Underworld – the gents behind 2008’s ‘Ring Road’ single –  have collaborated with Volkswagen on a new app for drivers.  

The Play The Road app intuitively responds to the movements of the car, creating a soundscape that shifts in line with every subtle change in the vehicle’s movements. The app promises a fully immersive experience, whereby “every turn of the wheel, gearshift or location change, is reflected in the music”.

The way the app works is outlined below:

The innovative app reads how and where you drive, translating it into music live. The app gets speed and RPM data from the GTI’s on-board computer. The steering acceleration and location data is calculated from a combination of the accelerometer, gyroscope and GPS receiver present in the iPhone. All of the data collected is filtered and smoothed before use.

Karl Hyde has described his motivation for becoming involved in the project as follows:

“Driving and music are probably the most important things in my musical education: sitting in the back of my dad’s car at night. It was a filmscape to me, it was beautifully lit and the dashboard was magical, and radio Luxemburg or some pirate station was on the radio and that was everything to me. It’s still the root of why I love music. Being in a car surfing the radio, finding stuff that suits how you feel.”

Head here to watch the app in action. Hyde released his debut album Edgeland – a “radio friendly collection of acoustically driven pop songs”, as we had it – back in April. Earlier this month, DJ Koze announced he was working on a soundtrack for a play taking place in a moving car.