Automotive megatrends and their impact on NVH

The ongoing transformation of individual mobility will decisively change future vehicles. The acronym CASE, created by Daimler in 2016, sums up four megatrends in one abbreviation: Connected, Autonomous, Shared and Electric. This paper is meant to discuss the resulting consequences regarding NVH. The strong impact on vehicle NVH requirements is evaluated and suggestions for a suitable sound design are made. Sharing the same vehicle by many users will reduce the importance of creating an individual brand specific sound, instead active sound design would allow tuning the interior noise to the preferences of the current user. Electrified vehicles, which feature a very quiet drivetrain, create new challenges for the NVH development in several ways: unpleasant, high frequency noise from the drivetrain, less masking of disturbing noise such as road and wind noises, basic questions concerning brand sound with the completely new sound character of the electric drivetrain. NVH requirements for autonomously operating vehicles will differ significantly from conventional vehicles. The situation of the user is similar to that of a “train passenger”. Comfort oriented NVH features will become more important, acoustic load response is expected to lose relevance.