Hyundai Separated Sound Zone technology will give everyone their own sound zone

Hyundai  is developing Separated Sound Zone technology which will give everyone in a car their own sound zone for music, phone calls and more.

Hyundai reckon that as we move to a place where autonomous travel in cars becomes common place, everyone in the car will want to have their own individual sound space, listening to the music they want and taking the calls they get without being overheard by other passengers. 

We’re not entirely sure that desire has anything to do with autonomous driving, but if you’ve ever driven any distance with teenagers in the back seat you’ll know it’s either headphones for the kids or endless garbage through the car’s sound system for one and all. But Hyundai has a plan to change that.

It seems they’ve been developing something they call Separated Sound Zone (SSZ) technology for the last few years, and it will arrive in a Hyundai in the next year or two. And it sounds like a bit of a Godsend for long journeys with kids.

The SSZ tech effectively creates acoustic fields in the car so the driver and every passenger can hear isolated sounds, with the overlap of sound from one zone to another negated. That means each passenger, and the driver, can hear just what they want, without messing with other occupants’ ears.

It means you can have more private phone calls too, and information for the driver – stuff like Sat Nav directions and audible warnings – will only be heard by the  driver.

You could of course do all this with headphones, but the SSZ technology will manage to do it without, which means passengers will still be able to communicate with one another (assuming they want to).

Now if only Hyundai could isolate each zone from the others completely so you don’t hear cries of “Are we there yet?” endlessly from the back seat.

Hyundai Separated Sound Zone Technology Video