AM Radio For All Vehicles Legislation Reintroduced (agweek.com) 269
A bipartisan group of legislators has reintroduced the AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act of 2025, aiming to mandate AM radio in all new vehicles at no additional cost. Adweek reports: The AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act was first introduced in May 2023. It continued to take on new co-sponsors through the fall of 2024. It was reintroduced as the AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act of 2025 with 62 cosponsors. Upper Midwest senators showing support for the bill include Sens. John Hoeven and Kevin Cramer R-North Dakota, and Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith, DFL- Minnesota.
If enacted, the bill would require the Department of Transportation to issue a rule requiring new vehicles to maintain access to broadcast AM radio at no additional cost to the consumer and provide small vehicle manufacturers at least four years after the date DOT issues the rule to comply. The act also requires automakers to inform consumers, during the period before the rule takes effect, that the vehicles do not maintain access to broadcast AM radio. "With 82 million Americans tuning in each month, AM radio delivers more than just emergency alerts," says the National Association of Broadcasters in a news release. "It connects communities through hyper-local content, including news, weather and diverse cultural programming," according to a news release from the National Association of Broadcasters."
If enacted, the bill would require the Department of Transportation to issue a rule requiring new vehicles to maintain access to broadcast AM radio at no additional cost to the consumer and provide small vehicle manufacturers at least four years after the date DOT issues the rule to comply. The act also requires automakers to inform consumers, during the period before the rule takes effect, that the vehicles do not maintain access to broadcast AM radio. "With 82 million Americans tuning in each month, AM radio delivers more than just emergency alerts," says the National Association of Broadcasters in a news release. "It connects communities through hyper-local content, including news, weather and diverse cultural programming," according to a news release from the National Association of Broadcasters."
The year is 3099- (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
As radio signals are extremely weak at the receiver, and AM is based on changes in amplitude (not frequency), electric motors - which only put out tiny amounts of EMF, but tend to do so at given frequency bands for a given motor speed - can add annoying buzzes to it.
It's not impossible to overcome - further shielding helps, as do digital broadcasts - but most EV and hybrid manufacturers see no point to trying to keep alive a dinosaur tech that's not that popular. Most AM stations and popular shows stream o
Re:The year is 3099- (Score:5, Informative)
so it's easier and vastly higher quality to just add streaming to the cars.
AM and FM radio is free to listen. Is streaming free? Does it work in the same areas that AM radio works in?
Re: (Score:2)
It's free but I haven't listened in years. Nothing but song rotations that haven't changed in 30 years and commercials for ambulance chaser lawyers.
Re:The year is 3099- (Score:5, Insightful)
> If you care about having AM radio in your car, buy one for $20 and plug it into the 12V outlet.
It would cost less than $20 to keep AM radio in the car that already costs tens of thousands of dollars.
A better analogy would be home builders arguing that they shouldn't have to pay a few hundred dollars to the municipal water provider for a service connection when the new home owner can just dig their own well if they want water despite already paying tens or hundreds of thousands for the house.
If you'll allow me some conspiratorial thinking; Perhaps the real motive here is to gradually reduce your options for broadcast media to push people into subscription services like SiriusXM.
=Smidge=
Re:The year is 3099- (Score:5, Insightful)
In contrast, car purchasers on the whole simply don't care about AM radio, as evidenced by the fact that purchasing preferences alone aren't enough to keep the feature alive.
Or, they are not given the option of getting exactly the same car, but with AM radio. Kind-of like cellphone manufacturers removing headphone jacks. It's not like you can go to a store and buy a cellphone without the headphone jack or with one, but $10 more expensive. It's usually either a cellphone without headphone jack or a completely different cellphone with one (different manufacturer, different features etc).
Re:The year is 3099- (Score:4, Insightful)
Or, they are not given the option of getting exactly the same car, but with AM radio.
THIS! Furthermore, the weakness of the analogies defending the removal of AM radio should be a strong indicator that it makes no sense.
If adding an AM radio to the car costs $1 but only 1 in 100 buyers would ever actually use it, you're spending $100 to save one person $20.
GP here is burring himself, IMO. TFS even notes there's over 82 million AM listeners tuning in per month.
