1 of 1- RadioActive
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As Battle Over AM Grows, Ford Officially Puts It Back In Its EVs
There's a big battle going on in Washington, but it's not about any of the wars being waged in the world, the border crisis or the economy. This one centres on AM radio and whether it has a future in electric vehicles. Most automakers want to keep it out, because it simply costs too much to install the shielding that makes reception possible.
But many politicians, in a rare display of two party unity, are trying to make it illegal to take it out of any vehicle sold down south.
Car Industry Seeks to Crush AM Radio; Congress May Rescue It
Now Ford has confirmed an earlier statement that it's putting the band back in its electric cars, despite the cost. But opinions differ when it comes to everyone else.
"Other carmakers have said they have no plans to exclude the legacy band from the radio available in their dashboard. That includes Nissan, Hyundai, Kia, Subaru, Land Rover, Jaguar, and Mitsubishi Motors. Honda said that for its two officially announced EVs, both AM and FM will be featured since the models were co-developed with General Motors utilizing GM’s pre-existing Ultium platform.
Others have resisted. Mazda said it has no plans to reintroduce AM to its first electric vehicle, the MX-30. Tesla and Volkswagen have said the same. Toyota says that while its existing electric vehicles feature AM, the electromagnetic interference caused by the batteries used in EVs has them holding out on committing future model years."
It's not clear what the holdouts plan to do if this law actually passes - and it appears to be gaining support.
As Promised, Ford Reactivates AM Radio In 2023 Electric Vehicles
- Skywave
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Re: As Battle Over AM Grows, Ford Officially Puts It Back In Its EVs
They can legislate the reception capability back into cars, but they can't legislate that it will actually work in a hostile environment. What's interesting about the Ford announcement is that they are reactivating via software, so the necessary components were there. It's quite plausible that the receivers in cars like VW actually have an AM capable chipset, because it would cost them more to have two different radio designs for internal combustion and EVs.
Theoretically, one could sample the interfering signal from the EV's control system and digitally process it to subtract it out. It would be pretty sophisticated math and costly. Modern broadcast transmitters do direct digital synthesis of AM and FM signals, so in theory you could work backwards.
As the old cliche goes, "it's only software".
- RadioAaron
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Re: As Battle Over AM Grows, Ford Officially Puts It Back In Its EVs
Skywave wrote:
What's interesting about the Ford announcement is that they are reactivating via software, so the necessary components were there. It's quite plausible that the receivers in cars like VW actually have an AM capable chipset, because it would cost them more to have two different radio designs for internal combustion and EVs.
So the only point in deactivating them was that they didn't want to have their customers to have a bad user experience. The AM may be reactivated, but it's going to be terrible.
- turkeytop
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Re: As Battle Over AM Grows, Ford Officially Puts It Back In Its EVs
Most automakers want to keep it out, because it simply costs too much to install the shielding that makes reception possible.
Instead of spending money on shielding, they should work on suppressing the RF noise emissions at the source.
After all is said and done, more is usually said than done.
- RadioAaron
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Re: As Battle Over AM Grows, Ford Officially Puts It Back In Its EVs
Most automakers want to keep it out, because it simply costs too much to install the shielding that makes reception possible.
Instead of spending money on shielding, they should work on suppressing the RF noise emissions at the source.
Bell's been doing that quite actively, lately.
- RadioActive
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Re: As Battle Over AM Grows, Ford Officially Puts It Back In Its EVs
I'm all for keeping AM radios in cars, but this is ridiculous. A New Jersey Congressman wants future vehicles without the band to carry this advisory on the car window:
“Warning: No AM Radio. Vehicle Unsafe in Certain Emergencies.”
I still love AM, but that just seems over the top, even to me.
Congressman Wants ‘Warning Labels’ On Cars That Don’t Have AM Radio
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