It can be awkward to take a phone call while you’re driving and your family is in the car with you. If you’re listening to music it turns off and everyone has to stop and listen to whatever someone on the phone wants to tell you, according to ”cnn.com”.
Infiniti, Nissan’s luxury vehicle division, just revealed a feature in its new full-sized SUV that can allow everyone else in the vehicle to keep listening to whatever they want while the driver takes a phone call and no headphones are needed. Only the driver can hear the call and the person on the other end of the call can’t hear the music playing in the SUV.
It’s the latest trick in the increasingly competitive world of luxury car sound systems. These days, there’s almost no luxury car company that doesn’t play up its high-end audio system with brands like Burmeister in Mercedes-Benz, McIntosh in the opulent Jeep Grand Wagoneer SUV and Bang & Olufson in Bentley and Genesis cars, among others. For Klipsch, famous for its top-end hand-made speakers, this is only the brand’s second appearance in a vehicle. The $87,000 Ram Tungsten luxury pickup has a Klipsch stereo as standard equipment but even it doesn’t have the Infiniti’s high-tech sound isolation system.
The system in the QX80, developed by Infiniti along with Panasonic Automotive and Klipsch, works through a combination of clever speaker placement and sound canceling technology. The driver and front passenger seat both have speakers mounted in the headrest. That’s not a new idea, but headrest speakers are usually found in convertibles where music, phone calls and navigation instructions have to overcome buffeting wind noise. They’re not usually found in large, quiet luxury vehicles like the Infiniti QX80.
Instead of just relying on microphones to pick up sounds from the air, the optional Klipsch stereo in the 2025 QX80 reads the digital music track that’s being played – as it does to play it, anyway – and can use that to create offsetting sound waves from speakers around the driver’s seat. That creates a quiet bubble around the driver so a phone call or navigation prompts coming through the headrest speakers can be heard only by the driver while others in the vehicle can listen to music at full volume. Meanwhile, the person on the other end of the phone call won’t hear the music at all. For them, it will be just like talking to someone in a quiet room.
The redesigned QX80 won’t go on sale until next year.
The call-masking feature only works if music is playing on the stereo. If there’s no music playing other people in the SUV will still have to listen to your call but it will be quieter than in most other vehicles.
And, regardless, everyone will still have to listen to the driver talking. But, if your call involves anything embarrassing, you can just make sure to always just answer “Yes” and “No” to everything. Your secrets will be safe.
Read the full art. on ”cnn.com”.
Related:
– Video – The All-New INFINITI QX80 | Artistry in Motion | Episode 3 – Content is hosted by a third party – youtube.com/infiniti (viewing time 2:10)
– Sistemul stereo al unui SUV japonez îi permite șoferului să vorbească la telefon fără să audă și pasagerii conversația, iar muzica să continue – ”economedia.ro”