Electric cars are great!  No emissions, low cost of ownership, and lowering our reliance upon fossil fuels.  However, one of the bad things about electric cars is that they are virtually silent — and therefore more at risk of not being detected by pedestrians, animals, etc.

So…what’s the solution?  For Mercedes-AMG, they are looking to Linkin Park to help design the artificial noise an electric car of tomorrow will make.

Let’s be clear:  the vehicle of the future won’t be blaring their greatest hits.

But consider this, from Jalopnik’s article on the LP’s involvement in the project:

“Using a rock band to help decide the future of car sounds doesn’t get any less odd the more you read it, but these kinds of decisions are coming up. Hybrid and electric technologies tend to be much quieter than internal combustion engines, which makes them both dangerous to pedestrians at low speeds and a bit boring in terms of sound. That means cars have to make some kind of noise, and rather than feeding fake engine noise through electric and hybrid vehicles, a lot of car companies are going the branding route by creating a ‘sound of the future.’“

I say just use the Jetson’s flying saucer sound effect…and let’s move on to more important things:  will the car be able to dispense beer whilst it conveys me from location to location?  — [eric]