Sound in Automotive – overview

Presentation 1 – Sound design for automotive
by Fredrik Hagman

This session will cover some background, the current use of sound design and sound interaction principles as well as upcoming trends and outlooks for sound interaction in automotive industry with a special focus on Volvo Cars implementation.
Sound interaction plays a crucial role in the general user interface of a car, especially since the task of driving a car largely occupies the driver visually. Hence automotive sound design is generally intended to promote safety and optimize usability. As the automotive industry is in the transforming, shifting from combustion to electric propulsion, manual to autonomous driving and adding new mobility solutions, new use cases are arising including possibilities as well as challenges with regards to the need of sound interaction and design.

Fredrik Hagman is a senior sound designer at Volvo Cars, where his sound design has shaped the experience of driving in Volvo, Polestar, and LEVC vehicles. At Volvo Cars, Hagman is responsible for developing sound cues for both the interior and exterior of vehicles, focusing on creating a sound experience that aligns with the functionality and brand identity of each model.
Fredrik’s journey into sound design began with his passion for music, which led him to study electrical engineering at Örebro University. There, he discovered an interest in why we perceive sound differently. This curiosity led him to Chalmers University, where he earned a master’s degree in acoustics, focusing on how sound influences emotional reactions and spatial perception.

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Presentation 2 – Spatial audio rendering in vehicle environments
by Jonathan Ewald

Dive into the challenges and opportunities of bringing immersive audio experiences into the confined space of a vehicle. This talk will highlight some of the challenges with reproducing spatial audio, including Dolby Atmos, in the vehicle environment and discuss strategies to overcome those challenges.

Jonatan Ewald is the Attribute leader for the Audio Performance attribute at Volvo Cars. He and his team are responsible for the end user experience of all audio systems at Volvo Cars as well as for many of Polestars vehicles.
During his fifteen years at Volvo Cars he has been part of developing all current Volvo Cars and Polestar vehicles as well as the newly released EX90 and Polestar 3 which are both companies first products with spatial audio and Dolby Atmos enabled audio systems
Jonathan has been a driving force when it comes to the development of spatial audio and new measurement and benchmarking methods within Volvo Cars and as a member of the AES Technical Committee for Automotive audio he has been part of writing the Whitepaper for Frequency Response, Max SPL and Impulsive Distortion measurement within AES TCAA.

Jonatan started his audio career as a sound engineer in 1999 and graduated from Chalmers University with a BSE in Electronic Engineering in 2004.
He has since worked within live sound, studio and sound engineering, electronics development of telecom, handsfree, recording, measurement, PA equipment, as well as system design and subjective evaluations.