Sound of electric transport · SDI Lab · From 2019
Autovoice
An interactive sound system that gives electric vehicles, buses, and motorcycles a unique voice — brand identity, experience, and road safety in one architecture.
Autovoice is the unique voice of electric transport — a product of the Sound Design Institute laboratory. It is an interactive sound system for electric vehicles, buses, and motorcycles that creates a distinct sonic character for each machine while meeting the practical duty of being heard on the road.
Quiet electric vehicles are a safety risk for pedestrians and other road users. European rules (EU 2017/1576) require external sound for electric vehicles; yet many current AVAS voices feel like futuristic art objects — annoying, undifferentiated, and weak as information. Autovoice treats sound as design architecture: compliance with regulation, clear market guidelines, and craft borrowed from cinema and games, including the skeuomorphic cues drivers and cities already understand.
The system personalizes cars, buses, cargo, motorcycles, and even yachts or aircraft interiors. It can voice everything from a sports-car engine metaphor to an urban futuristic sedan, and extends into mood in the cabin, game mechanics for tourist buses, premium identity, voice assistants, audio navigation, and special-vehicle infotainment.
Under the hood: Autovoice Engine synthesis and presets, DSP/DAC, spatial audio, an extensive SDPRO library, SDI SonicPort speakers and Outsonic output, plus SonoPlayer for vehicles. Events arrive over CAN-bus, Android, or raw APIs; Autovoice can also extend an existing AVAS installation rather than replace it entirely.