Automakers Want AM Radios Out of Cars. Congress Is About to Require Them
A popular bill will force car companies to put AM radios in vehicles at no extra charge, despite decreasing interest from drivers and potential electromagnetic interference.
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Requiring the installation of analog AM radios in automobiles is an unnecessary action that would impact EV range, efficiency, and affordability at a critical moment of accelerating adoption,” said Albert Gore, executive director of ZETA, a clean vehicle advocacy group that opposes the AM radio requirement.
I cried. They install like big screen TVs now instead of console with buttons and it is the radio which is expensive and eats the battery?! Please note, an amplifier and speakers are already in the car, so they just talk about the radio receiver, which in old days could run couple of days or more with AA batteries.
They are lying through their teeth
It's probably because am radio hurts their profit somehow
Fuckers can design in an option to turn the hardware off when not in use and use more power efficient components and programming
They have to put more shielding around the motor so it doesn't leak a bit of electromagnetic, because they can interfere with the Am radio. And shielding costs money and weighs a bit more. So they rather not have a built in electromagnetic radiation detector.
There was an arstechnica piece that was a bit sooner (it’s passed the house). They said 82 million people “use AM radio”. (Most of that is probably while driving.)
The argument for it is basically, that AM-radio listeners are declining and that means stations are closing up. If they remove them, AM radio peeps “loose” the largest segment of their audience.
The “concern” is that the public warning system relies on 77 of the 4.5k stations to broadcast warnings.(emergency and weather/hazard radios)
The issue here is that it’s basically bullshit. They could just buy the towers as a stop gap until better systems come into play. (Though to be fair, as old as it is, it’s pretty much the best for that kind of alert. Might be permanent.) and its really doesn’t matter- AM radio is dying; at least as entertainment ornmews services.
I think it would be very difficult and very expensive to build enough towers to cover states like Alaska. A lot of people listen to AM radio there.
I'm guessing people will just start putting separate radios in their cars and use a bluetooth connector or something.
I’m guessing people will just start putting separate radios in their cars and use a bluetooth connector or something.
That's fine and all, but it will just become a hobbyist thing like CB Radio...
And since funding for NPR has been significantly cut again and again by Republicans over the past few decades and is propped up almost entirely by listener contributions, it wouldn't last a year without mandatory AM radios in cars.
I enjoy listening to NPR while I'm driving, but I doubt I would go through the trouble of buying a separate radio to keep sitting on my passenger seat or something?
And hey, guess who produces all of your favorite podcasts? That's right, NPR.
Podcasts aren't going to give you the latest news. Especially not the local, regional and state news that local public radio stations provide. Information you might want to know in a disaster in a place where FM radio might not reach.
NPR is on FM too.
NPR is on FM, too, and, uh, they’ve transitioned to streaming by webcast or app.
(They’ve had NPR One one for years, there’s a new NPR app that’s out to replace it.)
Like the idea of the app - hate the idea of the analytics from the app.
Like the idea of radio where there’s no analytics to collect.
You can make an AM radio with a fucking potato. What a joke.
The issue is the motors generate EM emissions that interfere with AM reception. To still have AM, they have to add shielding, which adds cost, as well as weight that will reduce range and efficiency.
An AM radio receiver would easily fit in the palm of your hand. You could shield it with material that weighs no more than a pound.
Taco Tuesday will have more impact on your EV range.
You can’t just shield the radio. That’s not where the antenna is. You have to shield the electrical components generating the interference.
OK, it might cost a bit to install shielding, but it is not like a heavy thing - for AM can be done with metal net with rather large cells, which weights nothing and requires zero additional power.
Hell, the off-the-shelf radio-on-a-chip components they use in their stereos probably already have the physical capability of receiving AM radio; but I'm willing to bet the motors or some other component produces interference that would be difficult to engineer around.
... said Albert "Don't call me Al" Gore....
But you called me Betty!
Al Gore seems like he might be a moron if he is dumb enough to believe what he said.
For anyone else who wondered the same, this Albert Gore is not the Al Gore.
Yeah, the name made me do a double take. Al Gore seems to be a decently intelligent dude. Al Gore (the one at Zeta) not so much.
