AM radio

[Dave Hadden]

I'm 78 and I just bought my first new car in 15 years; a Tesla X. I guess I'm not up with the times as it never occurred to me to ask if a Tesla X had an am radio. I just made an assumption. I drive between Los Altos and San Diego and enjoy listening to local AM stations in the small towns along Interstate 5 to pick up on local news I don't get in the Bay Area. I've always just used scan feature in my last car (a Lexus LS 430).

I've tried Tunein, but can't figure out how to get local stations en route. Does anyone have any thoughts? I'm happy to put an external antenna on the car or even add some sort of after market radio. I've heard one of the reasons Tesla doesn't have AM is because of RFI. That doesn't sound quite right because other all electric cars have AM radios.

The car is great overall, but no AM radio and no Spare are huge surprises to me. I discovered the no spare surprise when I got a flat in my driveway after 57 miles; the first I've had in years.

 

[SDRick]

My 2016 S has AM. Makes no sense not to include it anymore.

 

[ewoodrick]

I'm 78 and I just bought my first new car in 15 years; a Tesla X. I guess I'm not up with the times as it never occurred to me to ask if a Tesla X had an am radio. I just made an assumption. I drive between Los Altos and San Diego and enjoy listening to local AM stations in the small towns along Interstate 5 to pick up on local news I don't get in the Bay Area. I've always just used scan feature in my last car (a Lexus LS 430).

I've tried Tunein, but can't figure out how to get local stations en route. Does anyone have any thoughts? I'm happy to put an external antenna on the car or even add some sort of after market radio. I've heard one of the reasons Tesla doesn't have AM is because of RFI. That doesn't sound quite right because other all electric cars have AM radios.

The car is great overall, but no AM radio and no Spare are huge surprises to me. I discovered the no spare surprise when I got a flat in my driveway after 57 miles; the first I've had in years.

Go into Slacker and see if the station that you listen to is listed.

 

[jeffro01]

My 2016 S has AM. Makes no sense not to include it anymore.

AM is highly susceptible to EMF which both the front and rear motors generate plenty of... I've noticed this is in my S that when I am on AM, which is rare now that Warriors games moved to FM, when I accelerated my AM reception got progressively worse the harder I pressed the go peddle...

I think in the X Tesla decided it wasn't worth the cost/effort to shield the EMF sufficiently for AM when it's use cases are limited these days...

Jeff

 

[DCGOO]

I'm 78 and I just bought my first new car in 15 years; a Tesla X. I guess I'm not up with the times as it never occurred to me to ask if a Tesla X had an am radio. I just made an assumption. I drive between Los Altos and San Diego and enjoy listening to local AM stations in the small towns along Interstate 5 to pick up on local news I don't get in the Bay Area. I've always just used scan feature in my last car (a Lexus LS 430).

I've tried Tunein, but can't figure out how to get local stations en route. Does anyone have any thoughts? I'm happy to put an external antenna on the car or even add some sort of after market radio. I've heard one of the reasons Tesla doesn't have AM is because of RFI. That doesn't sound quite right because other all electric cars have AM radios.

The car is great overall, but no AM radio and no Spare are huge surprises to me. I discovered the no spare surprise when I got a flat in my driveway after 57 miles; the first I've had in years.

No Tesla carries a spare tire. Replaced by an 800 number. Neither do many other high end cars. Remember also the front and rear tires are different sizes.

As far as the AM radio is concerned, my S has one, but it’s performance is so poor to be virtually useless. With all the other entertainment available, I really don’t miss it.

 

[Dave Hadden]

My 2016 S has AM. Makes no sense not to include it anymore.

Thanks for getting back to me. I've got to get used to the idea that things continue to change.

 

[Dave Hadden]

Go into Slacker and see if the station that you listen to is listed.

Thanks I'll check and see what I can find on Slacker. I used to just push the scan button in my old car til I found something interesting. Never paid attention to the actual station name.

 

[Dave Hadden]

No Tesla carries a spare tire. Replaced by an 800 number. Neither do many other high end cars. Remember also the front and rear tires are different sizes.

As far as the AM radio is concerned, my S has one, but it’s performance is so poor to be virtually useless. With all the other entertainment available, I really don’t miss it.

