Mercedes-Benz taps Will.i.am to create car 'interactive musical experience' | Hacker News Reader

Mercedes-Benz taps Will.i.am to create car 'interactive musical experience'

theverge.com

5 pointsrntn6 comments

> At CES this year, the automaker announced MBUX Sound Drive, a new feature that uses sensors and software to link music to driving. It’s hard to describe, but Mercedes says its composed musical tracks to pair with with regular functions like recuperation, acceleration, steering, and braking, turning the whole car — as Will.i.am puts it — into its own “orchestra.”

"It's hard to describe" is almost never a good way to describe a product.

How about "it makes driving more fun"?

The way I understand this works, is that there are specifically constructed tracks that can be mixed dynamically depending on sensor input. Imagine hearing a low-key backing track while idling, and as you start to accelerate, more and tracks get mixed in - maybe lyrics start to kick in with highway speeds and so on.

This would be similar to how adaptive soundtracks work in some games.

It is no accident that this feature debuts from Mercedes-AMG. The main selling point of these cars has been emotion, stemming from their roaring V8 engine. In a future where this breaks away due to emotionless EV drivetrains, how do you appeal to drivers' emotions and make it more "fun"?

As part of a corporate convention, I once saw Will.i.am try to DJ a set from his branded smartwatch [1]. It was probably the worst show I've ever been to. He might as well handed the AUX cable to my grandpa who can't figure out the difference between the Play and Next buttons. Ironically, they had a full DJ setup on stage that he ignored the entire time while he fiddled with his wrist. I think about half way through he gave up and just left.

Will.i.am seems to have a talent for hobnobbing with rich people at places like Davos and selling himself as some visionary. In reality you get a poor repacking of current tech trends. Probably his biggest claim is somehow being involved by Beats by Dre, some of the most overpriced headphones ever. Currently he is selling some AI that I have never heard of called Omega.

[1]https://www.theverge.com/2014/11/5/7162861/will-i-am-puls-sm...

Perhaps this only represents a lack of imagination on my part, but when I think of the typical person I see driving a Mercedes, they don't look like the typical person I think enjoys Will.i.am. I'm prepared to be wrong about this, maybe it's a geographical thing and I'm just missed the 20-40 somethings who buy Mercedes, but where I am the people driving them tend to be... old. Quite old.

I think this is not about his music per se, but more about him being a producer (and marketing guy) as you need specifically (de-)constructed music tracks for this feature to work. The CES demo featured other artists as well.

This sounds like it's going to cause wrecks.

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