Many drivers jokingly-or not so jokingly-have lamented the soundlessness of electric cars. Now Tesla has teamed up with Mutual Mobile, an app developer, to address the lament.
The electric car major and Mutual Mobile announced a new app designed to work on Tesla's Model S that will simulate the sound made by a variety of vehicles and aircraft: from a muscle car, to a fighter jet, and even a spaceship. The Tesla Gas Engine app uses Tesla's Touchscreen web browser for its interface and a couple of tools from the iPhone 6S for telemetry: the accelerometer and the GPS.
The app, says the developer, boasts high acoustic accuracy of the engine roar.
The app is a step further into the realm of the connected world and the internet of things. Commenting on the release of the app, Mutual Mobile chairman said that apps for cars are yet to blossom and will create whole new business models in the car-making industry. John Arrow added that third-party software developers are on their way to revolutionize cars "the same way they did for the smartphone," referring, of course, to the thousands of apps that have more or less become the main feature of smartphones.
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Mutual Mobile is a software developer focusing on virtual reality, the internet of things and other emerging digital tech.
Tesla sold 14,820 Model S's and Model X's in the first quarter of the year, a 45 percent increase on the first quarter of 2015. Although the figure was lower than the target of 16,000, Tesla was upbeat, attributing the discrepancy to lack of parts for the Model X, which hit markets last November. The company's average quarterly target for the rest of 2016 is 21,726 cars.
By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com
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