Unfortunately, the suspension’s weight and cost rendered it unsuitable for production
https://www.carscoops.com/author/bradcarscoops-com/
by Brad Anderson
January 19, 2025 at 17:40
- Bose used its speaker expertise to create a suspension system that eliminated body movement.
- A skunkworks team spent 24 years developing the system but it never reached production.
- Bose kept Project Sound so secret that even its accounting department wasn’t informed.
A couple of weeks ago, BYD’s YangWang brand released a video showing its all-electric U9 supercar hopping over a large pothole, a patch of multicolored dust, and a cluster of spikes, thanks to its trick active suspension system. It’s a feature we’ve never seen on a production vehicle before, but the technology isn’t new.
In fact, 20 years ago, Bose, the same company best known for noise-canceling headphones and high-end speakers, unveiled an advanced electromagnetic system that could do the exact same thing.
Between 1980 and 2004, Bose quietly developed a suspension system that it hoped would revolutionize luxury vehicles. The effort was a passion project of company founder Amar Bose and known as ‘Project Sound’. It was a skunkworks project so secret, that it was hidden from the Bose accounting department. How did Bose’s speaker expertise help it craft a suspension system just as trick as what BYD has created?
More: See BYD’s Yangwang U9 Jump Road Spikes (And The Shark)
Well, Bose used some of the similar tech found in its speakers. It purchased two Lexus LS models and equipped one of them with advanced electromagnetic motors driven by electric power amplifiers and switches. This system could adapt the suspension to specific road conditions and smooth out every single bump and imperfection on the road.
A technical demonstration from 2004 revealed to the world just how advanced the system was. Whereas the regular Lexus LS would roll heavily during cornering, the LS with the Bose suspension remained completely flat. It worked particularly well over undulations, and even as the vehicle’s wheels were rocked violently, the car’s body could remain perfectly stable.
And yes, in a demonstration that feels oddly prescient given BYD’s recent theatrics, the Bose-equipped Lexus could literally jump over small obstacles. It’s a neat feature, even though it has little practical use in the real world.
Even though the tech was undeniably impressive, it had a fatal flaw: practicality. Unfortunately, the system was both heavy and wildly expensive, making it unsuitable for production cars. Ultimately, Bose had to shelve the project and pivot. Instead of suspending cars, they adapted the technology to create the Bose Ride, an active suspension seat for commercial truck drivers—probably less exciting than a jumping sedan, but arguably more useful.
So, while watching the YangWang jumping over a pothole and driving on three wheels with its Disus X suspension, remember that BYD wasn’t the first company to create such a system.