HARMAN Innovation Driving the Rinspeed Budii

At the 2015 Geneva Motor Show, visitors can experience the next generation of autonomous driving with the Rinspeed Budii – made possible thanks to the newest HARMAN audio and infotainment technologies.

KARLSBAD -- February 17, 2015: HARMAN International Industries, Incorporated , the premier audio, visual, infotainment and enterprise automation group, is once again showing the world its technological prowess by cooperating with Swiss concept car company Rinspeed to demonstrate the future of autonomous driving.

Concert hall on wheels

The new Rinspeed “Budii” show car being presented in Geneva is the next step in the partnership between HARMAN and Swiss customizer and concept car maker Rinspeed. A vision of autonomous urban driving, the car features a comfortable and luxurious interior for two, with all latest technologies. The Budii is equipped with an intelligent infotainment system and a tailor-made premium sound system from Harman Kardon to provide the passengers with top-quality HD audio.

“Every year, the Geneva Motor Show gives us at HARMAN the perfect opportunity to showcase our most innovative technologies with the Rinspeed concept cars,” says Michael Mauser, president, HARMAN Lifestyle Division. “With our latest audio and infotainment innovations, we can demonstrate that autonomous driving will definitely not be boring, but a truly unique entertainment experience – by bringing technology in the vehicle that, just a few years ago, seemed like science-fiction.”

Two of these revolutionary audio technologies are also shown at the Geneva Motor Show. ISZ (Individual Sound Zones) provide an individual listening experience for every seating position by maximizing speaker directivity and minimizing crosstalk between the zones in a vehicle through innovative acoustic design and complementary digital signal processing. The digital signal processing is for each car specifically tuned to the cabin and its speaker layout, so it can ensure that every passenger has a truly unique audio experience.

In addition HARMAN’s HALOsonic® RNC (Road Noise Cancellation) technology counteracts and minimizes unwanted road noise inside the cabin by using “anti-noise” through the vehicle’s audio system. RNC also creates the possibility to improve vehicle weight and handling without impacting interior noise levels, by leaving out redundant audio isolation materials. This improves the range of electricity-driven cars, therefore reducing the environmental impact.

Driven by innovation

Requiring a unique operating concept, with the option of switching the steering wheel from left to right for example, when autonomous driving is not desired, the Budii also features HARMAN’s next-generation scalable infotainment platform. Based on HTML5 and automotive-grade Linux, this platform provides the latest security technologies required to protect tomorrow's connected cars against hacking, by using a multi-layer security system as well as an internal Type 1 hypervisor. The platform features next-generation navigation, entertainment, driver assistance and service functions and also drives the instrument cluster which provides not only information such as the driving range of the electric vehicle but also features an autopilot mode for autonomous driving. Additionally, real-time sensor data in the vehicle is consolidated by the system, and communicated with the Aha Cloud Platform through an integrated Telematics Communication module to “future-proof” the vehicle with services that update the infotainment system and provide real-time analytics to extend system functionality. This enables high speed data streaming and the car-to-X communication which will be fundamental to autonomous driving. And last but not least, the infotainment system continuously learns the habits and preferences of its passengers to predict their actions – therefore becoming an intelligent machine butler that caters to every passenger’s wish, by knowing you better than yourself.

Interested visitors can experience all ground-breaking technologies shown in the Rinspeed Budii as well as all branded-audio innovations at the 2015 Geneva Motor Show, from March 3 to March 15 (March 3 and 4 are press-only days).

HARMAN at Geneva Motor Show 2015:

Visit HARMAN during the Geneva Motor Show 2015 at its joint booth 6240 with Rinspeed in hall 6 for a demonstration of HARMAN’s portfolio of infotainment and in-car audio solutions. Follow HARMAN online during the Geneva Motor Show 2015:

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