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Tire Sound Quality is an increasingly important factor for customer satisfaction within the replacement tire market. Manufacturers who compete in this market must be capable of predicting a driver's perception of tire noise as early in the design process as possible in order to reduce development time and cost. Typical methods for tire noise evaluation each have limitations that require improvement. Subjective in-vehicle testing is generally an effective method for predicting driver perception, but it is vehicle specific, time consuming, and requires complete sets of tires for testing. Traditional single tire (component level) test methods measure overall tire noise levels, but do not always provide information relevant to a driver's perception of tire noise in a vehicle. Detailed noise path analysis techniques are cost prohibitive due to the amount of time and effort required to characterize each vehicle and the multitude of vehicles that exist.

The interior noise signature of passenger vehicles is a significant contributor to a customer's perception of quality. The vehicle acoustic package can be an important piece to the acoustic signature, and can be utilized not just to reduce the sound levels inside the vehicle but also to shape the sound such that it meets the expectations of the customer. For this reason the definition, design, and development of an acoustic package can be vital to meeting vehicle-level acoustic targets. In many situations this development is conducted experimentally, requiring the availability of prototype vehicles and acoustic package components. Of more value is the ability to develop components early in the design phase, leveraging analytical tools to define component-level requirements and targets to meet the vehicle-level targets, and ultimately meet the final customer expectations.