Any auto sales college graduate can tell you that when buying a new car, most people consider three main categories. There’s what’s under the hood, which indicates how fast, smooth, powerful and safe the ride will be. There’s also peripheral things like what colour the automotive painting job is or whether or not the car has Mo Par accessories. Finally, in a category all on its own, is the car stereo.
While the car stereo may technically be an accessory, in practise it is an essential part of the driving experience. People who love their ride but aren’t satisfied with how it sounds will often have an automotive service technician install a new sound system to fix the problem.
The car stereos of today hardly resemble their predecessors (which mainly consisted of just a CD player some speakers). Here are a couple of brand new things that are happening with auto audio:
High-End Built-In Systems
One trend that is happening these days involves high-end car manufacturers teaming up with renowned audio companies to produce cars with top-notch built-in sound systems. These include:
- Maybach & Bose: Those who ride around in Maybach luxury cars (ride being the operative word, chauffeurs usually drive these beauties) are used to relaxing in style. Now Bose hopes to compliment that comfort with a top-notch concert hall-quality sound system.
- Lexus, Mark Levinson & Yamaha: For those with a bit of disposable income who want the concert hall experience but also like to drive themselves around, Lexus is teaming up with Mark Levinson for the sound quality and Yamaha for the technical aspects of the acoustics.
- Bentley & Naim: What happens when an ultra high-end audio company teams up with an equally ultra high-end car maker? You get the 20 speaker, 2,200 watt sound system in the Bentley Mulsanne.
One App to Rule Them All
What began earlier this decade with innovations like Pioneer’s App Radio has now morphed into Apple CarPlay. Basically, it’s a console that controls the media in the car.
CarPlay connects to your iPhone, but runs using its own operating system which comes installed with the car. The system utilizes CarPlay compatible apps installed on your iPhone, and even performs updates as soon as they have been downloaded to your mobile device.
CarPlay compatible apps means that the device only registers and plays content that is a logical fit for the driving experience. Music, podcasts, maps, phone calls and text messaging are in, Twitter and Facebook aren’t. Siri, of course, is a component of CarPlay. It makes sense, seeing as voice commands and using hands-free devices are the way of the future.
The only downside to this device is that it only works with vehicles that are CarPlay-ready – which luckily covers many of the top automakers today.
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