Population of USA: 334.9 million
AM listeners: ~82 million
That's approximately 1 in 4 users that actually use AM!!! Using their same logic, if it costs $1, and 1 in 4 buyers use it, then they're spending $4 to save one person $20, AND THAT MAKES PERFECT SENSE! Hell, they put seat warmers in ALL the Tesla's, even if you don't pay to enable it, and I'd be willing to wager fewer than 1 in 4 pay for the seat warmer.
Re:The year is 3099- (Score:5, Insightful)
In the most dire situation emergency broadcasts would probably be in AM and FM, and that's the main reason for keeping both in cars. If there is a power grid failure the car might be the only authonomous receiver left, especially since most smartphones disabled the FM recever capabilities, to do away with the requirement of wired headphones used as antennas.
Re: (Score:2, Flamebait)
I've heard this argument before but it's a good argument for a radio-based national emergency alert system to be built into cars, not an argument for a regular AM radio to be built into cars.
If I'm not tuned into a participating AM station when this "emergency broadcast" goes out, and/or the radio is off, I'm not going to get it. I would imagine this covers the vast majority of car users.
If it's not an alert, if it's just emergency information, then why cars? "Well, if they're waiting on news about a tornad
Re: (Score:2)
Re:The year is 3099- (Score:5, Informative)
I have no need for an AM radio in my car
Like everything, you have no use for it until you do. Then suddenly you do, for example when you're somewhere where you can't get a signal and there's an emergency situation. You know those floods in Western North Carolina? As it was in the mountains, you would have needed an AM radio to get important updates. Cell tower infrastructure was destroyed in areas where it was even available in the first place. People went weeks without cell service. FM service often doesn't work in the first place in a lot of areas. Cable TV lines and power lines had been severed. Meanwhile, AM worked.
Re:The year is 3099- (Score:4, Informative)
You (and many others) are making a great case for the usefulness of AM radio, which is why I have a hand crank radio in my glove compartment despite my car still being outfitted with AM/FM.
You are not making a good case for the government demanding AM radio be built specifically into cars. If the goal is to ensure as many people as possible in as many scenarios as possible are equipped with AM radios in case of emergency, why not demand, for example, that all cell phones must be able to receive and play AM broadcasts as well? I'm well aware that's its own debate, but my point is that if any industry is going to be saddled with being responsible for everyone's emergency preparedness, I don't understand why they're targeting the automotive industry in particular except for the historical precedent of cars having radios built into them. If it was really a matter of practicality and/or public safety, the government should be expected to subsidize that cost, and it was simply a convenient coincidence that they didn't have to because cars already had radios in them; now, gradually, this is starting to change, and so this legislation comes across as more of a tantrum in response to the (still very distant) end of that free ride.
As a taxpayer, I'm all for public safety initiatives, but the NHTSA governs vehicle safety standards. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't believe the inclusion of an AM radio is a matter of vehicular safety.
Re:The year is 3099- (Score:5, Informative)
It's not impossible to overcome - further shielding helps, as do digital broadcasts - but most EV and hybrid manufacturers see no point to trying to keep alive a dinosaur tech that's not that popular. Most AM stations and popular shows stream online anyway, so it's easier and vastly higher quality to just add streaming to the cars.
Right, and by removing the AM radio from vehicles the automakers can be "sloppy" with their shielding of electronics and get new car buyers to sign up for some kind of subscription service to make up for it, and get a cut of the service fee as a result of course. They can go cheaper on the manufacturing, add fees for subscriptions or a special order on an AM radio add-on, to make money on both ends of the deal.
If people want higher quality audio then they can still get cellular or satellite service in their vehicles. If they have an EV with improper shielding then they can't even bring a portable AM radio in the EV and expect reliable reception. Part of the AM radio requirement will force the EV makers to put in the effort on proper shielding so their own AM radio works, and it has the side benefit of minimizing interference to adjacent vehicles.
Another side benefit is this will mean less interference with 2-way radios like CB, ham, GMRS, and business/emergency bands should people want a 2-way radio for emergency communications or as part of their job.
Re: (Score:2)
Part of the AM radio requirement will force the EV makers to put in the effort on proper shielding so their own AM radio works, and it has the side benefit of minimizing interference to adjacent vehicles.
