Alliance for Automotive Innovation VP of Safety Policy Scott Schmidt responded, saying, “Let me give you Ford’s, what they told us – and I think they mentioned this to the community as well. Because in their May 23rd announcement, CEO Jim Farley announced that after speaking with policy leaders about the importance of AM broadcast radio as a part of the emergency alert system Ford decided to include AM in all Ford and Lincoln vehicles for the 2024 model year.”
“For EVs that did not initially offer AM radio, they will offer a software update. It is my understanding, from discussions with former representatives that Ford started removing AM radio by disabling the software while they worked on a longer lead time modification that would actually remove the hardware, so for those models, Ford can enable the AM radio by the over-the-air update. However, I can’t really speak to any of the plans for post-2024 at this point.”
While excited that Ford made the right call, AM broadcasters are worried about this premature removal and wonder what other automakers have pulled the band out of their vehicles without having to.
Considering how EV automakers have based their arguments about taking AM out of cars on electrical interference, Schmidt’s admission does raise concerns over the validity of those claims. Some have drawn parallels between this and the debate around the present, but deactivated, FM chips in many US smartphones.
No other car manufacturers that have currently removed AM have revealed whether their autos could still receive those signals via a similar OTA update.
I doubt that this has anything o do with AM programming. Conservative talk radio is available in, perhaps, most (all?) markets on FM. It is due to laziness in solving interference problems and the desire to eventually charge for APP access by AM, FM and internet broadcasters. In the end, this could just be the beginning (or the desire for it) of car manufacturers receiving a commission for whatever you want to listen to.
Thank you for stating the obvious. Ford apparently has a liberal leaning leadership and will do anything to make us follow the liberal agenda. Which is communism.
I believe that ford does not want Us to hear conservative talk show hosts. The apparent leadership is probably liberal minded.
I will not buy a vehicle without an AM tadio!
AM interference with the car was solved at the first install in 1922 .