• Anechoic chambers are rooms that are sealed from the outside world and designed to prevent any echo from reverberating inside
• The automotive industry uses it to define the sounds made by a car and minimise noise
• A vehicle has more than one thousand components that make noise, from the engine to the windscreen wipers
• Acoustics have a direct impact on comfort and is a determining factor in the perception of quality

In Chile’s Atacama Desert, NASA carries out tests as it is comparable to the surface of Mars. In Ushuaia,Argentina, the only sounds you can hear are the flapping of penguins’ wings and the ice sheets cracking. They could be the most silent places on the planet, but not quite. The most quiet are anechoic chambers, a curious and descriptive name for a facility where acoustic conditions close to absolute silence are reproduced.

The SEAT Technical Centre in Martorell has one of these chambers, specifically designed to measure the sounds and noises made by a car with the utmost precision and without any interference. This is how it works.