Exactly!
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
It's not impossible to overcome - further shielding helps, as do digital broadcasts - but most EV and hybrid manufacturers see no point to trying to keep alive a dinosaur tech that's not that popular. Most AM stations and popular shows stream online anyway, so it's easier and vastly higher quality to just add streaming to the cars.
Right, and by removing the AM radio from vehicles the automakers can be "sloppy" with their shielding of electronics and get new car buyers to sign up for some kind of subscription service to make up for it, and get a cut of the service fee as a result of course. They can go cheaper on the manufacturing, add fees for subscriptions or a special order on an AM radio add-on, to make money on both ends of the deal.
If people want higher quality audio then they can still get cellular or satellite service in their vehicles. If they have an EV with improper shielding then they can't even bring a portable AM radio in the EV and expect reliable reception. Part of the AM radio requirement will force the EV makers to put in the effort on proper shielding so their own AM radio works, and it has the side benefit of minimizing interference to adjacent vehicles.
Another side benefit is this will mean less interference with 2-way radios like CB, ham, GMRS, and business/emergency bands should people want a 2-way radio for emergency communications or as part of their job.
Your points in support of this law are primarily regarding its side benefits. If you want to see EVs being less sloppy in their shielding, pass a law that mandates it. Otherwise you run the risk that manufacturers cynically comply with the requirement: the AM radio feature gets buried 4 menu layers deep, and shielding is improved the minimum amount required to barely pick up a strong signal.
Not sure why your post was downmodded. I don't really agree with you but it's a reasonable comment.
Re: (Score:2)
Nobody is looking to reduce shielding. It's a question of whether you want to haul around a bunch of extra mass pointlessly beyond the motor casing.
The amount of EMF involved is truly tiny. It's only relevant because the power of received AM radio signals is also truly tiny, and the motor EMF is being created right near the receiver and at frequencies that are bad for a given AM radio signal.
This isn't something that affects anything other than AM radio. AM radio (and non-radio AM broadcasting) has a rea
Re: (Score:3)
The EMF from spark plugs is still significantly higher than from EV motors.
As has been mentioned several times, it's not the amount of EMF from EV (inverters in) motors, but rather, the frequency distribution. Spark gaps are very broad spectrum EMF. Inverter EMF is much more concentrated in a spectrum that messes with AM, and can be focused into specific bands that may overlap AM radio stations.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
A different problem is here in Europe there are hardly any AM stations left to listen to, mostly are a local 'hobby' project with only 50 to 100 Watts output.
Re:The year is 3099- (Score:5, Informative)
As an owner of an EV who, on longer drives, will listen to AM radio for traffic updates, I ask you "What the fuck are you talking about?" Hell the station I listen to has both AM and FM simulcast and the AM version comes in clearer than the FM as long as I'm not under a bridge.
EV inverter switching frequency tops out at 10KHz [eomys.com]. AM radio broadcasts are all above 500KHz [gsu.edu]. There is no issue here and anyone who is saying it's so bad they want to abandon AM radios in electric vehicles is flat out lying.
Maybe you're thinking of brushed motors where the commutator sparks and generated broad spectrum EMF? That's a real thing, but not applicable to EVs.
=Smidge=
Re: (Score:3)
The waveform sent to the motor by the inverter isn't generated continuously. It's comprised of IGBTs or MOSFETs firing brief pulses. SiC MOSFETs switch at hundreds of kHz, and there's harmonic side bands.
Re: (Score:2)
> SiC MOSFETs switch at hundreds of kHz
No, they switch at 10KHz or less. If you're talking about the effective AC frequency in the motor coils, you're talking maybe 400Hz tops.
=Smidge=
Re: (Score:2)
It's IGBTs that are in the 10-20kHz range. SiC MOSFETs commonly switch at 100-200kHz.
Re: (Score:3)
No, I'm thinking of SiC.
Even though SiC is capable of switching faster, that does not mean they are used that way. EV inverters only operate at 10KHz regardless of what the hardware is capable of. See source linked in my original reply.