 

[Dave Hadden]

Thanks for getting back to me. The spare is actually a bigger issue for me. I didn't mention in my other post that I live about 3 miles from a Tesla Service center. I'd planned to take go on my first drive this last Sunday When was ready to leave my right rear was flat.. The 800 number people were very nice, but were unable to find a tire until 36 hours later. when they came around noon last Monday they needed to replace it. Have any you had flats along highway 5 in the central valley? I'm wondering what kind of 800 tire service they have along stretches like Coalinga, Metler and Gorman?

 

[Dave Hadden]

My 2016 S has AM. Makes no sense not to include it anymore.

Thanks I'm sure I'll get used to it. Just an unexpected surprise.

 

[DCGOO]

Thanks for getting back to me. The spare is actually a bigger issue for me. I didn't mention in my other post that I live about 3 miles from a Tesla Service center. I'd planned to take go on my first drive this last Sunday When was ready to leave my right rear was flat.. The 800 number people were very nice, but were unable to find a tire until 36 hours later. when they came around noon last Monday they needed to replace it. Have any you had flats along highway 5 in the central valley? I'm wondering what kind of 800 tire service they have along stretches like Coalinga, Metler and Gorman?

36 hours is unacceptable. I probably would have called your local Service Center directly. Often they can squeak you in, especially being so close. They would at least have some local suggestions.

Since I live in Indiana, I have not had the privilege of having a flat on the 5. I have driven on it though! Any idea what took out your tire?

 

[Big John]

In CA, just go to any America's Tire store. They fix flats for free and know Teslas. Ninety percent of flats are simple nails or screws--they can be fixed in 20 minutes. I have had 10 flats in 4 years on various vehicles--always been able to drive to the tire store before it goes completely flat. Compressor at home a must for when you discover flat in the morning. Easy peezy once you are prepared.

 

[bob_p]

AM radio is only in the S and not in the X.

With the X, you have several options for getting the AM radio content:

• Many AM stations are rebroadcast in HD on FM station subchannels. Unfortunately, finding those is very difficult, usually requiring you to step through every FM station and subchannel to find your AM station - or you should be able to find out the HD radio station/subchannel by searching on the internet. It would be very helpful if Tesla could automatically map the HD stations to their AM station location, so that you'd always tune using the AM radio screen and when you hit a station that has an HD broadcast, the media player would automatically select the HD broadcast and not use the AM broadcast (which would also be helpful in the X and 3).
• TuneIn has many stations. The interface is different so you have to browse through a list instead of using a slider. But, if you're looking for live sports broadcasts, those will usually be blacked out from TuneIn, unless you purchase a premium account (not sure if there's a way to enter a TuneIn username/password in the current media player software).
• For live sports, you may need to use XM radio (available on S with sunroof and X, but not on the 3). With the right package, you can get live sporting broadcasts, though you may have to listen to the opposing teams broadcast.
• The last option is to use your smartphone - which can get streaming channels through TuneIn or XM. With XM, you'll have more options for live sports broadcast - able to pick home or away team (at least most of the time).

This is an area where Tesla could do more to help with improvements in the media player...

 

[DarkMatter]

You could also buy a high quality portable AM receiver and a Bluetooth transmitter. Performance will probably be poor but it should work.

 

[timf]

Tesla no longer offers AM radio on the Model S either, since the switch to MCU 2.

 

[bob_p]

Tesla no longer offers AM radio on the Model S either, since the switch to MCU 2.

Interesting... Even more reason for Tesla to provide better support for the HD broadcasts of the AM stations...

 

[mknox]

Tesla no longer offers AM radio on the Model S either, since the switch to MCU 2.

That's interesting. In my old S, I used to use FM-HD a lot to switch between the primary FM station I liked and an AM news station on position #2. On the new MCU cars, like my new Model X, THAT does not work either.

 

[puhiniho]

In the northwest, a lot of local traffic updates are broadcast on AM. It does suck my MX doesn't have it which can be important relating to road updatea/issues.

I'm currently looking at a portable AM radio to see if that would work? Has anyone actually done this?

 

[Peteybabes]

couldn't one just use a phone app to play a desired AM station?

 

[puhiniho]

couldn't one just use a phone app to play a desired AM station?

Not if it's a localized broadcast (e.g. location actually broadcasting within just a few thousand ft). An app would either need to grab data from the web or the device needs an attenna (sadly it seems only a few channel actually broadcast on the web).

But I'm definitely open to hear if someone know an app that does what you say!