What should electric cars sound like?

Electric cars are extremely quiet, offering some welcome silence in our cities. But they also bring new dangers, since they can easily sneak up on unsuspecting pedestrians. What kind of sounds should they make to keep people safe? Get a preview of what the future may sound like as acoustic engineer and musician Renzo Vitale shows how he's composing a voice for electric cars.

Let's start with silence.

Silence is one of the most
precious conditions for humans,

because it allows us to feel
the depth of our presence.

This is one of the reasons
why the advent of electric cars

has generated lots
of enthusiasm among people.

For the first time, we could associate
the concept of cars

with the experience of silence.

Cars can finally be quiet:

peace in the streets,

a silent revolution in the cities.

(Hum)

But silence can also be a problem.

The absence of sound, in fact,
when it comes to cars,

it can be quite dangerous.

Think of blind people,

who can't see a car which is approaching.

And now, if it's electric,
they can't even hear it.

Or think of every one of us
as we are walking around the city,

we are absorbed in our thoughts,
and we detach from the surroundings.

In these situations, sound can become
our precious companion.

Sound is one of the most
wonderful gifts of our universe.

Sound is emotion

and sound is sublime,

and when it comes to cars,
sound is also information.

In order to protect pedestrians

and to give acoustic
feedback to the drivers,

governments around the world
have introduced several regulations

which prescribe the presence of a sound
for electric vehicles.

In particular, they require
minimum sound levels

at specific frequency bands

up to the speed of 30 kilometers per hour.

Besides this speed,

the natural noise of the car
is considered as sufficient.

These regulations
have generated different reactions

among those who favor sounds
and those who fear the presence

of too much noise in the city.

However, I don't see it
as the noise of the car.

I rather see it as the voice of the car.

And this is one of my biggest challenges,
and privileges, at the same time.

I design the voice of electric cars.

We all know how a combustion
engine sounds like,

and we do actually also know
how an electric engine sounds like.

Think of the electric tramway.

As soon as it moves,

it creates this ascending
high-frequency pitch sound,

which we called "whistling" sound.

However, if we would
just amplify this sound,

we would still not be able to fulfill
the legal requirements.

That's also why we need
to compose new sound.

So how do we go after it?

In many cities, the traffic
is already very chaotic,

and we don't need more chaos.

But the streets of the 21st century
are a great case study

teeming with transience,
cross purposes and disarray.

And this landscape
offers a great opportunity

for developing new solutions
on how to reduce this chaos.

I have conceived a new approach
that tries to reduce the chaos

by introducing harmony.

Since many people don't know
how an electric car could sound like,

I have to define, first of all,
a new sound world,

something that doesn't belong
to our previous experience

but creates a reference for the future.

Together with a small team,
we create lots of sonic textures

that are able to transmit emotion.

Just like a painter with colors,

we are able to connect
feelings and frequencies

so that whenever one is approaching a car,

we can feel an emotion

which, besides fulfilling
the legal requirements,

speaks also about the character
and the identity of the car.

I call this paradigm "sound genetics."

With sound genetics, I define,
first of all, an aesthetic space of sound,

and at the same time,
I search for new, innovative methods

for generating soundscapes
that we don't know,

soundscapes that allow us
to envision abstract worlds,

to make them tangible and audible.

Sound genetics is based on three steps.

The first one is the definition
of a sonic organism,

the second one is a description
of sonic variations,

and the third one
is the composition of sound genes.

The description of a sonic organism
is based on a cluster of properties

that every sound
that I compose should have.

[Sound is moving.]

I transfer to a small sound entity,
such as the sound of a car,

the power of the motion of music,

so that sound can move so.

[Sound is acting.]

And just like a dancer on a stage,

sound will project trajectories
of sound in the air.

[Sound is memory.]

And it's not just about
the sound of a car.

It's the memory of my father
coming back home.

[Sound is hypnotizing.]

And sound has the power to create
an unexpected sense of wonder,

which hypnotizes.

And ultimately,

[Sound is superhuman.]

sound goes beyond the human condition,

because it allows us to transcend.

As a second step,
we define the sonic variations.

[Identity prism]

Just like humans, where different bodies
generate different voices,

also different car shapes
have a different acoustic behavior

which depends on
the geometry and the materials.

So we have to know, first of all,
how this car propagates the sound outside

by means of acoustic measurements.

And just like a single voice is able
to produce different tones and timbres,

at the same time, we produce
different sonic variations

within a space
of eight words that I defined.

And some of them are,
to me, really important,

such as the concept of "visionary,"

of "elegance,"
of "dynamic," of "embracing."

And once we have defined
these two aspects,

we have what I call the identity prism,

which is something like
the sonic identity card of a car.

And as a third step,
we enter the world of the sound design,

where the sound genes are composed

and a new archetype is conceived.

Now let me show you another example

of how I transform
a sound field into a melody.

Think that I am a violin player on stage.

If I would start to play the violin,

I would generate a sound field
which would propagate in this hall,

and at some point, the sound field
would hit the side walls

and would be scattered all over the place.

And this is how it looked like.

Some time ago, I captured
several ways of sound to hit side walls.

And last year, I was asked
by the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra

to compose ringtones
that they were going to play.

So one of them, I had the idea
to start from this sound field.

I took a section,

I superimposed the section
over the distribution

of the musicians onstage,

and then I followed
the blooming of the sound field

by means of three parameters:

time, intensity and frequency.

Then I wrote down all the gradients
for each instrument,

and as you can see, for instance,

the piece will start with
the string section playing very softly,

and then it's going to have a crescendo
as the brasses, the woods will jump in,

and the melody will end
with a harp and a piano

playing on the highest range.

Let's listen how it sounded like.

(Ethereal music)

(Music ends)

So this is the sound of my alarm clock,
actually, in the morning.

(Laughter)

And now let's go back to electric cars.

And let's listen to the first example
that I showed you.

(Hum)

And now I would like to show you
how a potential sound,

based on the sound genetics
for electric cars, could sound like.

(Ethereal music)

(Pitch rises with acceleration)

Cars are a metaphor of time,
distance and journey,

of setting out and returning,

of anticipation and adventure,

but, at the same time,
of intelligence and complexity,

of human intuition and accomplishment.

And the sound has to glorify all that.

I see cars both as living creatures

and as highly complex
performative art installations.

The sounds that we envision
through sound genetics

allow us not only
to celebrate this complexity

but also to make the world
a more elegant and safe space.

Thank you.

(Applause)