The reasons SiC has become the popular choice have nothing to do with switching speed;
- Lower switching losses
- Lower conduction losses
- Better thermal conduction and higher heat tolerance
- Higher breakdown voltage
All of these advantages allow for higher power inverters in sm
Re: (Score:3)
Your link is from 2021, and its data was dated for even then. Note the "?" next to the Tesla Model 3 (their info on the Y is wrong, it uses the same powertrain as the 3)? The Model 3 was the first mass-produced EV to use SiC MOSFETs rather than IGBTs (released low volume in mid 2017, scaleup through 2020); it took several years for other manufacturers to start switching over. Nowadays SiC MOSFETs dominate. IGBTs switch at 10-20kHz, SiC MOSFETs at hundreds of kHz [emobility-...eering.com].
Ref: [researchgate.net]
Re: (Score:3)
Uh, no, for efficiency, SiC switches around 500-600KHz. You're thinking regular silicon.
Re: (Score:2)
They use low power translators for FM with shit coverage.
Narrow band FM in the AM band at the same power would be superior. AM modulation is terrible, even though AM radio as a package is superior.
Re:The year is 3099- (Score:4, Informative)
EV inverter switching frequency tops out at 10KHz. AM radio broadcasts are all above 500KHz.
Yeah that's the switching though, but the edges are a fair bit sharper. Plus over here AM goes all the way down to 150kHz. It's surprising how badly power switching can piss harmonics all over the spectrum.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
It's not impossible to overcome - further shielding helps, as do digital broadcasts - but most EV and hybrid manufacturers see no point to trying to keep alive a dinosaur tech that's not that popular. Most AM stations and popular shows stream online anyway, so it's easier and vastly higher quality to just add streaming to the cars.
I live in a rural area. FM and HDTV doesn't work very well here in the mountains and cell service is often completely unavailable. The TV tower that isn't far from where I live can't provide a picture to my house because a mountain blocks it, even though the tower is located on the highest nearby peak. Cell service cuts out all over the place and there are vast areas without cell towers. The costs involved in setting up and operating an FM transmitter or cell tower are also greater than they are for an AM t
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Re: The year is 3099- (Score:2)
If whatever your doing is wiping out the AM band then it is no longer FCC compliant for either computing devices, part 15, industrial unintentional radiators you name it it's not legal RF and it's going to be interfering with a host of other radio services and devices that are not readily apparent from Grandma's electric organ to garage doors.
Not to mention those nearby who actually want to listen to AM radio. There are stations that carry ESPN/Sports which is still very popular.
Re: (Score:2)
All of this is true but there are ways to improve it. The US's HD Radio non-standard (similar to the EU's DRM but without the name that's scary to FOSS people and different because America) places a digital overlay over each AM station that provides a relatively high quality digital version of the same channel, which wouldn't be affected by the car's electronics. Maybe rather than spending a lot of money on shielding, they should just throw in an HD Radio receiver in each car. They'd probably be doing it wi
Re: (Score:2)
- millenia old US Senators introduces legislation to mandate car roads and highways be maintained across the US at all times, despite teleportation having been perfected centuries ago. Reached for comment the lead Senator of the legislation stated "danged whippersnapper!" and then proceeded to temporarily die from their 123rd recorded heart attack before being revived by their robot assistant.
Yes, you're absolutely right. Advanced tech infrastructure never suffers long-term outages, or fails or falls victim to sabotage. Critical communications and other services never require primitive-but-more-resilient fallbacks.
Now imagine for a moment that you're in some vaguely post-apocalyptic scenario. Would you rather be trying to jury-rig communications via an FM transmitter, rather than an AM transmitter which could be as basic as On Off Keying? And would you rather be using tech whose frequency allows
Re: The year is 3099- (Score:2)
Re:The year is 3099- (Score:5, Funny)
in 3099 slashdot still won't support unicode.
AM (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Maybe in the US it is, but not here.
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:3)
I don't know about the US, but in Iceland, if your phone is in an area where a hazard is known to exist, you get an automatic call alerting you.
It's kinda important here as we're sort of natural-disaster central. The sort of place where extra bridge segments are kept pre-stocked to make it faster to rebuild after bridges get destroyed.
