Cars getting older... slowing down adoption of new dashboard technology

[Kent]

I have two vehicles thanks to my ex-wife moving to Europe after we divorced. I have a 2020 Nissan Sentra and a 2009 Honda CR-V. The CR-V has SXM, a CD player that will also play MP3 CD's, and your standard AM/FM radio. I plug a Bluetooth-to-FM adapter into what was once the cigarette lighter port. We had a 2010 model CR-V until about two years ago when a kid ran a red light and plowed into us at a busy intersection. That was apparently the first CR-V model with a charger built in as I could plug my iPhone into it and listen off the radio. The 2009 lacks that feature. I decided the Bluetooth-to-FM was an easier and cheaper fix than getting a brand new radio.

Something I have noticed on the Sentra is that Apple CarPlay appears to have been broken with the update to iOS 15. Whenever I plug the phone into the car, the interface still loads, but every audio app says it can't connect. While CarPlay didn't always work flawlessly, I never had that problem using iOS 14. I've found a workaround for the problem as Apple Music will still work when you use Siri to play. It will at least let me play radio stations and playlists, which is what I do 95% of the time anyway. It's just a tad disruptive when I have passengers in the car and want to change the station or when I'm trying to use another application, like Waze, when I'm driving the highways instead of just around town. Hopefully, Apple will get that problem fixed quickly. The update to iOS 15.0.1 didn't make any difference. People are going to die if Apple can't get it fixed quickly. If a non-tech savvy person doesn't figure out the workaround, spending too much time futzing with the interface is eventually going to cause a fatal accident if it hasn't already.

 

[Mikey Radio]

Just tune your radio to 87.9 MHz and listen to how many people in passing cars are still using FM modulators. It's not an insignificant amount.

I use 88.3 on my car radio for my ancient SiriusXM unit -- the one that puts out a signal that can be heard the length of a football field -- and find it swamped by a signal from another car at some point in my drive more often than not. I usually look beside me and in the rear view when that happens and sometimes see an aggravated driver staring and stabbing at HIS radio!

I remember reading about an FCC complaint that was filed a few years ago by a mother with young kids in her car - she was listening to her radio, possibly scanning through the FM band (I don't recall her exact situation) when audio from another nearby car came booming over her radio, with Howard Stern and company giving detailed descriptions of sex acts and describing in slang terms what happened when one of the staff was intimate with someone and got sick. She was horrified to say the least. That said, unless she could identify the other car or transmitting device, I'm not sure what can be done to resolve her complaint.

 

[Kent]

I remember reading about an FCC complaint that was filed a few years ago by a mother with young kids in her car - she was listening to her radio, possibly scanning through the FM band (I don't recall her exact situation) when audio from another nearby car came booming over her radio, with Howard Stern and company giving detailed descriptions of sex acts and describing in slang terms what happened when one of the staff was intimate with someone and got sick. She was horrified to say the least. That said, unless she could identify the other car or transmitting device, I'm not sure what can be done to resolve her complaint.

The old XM had complaints about leaky transmitters on its radios 15+ years ago. XM had to settle it before the merger with Sirius. It agreed to either provide ferrite beads or pay to have radios professionally installed. When I got my letter from them, I just threw it in the trash. I know a lot of people did. I didn't want my radio to be tied down to my car. There's a good chance that was what happened there, and there's really nothing she can do to resolve that complaint that I can think of, even if she could identify the car.

I used to have about a 30 minute commute home from work, and I encountered a car on the same trip that was listening to one of the SXM classical channels via one of its radios with an FM transmitter. I don't know if it was a leaky receiver, but it overpowered the FM transmitter I had for my iPhone in my own car. Unless I traveled out of the area, I never used 87.9 for my FM transmitter. I always preferred 107.5, and I was quite surprised someone else figured that out, too. I always figured most people with those FM transmitters just used the factory defaults.

 

[ZantennaG1]

Wow I certainly missed an interesting conversation. For one thing, I do have a tape recorder that I'll put my favorite songs on for a road trip or so. Yeah people with Part 15 car transmitters are everywhere; I'm practically guaranteed to discover one or two if I go to a local restaurant and spin the dial. I noticed most of them are some form of hip-hop, however I have discovered one that plays old-fashioned Spanish music, another one doing Country, and a few that rebroadcasts SiriusXM. My cousin even has a car FM transmitter. People with the transmitters can be annoying when trying to Dx, but other than that, they are certainly free to do them, and they are sometimes more interesting than everyone else.

