Will.i.am transforms the Wheels of Steel

SoundDrive by Will.i.am elevates the Mercedes-Benz In-Car Audio Experience

The artist will.i.am has been championing wild, imaginative custom cars for decades. His tastes range from a tricked-out Delorean nicknamed “Delore.I.am.” to a fantastical sports car called Monster that was originally a VW Beetle. That creative approach to bespoke car design is carrying over into his core expertise — music production. And now will.i.am is launching Sound Drive, a tech startup reimagining live music experience in cars that are more creative, customized, and personalized to the driver’s style. He’s partnering with automakers and the first version of the product will launch in Mercedes-Benz electric vehicles later this year.

“It sounds like the music is alive and the conductor is the driver.”

— Will.i.am

It's a full-circle moment for the artist born William James Adams, who joined the launch event held during the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in early January in boisterous spirits to introduce the company and his plans. “It's a pretty transformative technology, not only for the driver’s experience, but for the song creator’s experience,” Will.i.am said.

Here’s how Sound Drive works— the elements of a song are matched to ten different sensors embedded inside the vehicle. The driver’s behavior such as a turn of the wheel, a punch of the accelerator, or a tap of the brake triggers a change in the song’s tone and structure. The result is intended as a new kind of road trip soundtrack that breaks the mold of a repetitive streaming playlist. The in-car demo featured about a dozen songs and original compositions that have been added to the database, but he's promised that an extensive library is in the works, including the potential for unreleased sounds by everyday creators. As drivers build their routes, he plans to allow creators and composers to upload geo-located sonic easter eggs that unlock new effects for the driving composer and builds a new audience for music.

“It sounds like the music is alive and the conductor is the driver. (With) this technology we have the secret sauce of how the song unfolds, based on the performance and what the driver is doing at any given time, so that means every single drive will have a different version of that song that they've been driving to.” The secret sauce of his company are the algorithms that his team has created to control the way the music sounds, which sound orchestral and smooth in the sample provided.

At CES, will.i.am participated in a series of roundtables, presented on stage along with Mercedes-Benz’s Chief Technology Officer, and offered personal test drives of Sound Drive to journalists. His energy is super-star infectious, and he spoke in rapid fire about his enthusiasm for the opportunity to collaborate with a carmaker on R&D, when he first met with Mercedes-Benz CEO at the tech center in Sindelfingen, Germany two years ago. He describes the collaboration as a bigger deal than winning a Grammy — he’s won 7 — or playing the Super Bowl as he did with the Black Eyed Peas in 2011. After one roundtable, I commented that he had a fresh take on the wheels of steel, he bear-hugged me twice, and gave me a shot out in his next press conference.

For automakers who are transitioning their products to electric vehicles, creative approaches offer solutions for new experiences. Once the growl of engine noises are taken out of traditional cars, the dedicated quiet space of the interior opens up entertainment possibilities for a captive audience. “You come from an age of V8 engines in the car, and you have all this roar and the vibration, and now all of a sudden, you have electric cars,” said Markus Schäfer. “That's where the discussion started, how to give the car DNA Do we want to give the cars an artificial V8 sound or something like that? That's how we got into the sound. The sound department is growing big time and plays an important role, especially in the electric car.”

By stripping out the engine noise, will.i.am said that music in cars will sound pure. “There's dissonance from the engine tone. Maybe the engine is vibrating at key of G, but then the song is in the key of F sharp minor. These two keys don't really go together, and no one really complained about it because there's nothing you could do about it. Now, with the electrification and simulation of a sound, you can make it in the key of the song.”

As one of the most successful recording artists to emerge from early 2000s hip hop and pop dance music, Will.i.am. was part of the movement that caught the attention of carmakers to move toward more bespoke cars, working with LA-based car customizers West Coast Customs. His head-turning project cars have been widely covered. And as the music industry has changed, he’s broadened his reach to touch on his many interests — cars being one of them. In addition to fronting the Black Eyed Peas and make song as a solo artist, he’s amassed production credits for Justin Bieber, Usher, Estelle, and Jennifer Lopez. Over the past several years, he’s pursued several avenues of business from tech to brand partnerships.

His first collaboration with Mercedes was on a custom AMG GT Four-Door in 2022. He collaborated with J Balvin on “Let’s Go,” a song that’s an homage to Formula 1 motorsports released last year. It’s one of the songs included in the Sound Drive archives.

It's another way electric cars are opening new lanes for creativity — and new work for creatives. While traditional DJs only have two hands, when sensors control the mix, the possibilities are endless.