Why Teslas Will Not Have AM Radios

[kevtronics]

No FM + HD (no mention of FM HD reception capability in the Tesla Upgrade)?

Teslas do have HD Radio, and they mention the simulcasts on FM HD subchannels as a way to listen to AM stations:

 

[PTBoardOp94]

Point taken. But last time I checked, the AM broadcast band is also a legit broadcast band in the US.

It is indeed. I specified FM because the equipment that I have access to is specified for VHF, not MW.

 

[Anton P]

I did some googling and it appears Model S used to have AM up to model year 2016. Does not look like Model X or 3 ever had it. Users with AM radio complain of poor reception and hearing motor interference on the radio during acceleration. So it makes sense to remove it since most people stream audio over IP anyway. Its also possible that in newer vehicles with faster SiC transistors in the motor inverter the switching time is faster creating more interference than IGBT based inverters in older cars like my Leaf. So the engineering required to deal with that may not be worth the trouble.

 

[Triple Fake Jerry]

Seems like a weird flex from Musk ever since he red-pilled. AM is where talk radio resides.

 

[TomásEstefan]

Plus AM in newer cars seem to have limited bandwidth (to overcome interference?) the stations that can be received sound horrible.
I much rather take the online stream.

I've already said this in another thread some time ago but even if the AM band right now magically had no noise problem, in newer car radios AM would still be nearly unlistenable. For example my Kenwood AM/FM HD car radio's AM section boasts of barely 2 kHz audio from a narrow IF band pass which has such incredibly steep skirts that yes there is virtually no adjacent interference, but you cannot even hear "S's" at the end of words. It's just hideous.

 

[CTListener]

I've already said this in another thread some time ago but even if the AM band right now magically had no noise problem, in newer car radios AM would still be nearly unlistenable. For example my Kenwood AM/FM HD car radio's AM section boasts of barely 2 kHz audio from a narrow IF band pass which has such incredibly steep skirts that yes there is virtually no adjacent interference, but you cannot even hear "S's" at the end of words. It's just hideous.

Same thing with the OEM radio in my 2013 Chevy. My previous car was a 2008 VW, and that had a very good AM section on its radio. I logged a bunch of gray-line DX sitting in parking lots in that car. Doing so in my current car is an exercise in frustration, and I have much less QRM here in Vermont than I had in Connecticut.