For the most part, I hear people's car transmitters, but there are a few stable ones I can find pretty easily. For example on 90.7, it is always running a talk station (probably SXM), and can be heard at a local Taco Johns, and someone runs sports on 91.3 from SXM. (Both of these "stations" have lead to a lot of false flags for E-skip LOL), and there seems to be a somewhat consistent religious talker on 89.5. (They rebroadcast some sort of show somewhere). Finally, as I have mentioned elsewhere on this site, there is a Holiday station on 107.7 that times lights to their music. So yeah, Part 15's are alive and well in my town, even when I wish they would tone it down for Summer E-skip season!

 

[awsherrill]

Yeah people with Part 15 car transmitters are everywhere; I'm practically guaranteed to discover one or two if I go to a local restaurant and spin the dial.

More than a few times, those car transmitters have temporarily overpowered FM translator signals that our group had just put on air. Resulted in some panicky calls from management types.

 

[CTListener]

The old XM had complaints about leaky transmitters on its radios 15+ years ago. XM had to settle it before the merger with Sirius. It agreed to either provide ferrite beads or pay to have radios professionally installed. When I got my letter from them, I just threw it in the trash.

Same here. I remember reading at the time that Delphi had provided a weaker version of its SkyFi unit for type acceptance, then went ahead and produced a radio with a stronger transmitter for the public to buy. Not sure whether there's any truth to that; just one of those stories that circulated on the old XM fan site.

The other "fact" that always amused me there was the allegation -- by someone with a "friend" at Sirius supposedly acting as a mole -- that the in-house term among Sirius programmers for subscribers who dared question programming, playlists, etc. was "SPERM," standing for "Self Proclaimed Experts on Radio and Music." This was often cited as an example of Sirius management's disdain for its paying customers.

 

[ZantennaG1]

More than a few times, those car transmitters have temporarily overpowered FM translator signals that our group had just put on air. Resulted in some panicky calls from management types.

Yikes. What happened to the rule that you're supposed to find an "open" frequency?

 

[Kent]

The other "fact" that always amused me there was the allegation -- by someone with a "friend" at Sirius supposedly acting as a mole -- that the in-house term among Sirius programmers for subscribers who dared question programming, playlists, etc. was "SPERM," standing for "Self Proclaimed Experts on Radio and Music." This was often cited as an example of Sirius management's disdain for its paying customers.

A lot of us who worked in radio 20 years ago used that term to describe some of our listeners. While some people used it to describe anyone who didn’t think they did a great job and who didn’t love what they were doing, all of us have stories of people, usually kids, who would call us and act like they knew everything we should be doing despite never having done radio or having any idea how we did things. Pretty much everybody also received emails signed by someone using an obvious alias or nickname telling us we were lousy.

I realize most of those people at least listened. None of us could’ve been around and doing something we enjoyed for a paycheck without listening, but liking people who listened longer and complained frequently is truly a trying task. Most of us preferred the listeners who didn’t interact, but, with every book, we knew they were there. There were also the loyal listeners who called almost every week and wanted to hear the same song. I still remember the name of the lady who called me weekly to hear “The Mummers Dance“ even though I haven’t cracked the mic in a dozen years. Some of those listeners could be a bit strange, but all of them seemed harmless enough.

 

[seatownmedia]

I have bought new Camry’s every four years since ‘12. My 2012 had a CD player, ‘16 did not, and obviously my ‘20 also does not. But my current model offers lots of new tech in this category.

 

[kevtronics]

I'm sure the average age of commercial vehicles is even older. A town near me just bought a "gently used" fire truck to replace one which got damaged in a flood. It's a 1998 model.

 

[Deleted User]

with the requirement of low sulfur diesel older trucks are few and far between because they do not run well on it.

newer trucks are more fuel efficient, the difference between a fleet of trucks getting 6 MPG and 8 MPG is huge to the bottom line, especiall with Diesel headed to $4.00 plus a gallon


Fire trucks are a unicorn, good used ones are few and far between, when bought new they normally stay in front line service, then reserve fleet, and rarely when they are fully depreciated and are being replaced with a newer unit going into reserve service will they go to another department that has a dire need and no way to get another engine in a short period of time

reserve fleet equipment is often loaned out when a other department, especially one you have a mutual aid agreement with has an engine put out of service for repairs or it is deemed unsafe and struck from the rolls

A department I am familiar with just sold a surplus engine to a nearby city that had a need for it for $3000, the price it would have brought if scrapped

 

[Mikey Radio]

I'm sure the average age of commercial vehicles is even older. A town near me just bought a "gently used" fire truck to replace one which got damaged in a flood. It's a 1998 model.

