Something we learned in design schoolI believe it was taken straight from the pages of "The Design of Everyday Things"is that product designs, right before they go obsolete, start to mimic the objects that are replacing them. (We saw this confirmed in the '90s, as cordless landline phones began to look like cell phones.)Now, however, there's a weirdly opposite thing going on in the auto industry: Newly-anointed successor technologies mimicking the traits of the dinosaurs they're replacing. The latest case in point is Dodge's Fratzonic Chambered Exhaust system, a fancy name for a 600-watt amplifier powering speakers outside the car. Sound engineers carefully designed the sonics to make drivers of the Charger Daytona EV sound like they're burning petrol:Interesting that they decided to overlay that subtle whine you hear when Iron Man is flying through Manhattan.Dodge isn't the only brand in this game, of course; and you could argue that others are more creative, like Fiat, whose Abarth EV plays a guitar riff when you hit the accelerator. But it is interesting to see that within the muscle car category, the target market still needs to have that acoustic experience, false as it is, to be prompted to buy.