Ford has applied for a patent to use artificial engine noise to make its downsized EcoBoost units sound as though they have more cylinders.
The automaker believes the average driver tends to “shift up at a relatively high rev rate” since they perform gear-shifts “according to what they hear”.
“Motor vehicles with a reduced number of cylinders tend to be operated outside the efficient parameter ranges,” Ford Global Technologies said in a patent application entitled “Increasing the number of cylinders in an internal combustion engine in a virtual fashion”.
This tendency to shift late by ear, of course, counteracts one of the main objectives of downsizing, which is reduced fuel consumption.
But, the Blue Oval brand posits, adding fake engine noise will encourage drivers to shift up earlier (i.e. at lower revs), which will in turn improve efficiency.
The system essentially records the engine noise and plays it back at a specific point in the combustion cycle – between two directly successive ignition events – making the powerplant sound as though it has more cylinders.
