How About Some Noise Canceling Technology

[larry4pyro]

The Volt is a really quiet car, in some ways too quiet because now we can really hear the tires and suspension working, particularly from the rear. So my suggestion is integrate some noise cancelation technology in the future Volts to reduce this noise.

[mikeg3]

I'm not sure how you can cancel tire noise without also affecting traffic noise that you need to hear.

[larry4pyro]

I'm not sure how you can cancel tire noise without also affecting traffic noise that you need to hear.

Assume both the tire noise and important sounds like sirens and horns were both suppressed. Then the ratio of good sound to bad sounds would remain the same. So the good sounds would be just as noticeable as before but the overall noise level would be reduced and things would be more comfortable.

I believe it is possible to use some signal processing that would make the noise cancelation work only on identified bad noises. For example, tire and suspension noises tend to be lower in frequencies, the tire noise is also repetitive and periodic relative to speed. So I think a smart system could cancel bad noises from previously identified frequencies and leave frequencies associated with important sound alone. If this happened, the ratio of good sound to bad sounds would actually improve while the overall noise level is decreased.