This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
Artist News Brands & Merch
Volkswagon hires Underworld to compose music for responsive in-car audio app
By Andy Malt | Published on Monday 2 December 2013
Volkswagon last week unveiled a new iOS app which creates music live based on information from a car’s engine management computer and location.
The website for the technology explains: “The innovative app reads how and where you drive, translating it into music live. The app gets speed and RPM data from the GTI’s on-board computer. The steering acceleration and location data is calculated from a combination of the accelerometer, gyroscope and GPS receiver present in the iPhone. All of the data collected is filtered and smoothed before use”.
Remarking on the musical credentials of the new app, Underworld’s Rick Smith adds: “I think we all felt from the beginning that if it was just an experiment that produced an experimental result and that was it, then it was going to be a failure. It needed to arouse emotions, as music does”.
It’s not currently planned to make the system publicly available, but you can see it in action here:
