My father in law has hearing aids that are highly tunable to enhance various different sources of sound, such as conversation.
This made me think that racing drivers, who can afford pretty much anything they like, should take this technology seriously and stop stuffing their ears with bits of foam.
The major noise source aboard such a car is the engine exhaust of course, with the frequencies varying from say 2000 to 12000+ rpm.
The distribution of these bursts is pretty predictable, in that drivers drive for a while with smoothly varying frequency before a sharp step as a gear is changed.
Removing all engine noise would seriously impair vehicle control, so today’s invention is hearing aids for racing drivers which communicate wirelessly with the engine management system so that noise suppression can be applied to any high volume spikes over a wide range of frequencies.
The system would also allow broadband reduction of noise, for short periods, to enable conversations with the pit crew to occur.