Hyundai announces active-noise cancelling feature

Hyundai has announced an industry-first technology that uses active noise cancellation to reduce the amount of road noise.

Known as Road Noise Active Noise Control (RANC), the system uses a microphone to pick up the sound of the air passing over the car and tyres. A signal processor then creates an inverted sound wave that is then fed through the stereo system to cancel out the ambient road and tyre noise.

The technology is an evolution of Hyundai's existing Active Noise Control(ANC) feature, however the current ANC tech is tuned towards addressing constant and predictable engine noise. The upgraded RANC works much faster, analyzing the sound and emitting the inverted soundwave in just 0.002 seconds -quick enough to negate road noise that takes around 0.009 seconds to reach the passenger. It also uses input from an acceleration sensor to further improve sound reduction performance.

After testing RANC with various road surfaces, vehicle speeds and seating positions, Hyundai achieved an in-cabin noise reduction of 3dB. The company says 3dB represents roughly half the noise level compared to vehicles without RANC.

Although the automaker is accurate in stating that a 3dB reduction cuts the sound energy in half, human perception of sound doesn’t follow the same scale, and a 3dB difference is the minimum change is sound intensity for someone to hear any difference. A drop of around 10 dB is required for vehicle occupants to perceive a 50-percent change in cabin noise.

Hyundai says its RANC tech is particularly promising for hybrid or all-electric vehicles that do not suffer from powertrain noise, creating a nearly silent cabin experience as they eliminate engine noise, one of the three sources of ambient noise (alongside wind noise and tyre noise) in traditional cars The technology will make its production debut in an upcoming Genesis offering.