Will.i.am’s startup Sound Drive wants you to reboot the music industry in your car

You can spend all day curating custom playlists for every mood, choosing tracks based on tempo or intensity, but whether you’re swerving or just commuting, you’ll never be able to perfectly match the pace and energy of every drive.

Singer and songwriter-turned-entrepreneur Will.i.am says he’s cracked the code to do just that with a new company called Sound Drive, which debuted at CES 2024. The new company will launch an electric EQ model this summer at Mercedes-Benz, will.i.am told TechCrunch at a press conference. The basic idea is not only to create an in-car soundscape that reacts to what you’re doing, but to create and remix tracks in new ways every time you drive. The routes “are conducted on public roads,” Will.i.am said.

TechCrunch had a chance to test it out at CES 2024, and despite some initial skepticism, ended up being impressed.

Sound Drive finds harmony among the many channels of data emanating from a modern car’s ECU, from throttle input to brake pressure, and connects it to an intelligent multi-channel mixer. Instead of two turntables and a microphone, it has two foot pedals and a steering wheel.

But this is just the beginning. “We are currently working with about 10 market segments,” said Mercedes-Benz Chief Technology Officer Markus Schäfer. What he means is that the app will utilize up to 10 different vehicle parameters to influence the song. However, since the system will run as an app within the MBUX infotainment system, it has the potential to access even more content.

Image Source: Tim Stevens

I’m the first to admit that the concept sounds like a gimmick, more fake noise desperately trying to make an electric car sound less boring. After 30 seconds behind the wheel of the Mercedes-AMG EQE SUV, I was convinced.

The car is loaded with 16 Sound Drive tracks, some of which are familiar and others created specifically for the experience. I tried a few, and my favorite was “Woman” from Doja Cat’s last album. While sitting around, the rhythm of the song is clearly audible, yet subtle.

It wasn’t until I applied some throttle that Doja’s sexy lyrics came to light. The song really came into its own as I picked up speed, which made me even more frustrated with the perpetual Las Vegas traffic.

I also listened to Will.i.am and Britney Spears’ 2013 song “Scream & Shout,” which got a new makeover from Sound Drive. It’s much the same story there, with songs coming and going, swelling and receding with my input and speed.

It’s worth noting that Sound Drive doesn’t just modify the volume levels of different parts of a song. Lyrics come in and out intelligently, picking up where they left off and continuing the thread of the song rather than just being muted in the middle.

It felt like a drive-through soundtrack, not entirely of my own making, but immediately responding to the rhythms of my life.

But only to a certain extent. Mercedes chief technical officer Markus Schaefer is quick to point out that music does not reward driving beyond limits.

“Sound Drive” isn’t quite a performance in itself, Will.i.am likens it to a conductor or a DJ, but it’s just the beginning. Going forward, Sound Drive will let you geotag samples to connect auditory cues to memories. He says you can create a line of songs that chart the end of a relationship, leaving a tag with the memory of the place you had your first kiss or your last argument.

While it might be a bit heavy to relive this trauma on your daily morning commute, he assured me that you would never hear the same song twice, even if you were driving in the same traffic at the same time and at the same speed : “Even if it’s the same route, the songs will be slightly different for each route,” he added.

Mercedes-Benz is the first partner and the technology will be available this summer in the form of 10 tracks of the MBUX Sound Drive. This makes sense considering will.i.am has a great relationship with Mercedes as a brand ambassador. It will initially appear in high-performance AMG and AMG-Line EQ models and will be extended to other models in the Mercedes range.

In the future, the Sound Drive will also appear in models from different manufacturers. Will.i.am declined to reveal any timeline.

He did say, however, that there are no limits to progress on this front. Will.i.am hopes this technology will propel us into a new era of music.

“Now, still today, in 2024, people are making music as if they were still playing CDs, as if the primary source of listening to music is vinyl records,” he said. “Beyoncé and Taylor Swift taught the world that live music is where the business is, and the only way to truly hear live music is to go to a concert.” He said that with Sound Drive, the dynamic music experience will come from you and your ride. OK.