Back in 2005 I received a call from a major Tier 1 supplier for audio systems to help them in implementing a digital, simulation-driven approach for their product development. My first thought was:

“A car audio system might not be much more than a radio and some loudspeakers?”

Well, it turned out that this was not quite true. When I joined them a few months later, I found probably the most sophisticated audio development environment I’ve seen, and I have seen a lot (more than 30 different highly qualified companies). This was a totally different story, and I figured out after a few weeks, that:

“Automotive audio is a highly complex topic, that goes far beyond just loudspeakers and amplifiers!”

Over the last 12 years I spent most of my working engagement with automotive audio. Especially recently, over about the last five years, audio moved from an infotainment topic to a sound design topic, supporting engineers in designing the vehicle’s sound, i.e. the sound that the car by its vibrations and air noise generates — a fascinating new topic for audio.

Here are some resources from the AES and others that provide a useful introduction to the topic. (Click on the tabs to see the resources under each heading.)