Re:AM (Score:5, Insightful)
An AM radio transmitter can cover a very large area. Cell phone transmitters do not cover a large area. In the case of a disaster you cannot be sure that the cell towers are operational.
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
After a big wind storm knocked out power for most of the area, as well as phone and cable lines for many, the cellular network was flooded. Sure, the weather alerts could go out but there was not enough bandwidth on the cellular networks for streaming anything. Phone calls on cell phones regularly failed, as did MMS. The only thing close to reliable was plain old text by SMS.
Over-the-air broadcasts by AM, FM, and TV still worked and served well enough to get news and entertainment. Well, assuming you ha
Re: (Score:3)
Re: AM (Score:2)
Does it have to be an integrated AM radio though? If emergency broadcast in the most dire situations is a concern can't you just mandate a crank charge AM radio kit under a passenger seat or something? This just feels very heavy handed.
Re: (Score:2)
Integrated AM radio would likely be cheaper than a separate one. I mean they can probably use the same chip for AM and FM.
Re: (Score:2)
When it works, sure. However, during a disaster stuff gets damaged, there are power outages etc. Cell towers may stop working. However, an AM transmitter covers a very large area, so one further away from the disaster can still reach the disaster area.
Re: (Score:2)
I don't even understand how AM is supposed to work at all. What are the odds that you're going to be listening to AM radio when a disaster strikes? Pretty dang low. But everyone in the risk area gets immediate cell alerts. If a glacial outburst flood has started upstream of you, you need to know now, not whenever you next turn into some AM talk radio programme (if ever).
Our remote cell towers don't rely on the grid. Grid connecting them would be nonsensically expensive.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Yes, but how do you even know that a disaster is going on that could affect you? I mean, some types of disasters are obvious, but others very much are not. If a coal tailings pond burst upstream from you, exactly how are you supposed to know until the wave arrives?
Re: (Score:2)
When it works, sure. However, during a disaster stuff gets damaged, there are power outages etc. Cell towers may stop working. However, an AM transmitter covers a very large area, so one further away from the disaster can still reach the disaster area.
Then this whole situation does not apply very well since you just stop driving and you get signal back because the interference went away. Anyone that drives in the rural areas knows, especially for older vehicles, that the alternator can often be a problem when listening to AM, and you get that last bit of reception by turning the vehicle off.
This applies to cell phones also, you lose the last bit of range when you charge them so you need to unplug/remove to get reception.
Re: (Score:2)
Then this whole situation does not apply very well since you just stop driving and you get signal back because the interference went away.
But the car has to have an AM radio receiver for that. It's not like you can just replace the radio in modern cars (like it is possible in old cars).
Re: (Score:2)
Divide population and land by unit area. It's density that matters, not total. If you have a higher population, then you correspondingly have a higher tax base and a higher workforce. You have to cancel out terms to make a reasonable comparison. How many people per square kilometer of infrastructure? How many workers are needed to build and maintain it to serve each 1k of population?
Iceland is one of the least densely populated countries on Earth - and extremely rugged to boot. We have a much greate
Re: (Score:3)
If a radio is a piece of safety equipment then it needs to be a FM radio with Radio Data System (RDS) so you can get an alert regardless of what you are otherwise listening to. AM does not factor in whatsoever.
Though I guess they could also include a Digital Radio Mondiale tuner and maliciously comply as it would technically be an AM radio, just digital not analogue.
Re: (Score:2)
That you mentioned Digital Radio Mondiale at all implies that you are from Europe. And on the AM band? EV motor interference would just be worse with a digital mode.
Tell me, have you ever driven 100+ miles straight (I'll be nice and say 150+ km) on a highway in the middle of nowhere? FM is line-of-sight and has a range of about 35-40 miles (what's that, 50-60km?) which barely gets out of a big city. In west Texas, that's like going down the street. Out on Interstate-10 you're lucky to get one FM station at
Re: (Score:2)
If a radio is a piece of safety equipment then it needs to be a FM radio with Radio Data System (RDS) so you can get an alert regardless of what you are otherwise listening to.
You are off your nut. In an emergency the radio station can simply stop the song and read you the information.
Easy (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Provide a battery-powered AM radio in with the jack and air compressor, for your emergency.
Include a powered USB plug and USB-C power/audio out capability and you have all the functionality required; except now all those AM radio station owners would lose their audience who listens while driving. Of course, the big ones, like iHeartRadio, are streaming already.
If the are worried about the EBS, a better system would be to mandate all cell phones include an operational AM receiver, since that doesn't tie you to your car and would provide AM notification if cell service is unavailable..
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Even better, a coil of wire, a long antenna, a germanium diode, and an earphone.
America (Score:5, Interesting)
...where charging standard compliance is voluntary, but including an AM radio is legally mandated.
Ironically, my brother just experienced his first time attempting to road trip in an EV (the company he works for has him use a rental vehicle when he's scheduled to make longer trips within the state) and it was a miserable experience. It was last week when Florida was having that unusually cold weather that he'd texted me and asked why the Mustang Mach-E he'd just picked up had burned up 20% of its charge driving just from the rental place to his home. Being something of the EV guru in the family, I explained to him that if he was running the heat (which he was), that'd chew through the battery faster than Trump with a hamberder. He also asked me how to recharge it and I told him that since it's not a Tesla, his two options are either borrowing my NACS to CCS1 adapter and using Tesla's Superchargers, or just using Google maps to search for CCS EV fast chargers along his route and hoping they're not broken. Of course, I also threw in that charging on-the-go isn't something I frequently have to deal with since I have charging at home.
He arrived at his hotel in Tampa with about 18% battery remaining and it turned out the hotel only had Tesla destination chargers, which requires an entirely different sort of NACS adapter (NACS to J1772) than the one I'd loaned him. Oops. I text him back and tell him to go to a nearby Supercharger where the adapter I loaned him actually would do him some good, where unfortunately he then discovers that there's something wrong with the car itself regarding its ability to DC fast charge. Still unwilling to throw in the towel, he then tries an Electrify America charger with the same result of the car failing to charge. Defeated, he returns to the hotel with a nearly-dead EV and ends up calling the rental company in the morning to swap the car out for one that runs on gas.
All his strife could've been avoided if we'd standardized on charging standards years ago. But yeah, including AM radios is truly something we need to make sure the automotive industry gets right. /s
Re: America (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
It's sad that charging infrastructure in the US is so bad. The market has failed to deliver, yet again. So instead of legislating to fix that, you get AM radios. In fact Trump has withdrawn what little help there was to improve public charging.
Re:America (Score:4, Informative)
Welcome to the USA. Where the government doing anything at all is considered bad. This message brought to you by the people employed by the government with an (R) in front of their name.
What happens with a lot of public chargers is a company makes a deal with say a hotel to install them for a cut of the profit. They get installed and the company is responsible for maintenance. So if and when they break the hotel can't do anything but report it to the company. That and all these companies make you install their shitty payment app. God forbid you swipe a credit card like a gas pump.
Re:America (Score:5, Insightful)
All his strife could've been avoided if we'd standardized on charging standards years ago. But yeah, including AM radios is truly something we need to make sure the automotive industry gets right. /s
To be fair, that's incorrect. All his strife could've been avoided if he hadn't been given a defective rental car. All a single standard would have done is revealed the car was broken sooner.
AM radio is a standard that is being removed so the manufacturers can shave a buck. You know you can get a portable AM radio for peanuts, so it's not a lot of money here. And most radios these days are software-defined is my understanding. This is really more about removing AM, then FM, so the partnerships with satellite radio subscription companies becomes the only choice.
My local news station is AM. It's not political or religious... it's just local news & weather and talk about local issues. So I listen to it in the car. For music, sure, I've got modern goodies. But sometimes I'm interested in actually knowing what's going on.
Re: (Score:2)
"And most radios these days are software-defined is my understanding"
Software only gets you so far. At the lowest level you still need physical hardware that can actually pick up frequencies that low.
Not only America (Score:2)
Even here in the UK - tiny size wise compared to the USA - plenty of EV users still get range anxiety because of the piss poor charging infrastructure that even if it is installed might either be so busy you have to queue for an hour or more first , or its broken, or it requires some damn app which you have to sign up for.
