Can cars play the drums?

Apparently, they can- with a little help from mathematics. Lexus' ad campaign "Music Track" wanted to convey the car's "precision handling" by driving over each beat of a drum so precisely, it created a tune.

In order to convey this kind of precision, they needed to hire a mathematician to develop a method for the car to perfectly hit each note. LMU math professor Bennett designed an equation to determine how far apart to place the sensors to conduct the "beat". Check out the behind the scenes action:



And watch the car play the drums in the finished product:



If you thought that was clever, check out the Subaru ad, Designing Mediocrity.