Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor Dennis?Dura for sharing this article from Radio?World, which reveals that Tesla will eliminate AM and FM tuners from its 2026 Standard Model Y and Model 3 trims—a move the National?Association?of?Broadcasters calls a “disservice to millions of drivers” who rely on broadcast radio for news, community and emergency alerts.
You can read the full article at Radio World by clicking here.
One alternative approach to make AM and FM broadcasst radio reception possible in new cars would be to put strict requirements on noise emissions from the car’s electronics so that custormers could buy their after market AM/FM/DAB/DRM radio of choice and use it on any broadcast band without suffering from radio noise. This would force car manufacturers to spend more effort to reduce the noise. I guess all of us would benefit from less noise being generated by the traffic on the roads. Perhaps Tesla’s choice to force users to use Internet radio is made, not only to save product cost, but also to allow Musk’s companies to harvest more personal data from the Internet traffic.
I recently acquired a “PacHy” – a 2022 Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid. It’s a plug-in and even without a “Level 2” charger at home (so long charging time), most of our daily putting around fits within the ~50 km battery range
It’s also got the Uconnect 5 + Nav touch-screen doo-hickey in the middle of the dash. AM/FM/HD/Satellite/Apple Carplay whatever you want.
Except for when I was sitting at the L2 charger at the grocery store I can’t find any noise from the electric propulsion system. And of course, sitting at an L2 “pump” is more about the charging than the propulsion.
“Touch screen? Those are dangerous!” … Only if the manufacture makes them that way. HVAC and radio (and a bazillion other things) can all be controlled by the touch screen … or just use the big tuning and volume knobs and buttons/knobs to control temperature and air flow which are right on the dash where they should be.
Tesla, and others, have **chosen** to not clean up their RFI issues and have **chosen** to make sure that drivers of their vehicles have to focus on a screen to change the radio channel or flip on the defogger – they are not a requirement.
And yes, I’m surprised that #DutchMOPAR is ahead of the curve on this.
Gah, forgot my main point. Donny’s bestest buddy is deleting radio for the simple reason that he can’t monetize it – there is no one to threaten. SiriusXM? Oh, you bet they pay more to be on the dashboard of what some are calling “Swastikars” than for any other dashboard.
It’s too expensive for Tesla to clean up the RFI in its computers and motors, so they are getting rid of the radio entirely. They had an FM radio, but congress passed a law mandating AM reception in cars because they want people tuning into the right wing AM networks. Elon doesn’t care about that.
I’m currently driving a rental because some old lady crashed into the ancient vehicle I usually drive. The latter has a great radio with 49m shortwave and a terrible antenna system and its electronics are spewing enough RFI on AM to render it pretty useless even at night.
The rental is a brand new Mercedes B-class hybrid and it comes with FM, DAB and AM radio. When I tried to tune a station on AM – there was no dial, I could search for stations only by browsing through presets, but there was only one populated – Radio Romania 1188 kHz. But when I tried it again next day it had auto-scanned the (daytime) AM band and presented the 5 strongest of British AM stations to be received over here in 400+ miles distance, and it had somehow downloaded nice station logo icons and of course their names to show on the big center display. That car was built in a country that doesn’t even have AM radio stations anymore and Mercedes is not exactly known for being on the cutting edge of multimedia gadgets.
Needless to say that reception was maybe not what I’m used to from our thoroughbred MW radios but it was free of QRM despite all the digital and robotic gadgets, assistants and motorized servants it runs and it’s giving me the intense feeling that this discussion is not really about $10 worth of capacitors, chokes and shielding needed per car to keep radios working like before.
1188 kHz belongs to Hungary – there are no Romanian transmitters in this frequency according to mwlist.
It is possible to hear some Romanian language and music there still, because the two Hungarian transmitters in this frequency are used by national minorities channel which has programmes for multiple local national minorities including Romanians.
http://mwlist.org/mwlist_quick_and_easy.php?area=1&kHz=1188