There was a time when AM/FM radio was the main form of entertainment in cars, before dashboard center screens came along – Photo: The Hill
In May 2023, US senators proposed a new law requiring the integration of AM radio technology into all new vehicles, including electric vehicles. So far, this draft law has remained a bone of contention between car manufacturers and safety agencies.
Proponents of AM radio claim that the older technology is considered an ideal backup communications option. In remote areas or in cases where phone signal is lost due to natural disasters that damage infrastructure, the government can easily contact people through AM radio due to the much longer range of AM waves. compared to FM waves.
Furthermore, transmission systems (or more specifically, towers/stations) also need to be built in much smaller quantities and thus save costs.
Radio infrastructure is available and far more economical than FM due to better wave travel range – Photo: Drive
In contrast, many car manufacturers do not want to integrate this old technology into new cars. Many car manufacturers have recently stopped integrating this technology into new cars to reduce assembly costs, such as Volkswagen, Peugeot or Tesla. Even though the company maintains radio stations, the technology used is FM only.
The problem raised by opponents of AM radio is that many new cars launched by 2025 will be electric cars and these cars will be negatively affected by AM waves.
So, if you want to put an AM radio on an electric vehicle, each company has to spend 50 – 70 USD per electric vehicle to protect the electric motor from the effects of radio waves.
Currently, international car manufacturers have yet to find any sustainable, secure and simple communication solution like AM radio to replace this outdated technology – Photo: Drive
According to the American Automotive Research Center’s estimate, the total amount of money that car manufacturers in the US would have to spend if the above law is passed is approximately USD 3.8 billion (92.5 trillion VND) due to just one incident. This appears to be a small addition.
So should we have radios in electric cars or not? Until a more convenient communication method becomes available on the market, the answer will probably be yes for security reasons. Car manufacturers opposed to integrating AM radios in cars have been asked to find an alternative to the above equipment, but they still have no answer.