That hasn't stopped politicians mandating the end of ICE car sales by 2030 (hybrids by 2035). Meanwhile the same dimwits didn't bother to mandate EV charging installations on major routes
Re: (Score:2)
Mach E is a worst case. It's the new Leaf. One of my coworkers got one and even just in our temperatures at the time (which never dipped below the forties even for a second) his range was cut in half. There is something tragically wrong with the battery in that vehicle and Ford won't admit it, because they would be harangued into a recall.
Re: (Score:2)
It was last week when Florida was having that unusually cold weather that he'd texted me and asked why the Mustang Mach-E he'd just picked up had burned up 20%I of its charge driving just from the rental place to his home. Being something of the EV guru in the family, I explained to him that if he was running the heat (which he was), that'd chew through the battery faster than Trump with a hamberder.
If that is the case then the Mach-E has a particularly inefficient climate control system. Last night I drove from Boston, where temperature was in the mid teens, to rural Maine, where it was 5F, for a distance of ~180mi. I ran the heat the whole time at 72 (and this was an actual 72, not the car-managed "eco" heat mode). The drive train consumed 53kWh and climate control 6kWh, so a little more than 10%. However, regenerative braking recovered 7kWh, so more than climate control consumed. I stopped about
What a terrible idea (Score:2, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
And besides, who really listens to radio any more (AM or FM) with all the streaming services available now?
Why would I want to drive around with a long internet cable plugged into my car. My wifi does not go very far.
It's radio or a tape for me.
Re: (Score:2)
If the auto manufacturers want to kill AM, they'll do it and tell consumers to shove it. Especially since the current overlap between AM radio listeners and EV drivers is probably not that large.
Re: (Score:2)
So effectively, you believe that if AM radio is removed, the price of the car will go down?
Hahahaha... no.
If you need legislation to require it, it means, plain and simple, that the demand isn't there.
I wanted a base model with an optional heated steering wheel. Well, they don't allow you to just swap the steering wheel to add that feature, or even order a comfort package. The only option was to go up to the ultra-luxury edition of the whole car which was $8,000 more than the base model. Screw that. I settled for the base model and invested in some nice driving gloves.
Standard market demand does
Re: (Score:2)
If they are honest in saying that 82 million Americans tune into AM radio each month, the market would speak for itself, and those consumers wouldn't buy a vehicle unless there was an AM radio in it, without requiring legislation. If you need legislation to require it, it means, plain and simple, that the demand isn't there.
That's not true. First of all, a manufacturer won't know that a buyer has gone with a different manufacturer because of the lack of AM radio. It's one of thousands of features in a car and the feedback will never make it where it needs to go.
Secondly, because it's a relatively minor feature, many people will accept a car without AM because it has so many other things they do want. Doesn't mean the consumer is happy. Doesn't mean the consumer doesn't want AM. Just means that the $50,000 purchase they'
Re: (Score:2)
Privatize the profits and socialize the losses. Same old story.
Re: (Score:2)
Re:What a terrible idea (Score:4, Insightful)
Sigh. (Score:2)
Meanwhile... in the rest of 2025... the world moved on and all-but killed off AM and FM already.
Re: (Score:2)
I am not sure that is better.
Quite a few countries say they only want to pay for two modes of transmission for public stations. If they count internet streaming, that only leaves space for digital radio.
And digital radio just does not have enough coverage for driving.
8-track is going to be popular again! (Score:2)
Can't wait for Kayne or Taylor Swiffer releasing their stuff on 8-track cassettes again!
Ya, but ... no PM radio? (Score:2)
AM Radio For All Vehicles Legislation
What about for the afternoons and evenings?
Better idea (Score:2)
Require satellite radio to be an additional cost, with absolutely zero presence in the vehicle's infotainment system if a person chooses not to have it or if they cancel their service.
AM Radio Really Isn't the Issue (Score:5, Insightful)
It's pollution, this time of the electromagnetic spectrum.
EV manufacturers want to get away with the equivalent of dumping their toxics in the river, although in this case it is failing to contain the racket that their EV's electric motors make in the electromagnetic spectrum. There is more than just AM radio at stake, although that is enough. You see a sign to tune to 1690 for important highway information, what do you do then? You can't even bring a portable AM radio to hear it because your EV's motors are making so much noise your AM radio receiver only hears static.
