Listen to your own music with Hyundai and Kia’s SSZ technology

One of the best things to do when in a road trip with friends and/or family is listening to music. However, what if the designated DJ’s music doesn’t suit your taste? Such a drag, right? Just imagine the horror of riding with listeners of heavy metal music. Not that I hate the genre, but it isn’t really a great thing to listen to while suffering from a bad hangover.

In the situation above, you might resolve to just listening to your own music by wearing earphones or headphones. However, that will create a social barrier between you and the front occupants.

Hyundai Motor, along with its sister company Kia Motor, understands the importance of music taste and independent audio space, so they’ve come up with a solution to this problem – the Separate Sound Zone (SSZ) technology.

It’s the newest tech from the South Korean brands, and it aims to allow the passenger to “experience an audio stream tailored to their individual needs, including music, hands-free phone calls, and vehicle alerts.” Even better, it will remain headphone-free, which means the passengers will retain their social space wherein they can freely talk to each other.

Here’s how it works: SSZ technology controls the acoustic fields inside the car through the numerous speakers scattered inside, reducing or increasing the audio levels in each zone. To put it simply, SSZ employs the science of noise-cancelling headphones, without having the physical headphones themselves.

Music can be sourced via Bluetooth pairing and with that, hands-free calls can also be made by each passengers without going beyond the borders of privacy. Aside from that, the SSZ technology can isolate navigational alerts for the driver, away from the rear passengers. This is practical for those who have a sleeping person at the back seat.

If you’re excited with this new tech, you may have to wait a bit more as Hyundai plans to roll out the new system to Hyundai and Kia vehicles within a year or two.

Watch this video below to know how the Separate Sound Zone technology works: