As an automotive journalist, I’m lucky enough to go to dozens of high-end auto-related events every year, and this is definitely one of my favorites. I love seeing, hearing and even feeling the machines as they roar on by, but this year it was the sounds coming from an entirely different sort of car that really captivated my imagination. It’s the Hyundai Ioniq 6 N, and it’s electric.
That is to say, it’s a car that needn’t make any noise at all.
In the pursuit of boosting its newest model’s fun factor, Hyundai’s engineers designed a selection of simulated engine tones for the Ioniq 6 N. One is futuristic, the second sounds a little like a jet engine, and the third does a compelling job of simulating sensations given off by internal combustion — all piped through a series of speakers mounted both inside and outside of the car.
It all sounds a bit silly: a silent EV making vroom-vroom noises, like the ones you might have made when pushing toys around on the floor as a kid. Nevertheless, the result is surprisingly effective. Sitting behind the steering wheel with my foot on the floor, hearing — and feeling — the virtual exhaust pop and crackle behind me, put a big smile on my face.
But it also made me think back to the early days of the cell phone, back before folding displays and even before touchscreens. A decade before the App Store, the first thing many people bought on their phone was a ringtone. If you didn’t like any of the dozen or so trilling alerts preinstalled on your device, you could pay something like 99 for a short sample from T-Pain’s latest hit or whatever was cresting on the Top 40 at the time. By purchasing this tiny feature, users made their new device feel both more familiar and more finely attuned to their personal quirks.
As it turns out, those ringtones opened a gateway into what would become the mobile commerce industry —a market estimated to be worth trillions of dollars. While the automotive industry has a long way to go before its digital marketplaces are as vibrant as those on mobile devices, its engineers have already begun to lay the groundwork.
Virtually every major vehicle manufacturer is transitioning toward selling what are called software-defined vehicles (SDVs). To you and me, SDVs appear and function like any other car, but on the inside they operate in a remarkably different manner. Instead of discrete chips and components that define different aspects of the car’s behavior, such as antilock brakes or traction control, everything in an SDV is defined via software.
This software-based system enables over-the-air (OTA) updates, which are capable of continually adding new features and improving functionality. OTAs allow your car’s behavior change and grow as it ages.
That’s a lot of nuances that you won’t need to worry about in driving your new car. What’s important to know is that the next car you drive off a dealership lot could be a lot less advanced than when you trade it in a few years later. And, while most updates these days are free — patches and software fixes and the like — there’s an increasing opportunity for manufacturers to charge a premium for new features.
Some of the most compelling digital services of SDVs are related to active safety. Many of today’s cars come with some form of hands-off driver assistance, allowing you to let the computer take the wheel on certain highways and other designated roads. These systems —christened with evocative names like Cadillac’s Super Cruise and Nissan’s ProPilot Assist — are continually evolving, keeping up with changes to traffic and roads, while gaining new features and capabilities along the way.
The software that powers these systems is costly to develop and maintain. These systems also typically require expensive sensors and advanced computers running within cars. No wonder these services often come with hefty monthly or annual fees — upwards of $50 per month — surcharges that are only getting more expensive as these services get better.
So, while your next ride might continually improve over the years, there’s a good chance it’ll get more spendy, too.
Another fledgling area of in-car commerce comes via charging EVs. Hundreds of competing networks have scattered their chargers across the landscape, few of them offering the simple contactless payment we’ve come to expect at gas stations. Thankfully, more of those chargers and the cars tethered to them support a standard called Plug & Charge. With this, you add your credit card information to your car ahead of time. Then, when your battery is running low, you just do what the name says: plug and charge.
The Ioniq 6 N, like many of Hyundai’s other EVs, does support Plug & Charge, so the brand is certainly dipping its toe into the burgeoning digital automotive marketplace. For now, the company has no plans to charge for downloadable engine tones, but with other manufacturers building their own app stores, making your next car drive, sound and even look better than ever might soon require a few taps on a touchscreen.
And who knows: Maybe at the 2045 Goodwood Festival of Speed, fans will gather on the lawn, bask in the sun and cheer on a new generation of high-performance EVs vrooming on up the hill.
