Project Autobahn Lets Your Car Create Music Inspired By Kraftwerk

Hacker/inventor Tom Zimmerman created Project: Autobahn, a generative music system that creates music based on an automobile’s control sensors. 

Zimmerman participated in the Boing Boing Ingenuity: Data Driven hack day on August 17, 2013. His creation, Project: Autobahn, was awarded their “Weirdest Hack” prize.

Project: Autobahn uses OpenXC data as MIDI data to compose and play Kraftwerkian music that matches the driver’s behavior. As Zimmerman says in the video, the style of music the car generates could be used to provide feedback to the driver.

via Boing Boing Video

7 thoughts on “Project Autobahn Lets Your Car Create Music Inspired By Kraftwerk

  1. When I was a teen, my idea of wisely spending my saved up money, was getting myself a maxed out E-mu Emax 2 instead of a car and driver’s license. Now 20 years later after seeing this video, I see one good reason to maybe get my license after all!

    1. I guess you could say the same thing about almost everything that ever was – or ever will be – exhibited at any art gallery. But that’s not the point. It’s not about the usefulness of this specific project but rather about ideas. Maybe this work here is not overly practical – but maybe someone else gets inspired by the idea and therefore creates something that is useful. That’s how inspiration and creativity work 😉

      A little bit exaggerated, but if you evaluate art by its technical usefulness, you might as well say that music itself is decadent…

  2. don’t get me wrong…but nothing,,,nothing compares with the sexy sound of a big block V8 air fed with a 4 barrel carburetor….for me different worlds i do not want to mix

  3. evaluate art by its technical usefulness?
    Where I am from pretentious bollocks would sum up such shite. Like gold plated moogs ,
    some silly fuck midi’ing up a skateboard ramp.
    We can’t all lap up such irrelevant and indulgent nonsense.

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