Automotive Audio 2026 Papers CFP

As an integral part in the vehicle, the role of Automotive Audio has evolved dramatically over the last several decades – from a standard mono sound in one full-range loudspeaker to a true multichannel playback system fully integrated and adjusted to the specific car, from a “box” with loudspeakers to a mobile living room with hands-free communication capabilities, and from “one-size-fits-all” scenario to personalized and interactive experience. Today some of the most advanced sound technologies, both hardware and software, are being developed and applied in Automotive Audio.

Sound systems are not only used to playback music and speech in cars, but also used to generate sounds for active sound management and to design the sound of cars (i.e. the sound of the car itself due to its motion and thus generation of sound signatures).

Furthermore, the impact of streaming, ride-share, autonomy, Battery Electric Vehicle (BEV’s), ownership models, and emerging applications of Artificial Intelligence (AI) could all have profound effects on the way we think about sound in and around vehicles and use cases.

We are very pleased to invite researchers, industry experts, and practitioners to submit papers for the AES 2026 International Conference on Automotive Audio.

This year’s conference will have a theme of “Automotive Audio in the AI Era (Sounds of future cars)”.

The conference will give an overview of the present state-of-the-art in the exciting field of automotive audio and address many of the new scientific disciplines involved in this still-emerging field, such as AI/ML, hardware and system architecture, sound reproduction and tunning, active sound management, signal processing (DSP), sound evaluation and more.

Submitting Technical Papers

Authors may submit their works in one of two categories:

Category 1: Complete-manuscript peer-reviewed Full papers

Category 2: Extended-summary-reviewed Express Papers

Complete-manuscript peer-reviewed Full Papers (Category 1)

For complete-manuscript peer-reviewed papers (Category 1), authors are asked to submit a 250 word abstract and complete paper (recommended length 6-10 pages) by EOD Tuesday, March 17, 2026. These complete-manuscript papers will be reviewed by at least two experts in the field, and authors will be notified of acceptance by Monday, May 4, 2026. Final manuscripts with the revisions requested by the reviewers are required to be uploaded by Monday, June 22, 2026. 

For full papers exceeding 10 pages, if accepted, AES reserves the right to charge a fee of $25 for every page over 10.

Express Papers (Category 2)

For express papers (Category 2), authors are asked to submit an Abstract of 250 word and an Extended Summary of 500-1000 words to indicate their desire to present an express paper (recommended length 4-8 pages for the final manuscript) by EOD Tuesday, March 17, 2026. Submissions will be peer reviewed based on merit and interest to the AES community and to ensure that any presentations will not be of a commercial nature. Topics for express papers can be very wide-ranging, encompassing experimental, application-driven and/or early-stage research. Authors will be notified of acceptance by Monday, May 4, 2026.  If the work based on the extended summary is accepted and the author(s) agreed to provide a manuscript, the final manuscript must be uploaded by Monday, June 22, 2026.

For express papers exceeding 8 pages, if accepted, AES reserves the right to charge a fee of $25 for every page over 8.

Paper submission site:

Link to Peer Reviewed (Category 1)

Link to Express Paper (Category 2)

The conference program will include an oral presentation of accepted papers. Please note that full papers submitted under Category 1 may receive higher acceptance priority from the conference.

List of Topics

• Hardware and System Architecture
  • Audio system architecture and concepts
  • Amplifier technologies and concepts
  • Transducer technologies, applications, and concepts
    • Sensors
    • Microphones
    • Loudspeakers
  • Test/Measurement method and equipment
• Sound Reproduction in Cars
  • Sound field control
  • DSP algorithms (spectral/spatial)
  • Computer-aided tuning methods
  • Communication technologies
  • Immersive 3D and spatial audio
  • Virtual acoustics
    • Simulations
    • Auralization
    • Virtual and augmented reality
• Active Sound Management and Solutions
  • Active noise control system
    • Active noise control (ANC)
    • Road noise control (RNC)
    • Engine order cancellation (EOC)
    • HVAC noise control
  • Acoustic vehicle alerting systems (AVAS)
  • Vehicle sound design and synthesis (internal and external)
• Evaluation of Sound Quality and Speech intelligibility
  • Evaluation methods
    • Subjective
    • Objective
  • Loudness
  • Distortion
  • Standards
• ​​Machine learning and deep learning in automotive audio applications
  • Automatic speech recognition (ASR)
  • Voice activity detection and voice command application (interior & exterior)
  • Acoustic event detection and acoustic situation awareness (e.g., Siren detection and localization)
• New Technologies for Automotive Audio
  • Artificial intelligence (AI) in automotive audio
  • AI-Powered Audio Personalization
  • Seat-Centric Audio Zones
  • Advanced Connectivity & Cloud Integration
• Other Topics Related to Automotive Audio

Student Paper Award

To foster student engagement and interest in automotive audio, presenting authors who are AES student members and whose papers (Category 1 or Category 2) are accepted will be eligible for the Student Paper Award at the Automotive Audio 2026 Conference. Preference will be given to peer-reviewed Category 1 papers during the award selection process.

Committees

Papers Committee

• Yu (Dewey) Du, Harman International
• Samira Mohamady, Audi
• Hans Lahti, Harman Internaitonal

Organizing committee

• Roger Shively, Shively Acoustics
• Martin Kreissig, Sony
• Jayant Datta, Jayant Audio
• Steve Ernst, DSP Concepts
• Lars Carlsson
• Pat Dennis, Nissan of America

Invited Speakers

• Speaker 1
• Speaker 2
• Speaker 3

Publication

AA2026 - Workshops proceedings will be published in AES E-Library.

Venue

The conference will be held in Huntington Place, Detroit, Michigan, USA

Contact

All questions about submissions should be emailed to Papers-chairs. For further information about the conference, please visit the AES event page: 2026 AES 6th International Automotive Audio Conference - AES