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A.M. Radio
- Thread starter Merc3
- Start date
There is no AM receiver on the vehicle.
The car should have tunein as a source option, and this may work for you (not all stations are on TuneIn). This is streamed via LTE so of course coverage may be a problem too.
Otherwise you'll need to find a way to stream it from your phone, or some device that can be BT streamed like a phone.
The car should have tunein as a source option, and this may work for you (not all stations are on TuneIn). This is streamed via LTE so of course coverage may be a problem too.
Otherwise you'll need to find a way to stream it from your phone, or some device that can be BT streamed like a phone.
I use TuneIn, select local stations, and the AM Talk Radio I listen to is available. Sounds much better than actual AM!
Sure, but if you've managed to get outside of cellular coverage that won't matter. Even a poorly functioning AM with a "confirm you really want shitty AM with EV interference" option would have been a nice option to have.
Though being without talk radio isn't a deal breaker.
The real problem is all the areas where low power AM stations are used for informing motorists of hazards. Those aren't streamed...
AustinPowers
Total Smeghead
Before they add AM radio they should install a CD player imho, but I venture to guess they will do neither.
eprosenx
Active Member
Agreed. Lack of AM reception ability is a product miss. Even if the EV interferes while driving, I would like the option. I never listen to AM, but I have friends who are into sports that do, and the “emergency information” concern is a real one. It just seems like it would be nice to have.
And a cassette and 8-track just to cover all the bases.
Dan Detweiler
Active Member
Like all things technology related, AM radio as well as CDs are coming to the end of their practical lifespans. Like 8 track, cassettes, and BetaMax before them, they too will be replaced with newer tech.
Dan
Dan
I almost never used my CD player in my Leaf. I made sure it worked before the 3 year/36K warranty ran out. As for AM radio, I listen to in my car at least several times a week.
At home, I have a bunch of clock radios going much of the day on different stations to make my house sound occupied. I have that going + other steps after it was burglarized in Jan 2015. Some of the stations are AM news radio stations and thus, when I come home or if they sound while I'm home, I get to listen to some AM radio news. This happens many times a week.
Yes, CDs are doing. The other technologies you mention are dead. AM radio is not and we've already pointed out some cases where there is no alternative.
Dan Detweiler
Active Member
Not saying there are not uses for AM radio, just saying that the marketplace isn't supporting it enough for it to remain viable.
Dan
Agree. Wish Tesla would continue am radio. I'm not sure what the reason is for getting rid of it --- sounds fine in our MS, but they've killed it in the X & M3.
It's simply because adding AM radio to a system requires significant investment in making sure other components (the main one being DC/DC converters) don't interfere with the AM signal. For best efficiency you can use DC/DC converters in the 500kHz switching range, but if you do that you clobber AM signal band. There's a lot of expensive techniques to get around that, or DC/DC's that use ~2MHz switching which are less efficient, but generally if you can get away with it you'd rather ditch the AM radio since it saves cost and gives you better efficiency.
Given Tesla is using these giant MCUs (instead of the smaller more plentiful ones in the S/X), my guess is that the tuner board is on one of those giant 3 MCUs, and that means you'd likely need to make sure everything on that board doesn't emit anything that interferes with AM radio.
Just speculation. But speaking as someone who's worked in the automotive infotainment industry, AM radio is a pain to deal with. All your DC/DC converters are significantly more expensive as a result. And that's not even factoring in that Tesla likely doesn't design their DC/DC's to withstand 42V input from battery (which is a common requirement in automotive space for ICE reasons). Removing that constraint opens up a ton of lower cost DC/DC's (maybe only 18V rated) which allows you to save even more money.
SpiceWare
Member
Check the HD2, HD3, etc. stations. Here in Houston I found these:
- 94.5 HD2 - 790 AM SportsTalk
- 95.7 HD3 - 650 AM CBS Sports Radio
- 99.1 HD2 - 740 AM NewsRadio
- 100.3 HD2 - 610 AM Sports Radio
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SpiceWare
Member
Birdman325
Member
In Toronto, while I can access several of the AM stations (680 News, 640 Talk Radio and The Fan590) through TuneIn, each of those stations has an HD equivalent available on the FM band (as do 1010 and 1050).
The problem I have is that the "tile" simply displays, for example, 99.9 HD2; 99.9 HD3; 92.5HD1 etc. so it is difficult to remember which tile accesses which station. It would be helpful if we had the ability to rename them.
The problem I have is that the "tile" simply displays, for example, 99.9 HD2; 99.9 HD3; 92.5HD1 etc. so it is difficult to remember which tile accesses which station. It would be helpful if we had the ability to rename them.
AustinPowers
Total Smeghead
AM radio has never seen widespread use over here, but every car has a CD player, and everybody I know still listens to CDs in their cars. I do too, as I have got a large collection of CDs, and I enjoy listening to them in my car.
Especially with streaming radio being no alternative as yet, with such bad online coverage in many places. How do all of you in the US manage? Is your online coverage that good, even in the more remote places?
Over here, even along major Autobahn routes there are so many "holes" in the online coverage that a music experience based solely on streaming would be horrific.
There is of course DAB+ radio reception, but if you want to only listen to your favorite stuff, there's basically only two viable alternatives: CDs or USB/SD-card based playlists.
Of course one could also try streaming songs that are stored on ones phone via Bluetooth, but that's much more of a nuisance than the other alternatives mentioned, at least from what I have experienced so far.
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