CES 2019: Bose QuietComfort Road Noise Control Unveiled for Quieter Rides
If the sounds of the road are interrupting your road trip playlist, Bose might have the solution. The company announced its new QuietComfort Road Noise Control system designed to cancel out all of the sounds that seep in from outside of your vehicle.
The technology, branded with the same name as Bose’s noise-canceling headphones, is being made available to vehicle manufacturers around the world to provide a quieter cabin experience inside of cars, trucks, and SUVs.
As noted by Bose, this type of noise-canceling technology is likely to gain more prominence as vehicles get lighter and more electric. Sitting inside a whisper-quiet electric car, a driver is exposed to more road noise than they would typically hear in a noisy internal combustion engine car. Bose is framing its technology as looking toward a future when there are many more EVs on the road than there are today.
Bose wants to bring its acclaimed noise-canceling technology from your headphones to your car. The Framingham, Massachusetts-based company just unveiled a new technology called QuietComfort which claims to measure your vehicle’s vibrations in order to eliminate noise from your daily drive
The new noise-canceling system, called QuietComfort Road Noise Control, uses your vehicle’s audio system, accelerometers, microphones, and Bose’s own signal-processing software to digitally reduce environmental sounds in the cabin, meaning you can enjoy your driving playlist without interruption.
Bose explained in a statement that cabin noise can come from “driving over rough roads, dgrooved concrete, and uneven pavement”. In the past, manufacturers have sought to remedy this by adding more insulation to the vehicle itself, which has the unintended effect of increasing its weight.
The company’s QuietComfort RNC solution will be available for cars that employ Bose’s premium sound systems and will make its way to vehicles hitting the roads by the end of 2021. As for automobile makers, they can work with Bose and specify the precise sound characteristics of their vehicles to make the noise cancellation process even more effective.
