Audi is currently trying to work out what its 2012 e-tron cars will sound like - and it sounds as if help will come from film star Will Smith.
It sounds odd, but because electric cars are near-silent at speeds of up to 15mph, so Audi's acousticians (there's a job that'd be a talking point at cocktail parties) are deciding just what noise its electric cars should make to alert pedestrians and other road users to their presence.
This is where Will Smith comes in, because his 2004 film I, Robot features the Audi RSQ concept car, and the noise that car makes in the film, we're told, may give an indication of how electric Audi models of the future may sound.
"The obvious approach would be to work on the basis of the familiar sound of a combustion engine," says Christian Schueller, Head of Brand Development/Corporate Identity (whatever that means) at Audi. "On the other hand, we want to underscore that an electric or hybrid Audi is an innovative product. We also want to make our Vorsprung durch Technik audible in the era of electric mobility."
Audi's sound chaps and chapesses are also said to be drawing inspiration from the sound of space travel from science fiction films. We suppose the only question is whether you want yout e-tron to sound Like the Enterprise or the Millennium Falcon...