You’re the main character, OK? We admit it. This is a movie, and the camera is following you. You can tell because the soundtrack follows you.
You get into your new Porsche, and the music starts on cue. When you take a sedate drive down a lovely forest road, the soundtrack stays subtle and chill. When you decide to push the limits of your car, a beat thumps and the music speeds up, swelling to match each weave, with a popping bassline that surges when you tap the brakes to set up a turn.
That would only happen to the main character. Or to anyone who bought a Porsche.
It’s called Soundtrack My Life, and it may soon be available to everyone who buys a product from the German automaker.
In Beta Testing Now
The system is still in development, though it’s pretty far along. Porsche plans to make Soundtrack My Life available as part of the next generation of its in-car infotainment system, Porsche Communication Management (PCM).
PCM 6.0 is set to appear this summer in 2022 Cayenne, 911, and Panamera models. If Soundtrack My Life isn’t available immediately, the company says, it will be released for download later.
Adaptive Music that Responds to Your Driving
The idea is simple: The driver will start the car, then select a musical theme based on their mood and driving situation. Then, Porsche explains, “The software accesses pre-composed musical elements and, depending on the acceleration, speed and centrifugal forces in the car, changes the complexity of the mix of these individual elements, adding or removing tracks and sounds to rearrange everything again and again.”
Porsche Digital’s Norman Friedenberger has the lead on the project. “We take data like speed and acceleration,” he says. “Those are essential aspects that serve to personalize what comes to my ear in such a way that I have the impression that I am the composer of my own musical material.”
Some Roads Could Get Their Own Soundtracks
In the future, the app could use geofencing to lock and unlock pieces of music based on location. There could be specific soundtracks cued to Los Angeles traffic or the legendary Tail of the Dragon route in Deals Gap, North Carolina (318 turns in 11 miles).
The goal, Friedenberger says, is to “immerse and emotionalize you” in the experience of the drive.
Composers Working on Cars is New, But This Isn’t the Only Case
It’s not the first time we’ve seen designers use adaptive sound as a styling element in a vehicle. BMW hired famed Hollywood composer Hans Zimmer to create a unique sound palette for its upcoming i4 electric sedan and iX SUV. BMW’s EV soundscape is less definitively music, more sci-fi sound effects. But both systems dance on the line between the two, and both respond to your driving style.
Try Driving Distracted Now
We’ll editorialize enough to say that this: This is brilliant.
Automakers get better at what they do with each new generation of cars. And when we’re lucky, they get more artistic. Most of us have an emotive response to the luscious shape of a Jaguar F-Type or an immersive cabin like that of the Mercedes-Benz EQS (complete with nap mode). The soundscape of a car can just as easily evoke emotion, and it’s exciting to see designers grab that with both hands.
So, OK, maybe you’re not the main character. Whoever is driving a Porsche is, in their own mind. But that’s genius — and maybe even safer. In an age when we’re all distracted by our phones, a car that’s so engaging you don’t want to shift your attention away from it could be a masterstroke.