In the case of things like fire engines, especially for smaller cities or areas with volunteer departments, they can give solid and reliable service for decades if properly maintained, as they generally get more engine hours from things like training exercises and minor service calls than actually fighting fires. Also, though some advances have been made with things like electronics integration, the basic operation of fire trucks has remained relatively unchanged for decades.

Bigger city departments and the way they manage their fleets (and the amount of use/abuse their vehicles get) are a different story, of course.

 

[oldradiotapes]

Just tune your radio to 87.9 MHz and listen to how many people in passing cars are still using FM modulators. It's not an insignificant amount.

I used to live in a complex directly above Washington SR14 and used to sometimes park a receiver on 87.9. Best variety of music you'll hear on any station!

You compile your own MP3 CDs now. 7 hours plus depending on bitrate.

Maximum ~5 1/2 hours per disc if CORRECTLY encoded at 320 Kb/s discrete stereo (using -q0 in LAME), no lower, and no "joint stereo" crap. That increases to around 12 3/4 hours for 128 Kb -q0 mono.

 

[ZantennaG1]

I used to live in a complex directly above Washington SR14 and used to sometimes park a receiver on 87.9. Best variety of music you'll hear on any station!

LOL, but technically true! Broadcast stations have deadlines, bills, etc., so they have to be really careful with formatting if they want to make cash on it. Not as true with Part 15ers and Pirates.

 

[JBraddock]

You rip your own MP3 CDs now. 7 hours plus depending on bitrate.

Maximum ~5 1/2 hours per disc if CORRECTLY encoded at 320 Kb/s discrete stereo (using -q0 in LAME), no lower, and no "joint stereo" crap. That increases to around 12 3/4 hours for 128 Kb -q0 mono.

I do 320 CBR q0, but I use joint stereo. Never was able to hear a difference between full stereo and joint, and joint saves space.

 

[Harvey_Dogg]

A car with 100,000 miles use to be a clunker. A ten year old car use to be rusted out. That's not true anymore. Cars last longer now.

 

[vchimpanzee]

A lot of us who worked in radio 20 years ago used that term to describe some of our listeners. While some people used it to describe anyone who didn’t think they did a great job and who didn’t love what they were doing, all of us have stories of people, usually kids, who would call us and act like they knew everything we should be doing despite never having done radio or having any idea how we did things. Pretty much everybody also received emails signed by someone using an obvious alias or nickname telling us we were lousy.

I realize most of those people at least listened. None of us could’ve been around and doing something we enjoyed for a paycheck without listening, but liking people who listened longer and complained frequently is truly a trying task. Most of us preferred the listeners who didn’t interact, but, with every book, we knew they were there. There were also the loyal listeners who called almost every week and wanted to hear the same song. I still remember the name of the lady who called me weekly to hear “The Mummers Dance“ even though I haven’t cracked the mic in a dozen years. Some of those listeners could be a bit strange, but all of them seemed harmless enough.

That sounds like me.

 

[vchimpanzee]

A car with 100,000 miles use to be a clunker. A ten year old car use to be rusted out. That's not true anymore. Cars last longer now.

Mine's 25 years old and just passed 180,000. It was having some problems but seems fine aside from a check engine light that won't turn off (when I ask, it's usually some picky sensor that wouldn't have existed 30 or so years ago).

 

[Kelly A]

The other "fact" that always amused me there was the allegation -- by someone with a "friend" at Sirius supposedly acting as a mole -- that the in-house term among Sirius programmers for subscribers who dared question programming, playlists, etc. was "SPERM," standing for "Self Proclaimed Experts on Radio and Music." This was often cited as an example of Sirius management's disdain for its paying customers.

That's ridiculous. I'm pretty familiar with SXM, and I've never ever heard or seen anyone say anything disparaging toward subscribers/listeners. If anything, I've heard the folks inside who go out of their way to value their listeners.
That being said, does any programming department, OTA or satellite care for 'arm chair' programmers being outwardly critical or sending nasty with comments about song selections? Definitely not. If you were a professional with the advantage of research and data, with some amateur-jerk-tough guy with a keyboard telling you how to do your job, chances are you wouldn't care for that either.

 

[JBraddock]

A car with 100,000 miles use to be a clunker. A ten year old car use to be rusted out. That's not true anymore. Cars last longer now.

The 100,000-mile lifespan predated the era where Honda and Toyota began to dominate in the 80s and early 90s. U.S. heritage brands producing clunkers in the 70s and 80s had to play catch up. Three of my 4 Hondas (1980s & 90s) made 200,000. The current one should too, if I ever get around to putting that many miles on it.