Bipartisan Bill Would Force Automakers to Keep AM Radio in New Cars | Hacker News Reader

Bipartisan Bill Would Force Automakers to Keep AM Radio in New Cars

thedrive.com

20 pointsmikece9 comments

100 cars driving down the highway. There's a freak storm about to break and FEMA needs to put out an emergency alert.

So they broadcast on all AM channels, all FM channels, satellite & internet radio, and broadcast text messages.

A driver would need to have: AM reception, but no FM signal. No cell phone (or no cell phone signal) and be a habitual radio listener for this law to make a difference.

How many of those 100 drivers fit that bill?

At least in Europe, if enabled by the driver, the car radio listens for EON signals on FM channels, and switches to the indicated channel from whatever is playing (MP3, CD, another channel). They usually do this to indicate that a traffic announcement is happening on the other frequency.

But since this seems to be an FM radio addition, the law should've forced cars to have FM radio as well...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_Data_System

I don't think you understand how the Emergency Alert System works and most if not all of what you said is incorrect. How do you think the EAS alerts are sent to your station of choice? (It would be the NWS issuing the alert for weather not FEMA.) There are a few dozen stations known as Primary Entry Points where the signals originate. Guess what the overwhelming majority of these stations are? AM.

All other stations (like most FM) have decoders that are tuned to and listen to other stations for the alert signal. They operate simply as relays in a tree. So no, AM is not going away, not now, not ever, lazy EV engineers be damned.

At least in Australia, our national emergency broadcaster is primarily on AM. Commonly in bushfires, floods, etc, all other infrastructure can be knocked out in the initial moments, and AM tends to be the last resource standing.

I do not know what large natural disasters are like in the US, but expect that would only become more frequent and severe, with a similar kind of failure rate across technologies like FM and mobile phone coverage.

As many countries would likely follow the pattern set by large car manufacturers affected by this bill, I am heartened by it and hope it passes.

And maybe remove touch screens and touch controls?

AM Radio should be mandatory world over. They can be useful in emergencies.

This is a great thing. AM radio is simple to build and operate, and can reach a long range on low power.

It would be very useful on emergency situations.

Not to mention it's just like the old days! A western tradition

If it’s so simple to build and operate, why does it need regulatory capture like this? Surely anyone who is concerned about their car lacking AM radio can simply put a cheap solar/crank powered AM radio in the glovebox or trunk in case of emergency?

The issue is that to satisfy this bill should it become law, the automakers will likely need to address the issue of high noise floors in electric vehicles. That is not something an average consumer will be able to work around/buy as an add-on.

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