Mercedes Forced Outside the Box in Search of the Next Big Thing
- Focus shifts from streamlining to finding technology partners
- Investments in automotive-related startups are taking off
A high tech dummy head for testing sound perception sits in an anechoic chamber at the Noveto Systems Ltd. office in Petach Tikva, Israel, on Tuesday, Feb. 14, 2017. The Sowlo system constantly tracks the user's position and dynamically focuses the audio beams to follow the user's ears, creating unique abilities to: Consume sound in a personal manner, avoid disturbing others & create a new dimension in 3D, directional sound interface, according to the Noveto website.
Photographer: Rina Castelnuovo/BloombergThe co-founder of Noveto Systems Ltd. had five minutes to impress some 1,000 auto executives, venture capitalists and fellow entrepreneurs with his startup’s novel audio system. At stake, a potential supply deal with Mercedes-Benz.
After a tentative beginning, Tomer Shani asked the crowd in Stuttgart, Germany, to “imagine a world without headphones and wires,” where speakers beam sound directly to a listener’s ears, imperceptible to others close by. He then invited everyone to test it first-hand in a Mercedes S-Class sedan in a corner of the exhibition hall.