they cancel the noise, rather than adding to it or drowning it out with music. The feature does not affect the audio system's ability to play music.
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General Motors and Honda already have more limited noise-cancellation systems on a handful of vehicles that would produce an unpleasant engine note without them.
Four-cylinder models of the 2010 Chevrolet Equinox and GMC Terrain crossover SUVs and V6 Honda Accord sedans and Odyssey minivans come with noise cancellation. They need it because the engines were designed for maximum fuel efficiency, rather than quiet, pleasant operation.
Honda and GM's systems do not eliminate road and wind noise like the Lotus-Harman system.
Automakers have traditionally managed engine noise either with heavy sound-deadening materials or by programming the engine computer to keep the engine running at r.p.m. levels that produce pleasant sounds. As engines grow smaller and fuel economy becomes more important, fuel efficiency will trump aesthetics in engineers' calculations, but car buyers won't accept a loud, buzzy interior.
Lotus' system can also synthesize engine sound inside and outside the vehicle.
That feature will be important as electric vehicles and hybrids become more common. The sound of an engine is one of the key factors that tells pedestrians, especially blind people, a vehicle's coming at them.
Without some kind of onboard sound generation, the near-silent operation of EVs and hybrids in electric-drive mode could lead to many pedestrian injuries.
That safety feature can also let automakers and owners have some fun. The system can generate interior sound to make drivers_and any passengers they want to impress_think there's a big powerful engine under the hood.
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From there, it's only a matter of time until some automaker or aftermarket specialist comes up with a way to direct the synthesized engine note outside the car. A subcompact with a 1.4-liter engine could sound like a Corvette V8 or Ferrari V12 when it pulls up to the parking valet.
There's no word on when the first vehicles using the Lotus-Harman system will be in production, or which automakers will use it.
