Ford reverses course, will keep AM radio on future models

[Pioneer74]

“We've decided to include it on all 2024 Ford and Lincoln vehicles," Farley wrote on LinkedIn and Twitter. "For any owners of Ford's EVs without AM broadcast capability, we'll offer a software update” to restore it.

https://www.detroitnews.com/story/b...l-keep-am-radio-on-future-models/70247642007/

Sponsored

 

[GreaseMonkey]

They really need to reconsider the way they make decisions in this company. Crowdsourcing decision making is not a recipe for success.

 

[hybrid2bev]

They really need to reconsider the way they make decisions in this company. Crowdsourcing decision making is not a recipe for success.

Unless they ask us what BlueCruise should cost.

 

[dbsb3233]

That's good news, but...

All they have to do is make a change in the software to enable it?!?

So there was no hardware savings. No cost savings. The capability is really still there, they just turned it off??? That's pretty bad.

 

[Neil4Real]

That's good news, but...

All they have to do is make a change in the software to enable it?!?

So there was no hardware savings. No cost savings. The capability is really still there, they just turned it off??? That's pretty bad.

I believe the reasoning is some sort of interference with EVs, not a cost cutting measure. People would complain AM sounds even worse, when it already sounds horrible, but Ford cannot do anything so I think they just tried going the easy route of disabling it rather than trying to educate customers or find a possible solution.

 

[Mach-Lee]

Wait, they're going to re-enable AM with software updates? So the hardware was never gone?

I guess we should be messaging Senator Ed Markey about BlueCruise price increases too...

EDIT: I think what did it was the fact the proposed "AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act of 2023” included a requirement that every vehicle have digital AM receive capability. Which adds costs and chip availability concerns, so that's what really shook the tree.

 

[Logal727]

They need a very prominent message when people switch to AM in an EV about interference. There wa a very long thread here about this guys speakers making weird sounds until I finally chimed in and asked if he was listening to AM and he was lol. Gonna be so many stupid dealer visits if this isn’t prominent.

 

[dbsb3233]

I believe the reasoning is some sort of interference with EVs, not a cost cutting measure. People would complain AM sounds even worse, when it already sounds horrible, but Ford cannot do anything so I think they just tried going the easy route of disabling it rather than trying to educate customers or find a possible solution.

I've never had any AM interference in the Mach-E. But I did read somewhere that all it needs is some shielding, which maybe they did with the MMEs?

 

[HuntingPudel]

They need a very prominent message when people switch to AM in an EV about interference. There wa a very long thread here about this guys speakers making weird sounds until I finally chimed in and asked if he was listening to AM and he was lol. Gonna be so many stupid dealer visits if this isn’t prominent.

The problem with the warning is that people will get sick of seeing it and complain that Ford needs to give them a way to turn it off. Can’t please everyone.

 

[026TB4U]

They need a very prominent message when people switch to AM in an EV about interference. There wa a very long thread here about this guys speakers making weird sounds until I finally chimed in and asked if he was listening to AM and he was lol. Gonna be so many stupid dealer visits if this isn’t prominent.

That was me with the interference and thanks again.

I have the AM radio but it has lots of interference, so I wonder how Ford is planning on solving the issue. I was also getting a screech noise when exiting the vehicle, again, due to using the AM radio.

Switching to FM simulcast got rid of the interference and screeching but I wish there wasn't a delay tuning to the simulcast station.

 

[macchiaz-o]

I've never had any AM interference in the Mach-E. But I did read somewhere that all it needs is some shielding, which maybe they did with the MMEs?

I remember Ron Heiser explaining that getting the shielding, antenna placement, and so on good enough for acceptable AM radio reception was a large engineering challenge. If true, a significant amount of non-recurring engineering cost went into getting this working... That's a sunk cost now.

Maybe the shielding adds appreciable manufacturing costs, too? I have no idea. If Ford is able to follow through on Farley's statement, though, then either the shielding and antenna designs are still appropriate, OR they're going to enable AM radio on later model years but it will sound a lot worse than what @026TB4U has been experiencing.

(I also wonder if maybe Anthony's vehicle is incorrectly built in some way, though?)

 

[JohnFoxeSheets]

The problem with the warning is that people will get sick of seeing it and complain that Ford needs to give them a way to turn it off. Can’t please everyone anyone.

There, I fixed it for you

 

[Mike G]

Wait, they're going to re-enable AM with software updates? So the hardware was never gone?

I guess we should be messaging Senator Ed Markey about BlueCruise price increases too...

EDIT: I think what did it was the fact the proposed "AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act of 2023” included a requirement that every vehicle have digital AM receive capability. Which adds costs and chip availability concerns, so that's what really shook the tree.

I think it was a strategy change for the ACM is all that was going to be done. AM capability was still there, it's just that they were turning it off.

Kindof like in the F-150 forums where people wanted to remove XM radio from the available choices because they knew they'd never listen to it, so they just flipped a couple of bits in the asbuilt and voila, no more XM as a menu item.

 

[TheVirtualTim]

I believe the reasoning is some sort of interference with EVs, not a cost cutting measure. People would complain AM sounds even worse, when it already sounds horrible, but Ford cannot do anything so I think they just tried going the easy route of disabling it rather than trying to educate customers or find a possible solution.

My '23 doesn't have AM, but my '21 does. I got into my '21 to see what all the fuss is about w.r.t. the EV creating radio interference.

What I found was no big deal...

On "weak" stations -- stations that already sound pretty bad -- the interference created by the car was really noticable.

On "strong" stations -- local stations that sound about as good as AM radio gets -- I really couldn't notice an interference problem. I mean ... maybe if I created recordings with the car running vs. off or moving vs. not moving and carefully analyzed it I might have been able to detect a difference, but there's certainly no obvious difference. AM radio, as you've pointed out, already has lousy audio quality and I sincerely hope nobody listening to AM is doing so for the superior sound quality unique to that technology.

The argument I've heard in favor of keeping AM radio around had to do with emergency use. At night, AM radio can bounce off the ionosphere. Just a very few AM radio stations would have sufficient broadcast quality to cover the entire nation. A city could be wiped out ... but AM radio from several states away could still broadcast emergency information to anyone in that area. This isn't really possible with FM.

The less-convincing argument for AM ... is talk radio. But there are so many other ways to get talk radio (or the equivalent thereof) that this isn't much of an argument.

 

[SalsabyJake]

I see it as a safety issue! AM radio goes where no internet is (it bounces off the atmosphere) and some of us (maybe most of us) are not very turned on by Sirius. So it should be on all vehicles, ESPECIALLY since it's so easy to implement and apparently just a software switch at this point. My '23 MME will be in line for that update.

Sponsored