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.
An AM radio can be put together for pennies. I've gotten them as giveaway swag before. This is the stupidest controversy. You could give everyone in America an AM radio for the cost of this lawsuit and they could just stick it in their car with the stereo jack.
I take no position on this. Seems to me the cost should be negligible if they are forced to include them and the harm will be negligible if they are removed.
My guess is this has been made a big deal by right wing media who see it as a threat to their ability to reach imbeciles listeners and this would be a footnote otherwise.
That being said, having an EBS receiver in cars isn't a bad thing. Cell networks are unreliable in emergencies. Cell phones didn't work for days after 9/11. Not that car radios would be particularly helpful in NYC with super low car ownership.
No, AM radio is part of the infrastructure governments can reliably use to inform citizens of danger etc. so it should not easily be removed. And if it's so cheap it can easily be included.
That only works if people actively tune into AM radio. The person you're replying to, I think, is implying that the number of people that would be affected by an emergency communication not going over AM radio... while tragic, costs less than losing the ability to have folks like Alex Jones get tiny pockets of crazy scattered all over funneled into one convenient silo.
I agree with you. I just think the reason the discussion is so loud is because of right wing AM radio and the people who would love for it to go away - people I don't even disagree with, but it is important and so cheap that any argument over cost is entirely misplaced. You can get AM radio on an IC for $0.41 in quantity. It feels disingenuous to argue against that on a basis of cost or "muh freedoms". Hence, my suspicion of a more political basis.
The only reason they want them out is because AM radios reveal the amount of radio spectrum pollution the vehicle electronics are spewing out.
Solution is for the automaker to spend a few bucks on RFI filtering for LED drivers, etc.
The only reason they want them out is because AM radios reveal the amount of radio spectrum pollution the vehicle electronics are spewing out.
And the only reason Republicans want to keep them is because of the amount of bigotry and hate Republican hosts spew on the band. The party of GWB's response to Katrina and Trump's response to covid does not care about disseminating accurate information during a crisis.
Seems like if they really cared about emergencies they would require car radios to support the actual weather band frequencies as well.
Do they currently require that cars offer an audio system?
ha - they mandate you can receive AM signals. Does the bill state the receiver has to be connected to speakers?
To follow that path, doesn’t everything (people included) receive AM radio waves as it passes through us? We just can’t tune into it. But I’m pretty sure I have all the AM spectrum passing through me right now.
They do require Bluetooth hand free, so I guess it goes implied with the audio system
What's to stop auto makers from putting one crappy am radio with a tinny speaker built into the dash labeled "Emergency Radio"?
Nothing, other than that there's no possible way that'd actually be cheaper than just including it in the godawful-complicated touch screen entertainment center that will pathologically already exist in every new car.
I can imagine a troll blasting all kind of crap for the lolz while stuck in traffic on the predefined channel if you can't turn it off.
This is an absurd abuse of government power, which "small government" Republicans are going along with because the AM radio listening audience skews right. By the same logic, I suppose the next step is to force homeowners to subscribe to a landline and cable TV.
This is being spearheaded by Ed Markey, a Democrat. The reason lawmakers want to keep AM radio is that it's still used for emergency broadcasts. AM radio may seem like a joke if you live in a urban area with good infrastructure, but if you live in a rural area with poor internet and cell service, AM radio may be vital in getting emergency alerts. Auto companies are fighting this because EV components interfere with AM signals, so they have to spend extra money to shield EV components. The narrative about Republican lawmakers wanting to amplify right wing radio hosts is neat, but this is just another case of automakers not wanting to shell out a few extra bucks for a safety feature.
When I built a house in 2018 I was required to have a landline phone hookup somewhere in the house.
This is an aside. Using the term "skews" the way you did is common and incorrect. Generally, it'd be best to avoid the word skew when referring to right leaning or left leaning political ideas.
Why? Because a "Right Skew" would mean the data clusters to the left. And vice versa.
Google it! I swear!
It's a pet peeve of mine. Not when people say it, just that it's wrong even though it sounds right.
Carry on.
