You and Your Mercedes-Benz Can Literally Make Beautiful Music Together

Mercedes-Benz and will.i.am launched MBUX Sound Drive at CES 2024

In what could only be seen as the strangest use of emerging technology, Mercedes-Benz and rapper Will.I.Am announced that Mercedes-Benz cars will be equipped with MBUX Sound Drive, a new feature that turns your commute into a tune.

MBUX Sound Drive uses the vehicle’s sensors and software to interpret your acceleration, steering, braking and energy recuperation. It then converts them into music. This new audio format allows tracks to be created in any genre of music. The automaker is hoping to make MBUX Sound Drive into an open music platform.

A NEW MUSIC PLATFORM

The new feature was developed in collaboration with Will.I.Am, who breathlessly pitched it at a press conference at the 2024 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas Wednesday.

Mercedes-Benz calls MBUX Sound Drive, “immersive.”

Calling it, “a brand-new renaissance of creativity,” there’s how the software works. Say that you commute to work using the same route every day. Each time you drive, you’re driving just a little bit differently. You might wait long at a light, or drive faster or slower depending on your mood. MB Sound Drive captures the subtle differences each time you drive and creates a different song each time, even if your route’s the same.

“A driver now does what a DJ does,” Will.I.Am said. “When you go out and experience music. The DJ never played the song the same way every night. If you do, that’s how to DJ. And the only time music is altered and alive is when the band plays it live. … When you go into your car, it’s the same. You press play or you listen to stream it will not alter.”

That will change with the arrival of MB Sound Drive. Look for the new feature as a part of Over-The-Air updates that will arrive this summer on vehicles running the second-generation MBUX infotainment system.