The 2021 edition of SIA Automotive NVH Comfort conference, organized by SIA and CTTM, will take place on 13th and 14th October in Le Mans, France. In order to increase the international impact, the 2020 conference is organized in collaboration with CAERI State Key Laboratory of vehicle NVH and safety Technology, which is
one of the principal Chinese partners of SIA.

As all the previous editions, the 2021 NVH conference, will address a specific topic, which presents a major interest for the automotive NVH community. This time, we would like to address « Automotive noise, regulation and urban soundscape ».
With over 50% of mankind living in urban and suburban area, the question of noise exposure is leading to more and more stringent noise regulation, along with a need to adapt to the specific noise signature of new technologies for safety issues (AVAS for Electric vehicles). Those regulations are aiming for a progress in the quality of life, an improvement of health and safety and to protect the environment. It is therefore necessary for NVH automotive engineers to better understand the regulatory aspects of noise in the environment, and the reality and challenges of modern soundscapes to ensure that those goals are met.

The automotive acoustic community would like to address the following issues:

• What is the place of vehicle noise among the nuisance sources in urban area?
• What is the influence of the environment on transportation noise (road surface, green areas, vegetal green walls,…)?
• Is the actual noise regulation strategy appropriate to limit the real impact of vehicles to urban noise?

This particular edition will be therefore centered on citizen perception as a pedestrian exposed to traffic and vehicle charging noise, as a driver or a passenger in a car, and will cover the necessary technical challenges manufacturers are facing today:

Lightweight design, impact of new technologies and driver experiences, audio sound design and the necessary changes in methodology and approaches.

With autonomous vehicle on its way, the driving experience will dramatically change: how shall we design for NVH when everyone in the car will be a passenger, what are the right tradeoffs between driving comfort and NVH?

Moreover, this year we would like to create a special session concerning the vibrational drive comfort of vehicles and its interaction with the NVH.