But there is radio communications in the shortwave band, just a few megahertz higher in the spectrum than AM radio, that also gets blocked. Ham radio is there. Mostly that is a hobby, but during some exceptional times of adversity, messages can be passed in no other way. Getting a list of wildfire victims across the mountains to Red Cross headquarters for an event can sometimes have no other means. Such communications requires no other infrastructure, such as cell towers that get burned to the ground in the wildfire. Hams can just string a low to the ground wire, send signals mostly straight up, and communicate for 100 miles without towers in between to repeat the signal. The technique, called Near Vertical Incident Skywave (NVIS), relies mostly on signals in the 80, 60, and 40 meter bands, which are 4, 5, and 7 megahertz, and which can be wiped out by noisy EV motors.
Additionally, if a hurricane knocks down every broadcast tower in Florida, so there are no radio or TV stations nor electricity to power them, you can still get messages directly to Floridians via AM radio using 50,000 watt transmitters of clear channel radio broadcasting in Atlanta and New Orleans. In this case, size matters, and those transmitters will punch thru the night sky and get information where it needs to be and to whomever needs to hear it. FM radio will not do this, as it is mostly limited to line of sight propagation.
So lets keep AM radio in our cars, and incidentally do the right thing and keep the industry from, once again, taking the shortcut of simply dumping their inconvenient electromagnetic effluents on the rest of us and let us use the radio spectrum the same way that we've been doing it for the last 100 years.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Greater Distance, low power, simplicity make AM still a very effective communications protocol. Keep it. And go ahead and mandate it.
Re: (Score:2)
The spectrum has been polluted for decades already. Triac based lamp dimmers and motors with brushes all play havoc with AM. That stuff has been common place since the 1960s. Simplicity is great but there's a reason why we upgraded from telegraph lines to digital communications.
Re: (Score:2)
It's pollution, this time of the electromagnetic spectrum.
EV manufacturers want to get away with the equivalent of dumping their toxics in the river, although in this case it is failing to contain the racket that their EV's electric motors make in the electromagnetic spectrum.
Electromagnetic interference is in no way comparable to dumping toxic substances into a river.
No additional cost? (Score:2)
Reality check (Score:2)
From RadioWorld [radioworld.com]
"Nationwide, 30.9% of radio reach comes from AM stations, representing 82,346,8000 American radio listeners aged 12+ who listen to AM every month."
This data in Fall 2022.
And From Musical Pursuits [musicalpursuits.com]
"More Americans listen to the radio than use Facebook each week.
55% of Gen Z in the U.S. listen to AM/FM radio every day.
Adults listen to 104 minutes of radio per day, 12.2 hours per week.
Radio industry sees growth through smart speakers and online listening.
100 million Americans own a smart speaker.
R
Heck, most people I know don't listen to radio (Score:2)
82 million? (Score:2)
That may be the number of people in range of a broadcast, but I seriously doubt it has that many listeners anymore.
Technical stuff (Score:3)
These days RF receivers of that sort are all on a single tiny chip - ROC (Radio on Chip) that are incredibly cheap and can receive a huge part of the RF spectrum and decode both AM and FM. They are so inexpensive that ROCs that are even capable of transmitting as well as receiving are only a dollar or so.
So from a cost perspective this is absolutely negligible, especially when the ROCs they are using (even if they only expose the FM capability in the radio UI) already have this capability built in.
From a technical perspective, AM has appeal for a few reasons. It has greater range at a given transmission power than FM. With FM once the signal strength drops below a threshold you lose it, whereas with AM the signal sounds quieter and harder to make out as it gets weaker, but it isn't an immediate drop-off like with FM.
Additionally, with AM you can hear more than one transmitting station at the same time on the same frequency. With FM the signal with the greatest strength "wins" and is what you hear.
So AM is very useful for emergency broadcasting and the like. Aircraft still use AM modulation (but at a higher frequency than broadcast AM) for the reasons above. The audio most of us have heard from the ATC and airplanes in the tragic collision in DC yesterday is all AM modulation.
Re: (Score:2)
How expensive is this tax?
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)