[For safety reasons and to enhance the driver’s experience, manufacturers of electric-powered vehicles typically incorporate speakers that add sounds to the minimal noises the vehicles otherwise make (see a 2023 CTech story for details). In the story below, CarBuzz reports on new patents filed by Ferrari for the use of other presence-evoking technologies that create “a fully immersive experience… The end goal is an authentic auditory experience and one that provides genuine acoustic feedback.” See the original version of the story for ten more images. –Matthew]

Ferrari Will Make Electric Supercars Sound Good Without Speakers

Ferrari is ensuring that even its electric supercars will provide auditory feedback to the driver, without resorting to speakers.

By Roger Biermann
March 24, 2024

Ferrari may be one of the last vestiges of high-revving, naturally aspirated V12 supercars, but there’s a sad inevitability that one day, it will succumb to the electrification trend; that day will arrive before the end of 2026. The brand has played open cards that it will develop an electric supercar, but we have to hope that when it does, it’ll do it the Ferrari way and give us something entertaining. New patent filings give us hope that Ferrari will, at the very least, not partake in cheap tricks like speakers to make the car sound good.

CarBuzz discovered two patents filed with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) giving us insight into how Ferrari will generate organic auditory feedback for the driver without resorting to cheap tricks. The first relates directly to the drivetrain and aims to inform the driver of the behavior of a driven axle, allowing the operator to respond to the behavior of the electric supercar instinctively.

A lack of noise in EVs hampers driver awareness

Ferrari’s first patent highlights one of the issues of driving an EVs is the lack of driver awareness about how the drivetrain behaves. When the rear wheels break traction in a V12-powered 812 Competizione, for example, the revs rise, and you can respond instinctively by feathering the throttle. But in an EV, there’s no such noise.

In response to this, Ferrari proposes an electric-drive axle and a sound transmission device feeding directly into the cabin. Ferrari describes this device as an acoustic conduit, specifically a pneumatic device linked to the drive axle through which air pressure and vibrations can channel feedback to the occupants. Specifically, Ferrari notes this acoustic conduit is meant to act “without electro-acoustic apparatuses” – or speakers.

Resonators and valves for a supercar-worthy sound

Because this system is purely pneumatic, Ferrari has added sound boxes, or resonators, which would help amplify or reduce the volume to an acceptable level before the sound reaches the cabin. These resonators will be positioned so that if a driven axle has two electric motors, it will collect the sounds emanating from both e-motors to relay to the cabin.

Additionally, valves within these tubes would allow the ECU to adjust the sound profile and volume in much the same way an active exhaust system opens and closes valves to increase the volume. Ferrari says that the valve can completely block off the transmission of noise if you feel like driving in silence, but when driving spiritedly, the valves could be open for a fully immersive experience.

The patent even makes provision for an additional channel to feed this sound to the exterior of the vehicle, replacing the traditional acoustic warning system for EVs with an organic sound rather than a synthetic one.

The end goal is an authentic auditory experience and one that provides genuine acoustic feedback.

Aerodynamic sound generation turns airflow into driving pleasure

In the second related patent, Ferrari doesn’t hide its disdain for the sound of EVs, describing the noise as “almost inaudible and generally also little appreciated.” The Italian automaker says that “a non-negligible component in the judgment of a high-performance sports car is the “quality” of the sound that is emitted by the car in motion.”

To replicate this in an EV without using speakers, Ferrari proposes equipping electric supercars with a plurality of “aerophone instruments” arranged side-by-side and facing the forward direction of travel.

Basically, Ferrari wants to install a pipe organ under the car through which air will travel when the car is in motion. Actuation valves and plungers will be able to open and close each of these tubes to allow air to flow through, causing the tubes to vibrate. These tubes would vary in length and diameter, with each dimensional adjustment creating a variation in the tone.

By combining these vibrations, Ferrari claims that it’s possible to create a sound that:

• “Corresponds to the expectations of a driver of a high-performance sports car,”
• Is “completely natural” and “not the result of a digital sound reproduced by loudspeakers,” and
• varies autonomously as the forward speed of the car varies.

The system would be compact and thus be housed effectively in narrow spaces, and the thin metal walls of the tubes would create a natural resonance akin to an exotic exhaust system.

Because such a system relies on natural airflow when the car is traveling in a forward direction, Ferrari believes it could retain traditional grilles, placing the mouth of such a system in the area traditionally occupied by a radiator. In this way, even Ferrari EVs would have genuine grilles.