Back in August 2022, Ford Authority reported that the 2023 Ford F-150 Lightning was dropping its AM radio functionality, a common trend in the automotive industry these days. In fact, some automakers have claimed that AM radio can cause electromagnetic interference (EMI) with the drivetrains present in all-electric vehicles, though AM was standard in the 2022 F-150 Lightning and is also present in some other EVs. Then, earlier this month, Ford Authority reported that the redesigned 2024 Ford Mustang was also ditching AM radio, even though it won’t be sold with any sort of electrified powertrain. However, it likely won’t be the last one to do so, either.
“A majority of U.S. AM stations, as well as a number of countries and automakers globally, are modernizing radio by offering internet streaming through mobile apps, FM, digital, and satellite radio options,” a Ford spokesperson explained to ARS Technica. “Ford will continue to offer these alternatives for customers to hear their favorite AM radio music, news, and podcasts as we remove amplitude modulation – the definition of AM in this case – from most new and updated models we bring to market.”
Ford previously stated that even without an AM receiver, “with FM, satellite radio, mobile data, and others, vehicles and their drivers have numerous alternative sources to receive [FEMA’s Emergency Alert System] alerts.” Regardless, there are still a lot of people that find AM to be a useful medium for listening to news, sports, weather, and talk shows.
Ford isn’t alone in making this particular move, as other automakers – such as Tesla and BMW – have also removed AM functionality from some vehicles in recent years, but many still have concerns about it, whether those be related to the ability to receive emergency broadcasts or simply because they like to listen to AM radio in general. However, it seems as if the F-150 Lightning and S650 Mustang won’t be the last Blue Oval models to ditch this particular feature.
We’ll have more on Ford’s shift away from AM radio soon, so be sure and subscribe to Ford Authority for 24/7 Ford news coverage.
Comments
It’s still too soon to omit this option but programming heard on AM will gravitate to FM or digital platforms. As for alerts, they send out alerts to my phone every time a 65 year old man comes home 5 minutes late from the store so no need to be concerned about that.
As I returned to my native mountainous land last weekend, I was reminded how bad radio reception can be on FM radio, and how useful AM radio can be. You can’t beat AM radio in areas with weak signals. It seems silly to me for auto companies to keep engineering unneeded complexity into vehicles, and then cut a simple, practical item like AM radio. But, you can’t sell a subscription service to something you pull out of the air for free.
Sure you can.
You could sell the AM band connection if you wanted to as a result of having to install the hardware to process it.
It might cross some people’s eyes if you took that approach but it’s doable.
It would be easier to charge for the hardware as an upgrade option but I expect that suppressing the RF interference to the AM band from the drivetrain must be more costly than what ford wants to contend with.
Ford Australia started removing AM from Euro sourced cars, but got a huge backlash and quickly reinstated it. There are huge parts of Australia where there’s no data coverage, Digital radio is only in capital cities and FM signals are too short range to reach too far from the cities, so AM is the only viable alternative for anything other than music stored on a phone or USB stick
How long ago was that?
One way around it if push eventually comes to shove would be to take along a portable AM/FM receiver and plug it into the auxiliary jack or Bluetooth.
AM radios causing EMI for other components is a weak-tea excuse for removing AM. Any radio designer worth his salt can come up with proper shielding for the local oscillator. Engineers for radios in submarines figured that out in world war two.
And, WILL FORD AUTHORITY STOP THESE BLASTED POP-UPS AND FOLLOW-ALONGS THAT BLOCK CONTENT? Thank you.
Problem: EVs can cause interference with AM radios, even in neighboring cars
Ford Solution: Get rid of AM radios!
Brilliant
Let me correct your analysis…..EV’s are interfering with everything: Solution, GET RID OF EV’s.
The cheerleaders for this new wave transportation have gotten way ahead of themselves.
BEV are not even close to being ‘any of the wonderful things claimed’.
The day may well soon come when people are ashamed to be seen driving in a BEV for all the honest reasons.
We all know that ‘if it seems to good to be true…. it invariably is’.
How about get rid of EVs?
DROP CARS DROP AM ONCE A LOSER ALWAYS A LOSER. MAGA.
More Ford de-contenting 2.0. 2024 Mustang….no more fog lights, AM radio, quad exhaust tips, easy to use dash buttons and knobs, and more. Off we shop at competitors stores starting this year.
I’m with ya’ damn it! I’m still pissed cars don’t come with an 8-track and cassette player along with a phonograph in the glove box! That box of 8-tracks my folks gave me along with the cassettes and CDs I used to listen to along with the 8 AM presets that never have been used are all collecting dust but I might use them one day…
Here is why your analogy is wrong: Cassettes and 8-tracks can replaced by other types of digital music inputs (smartphones, iPods, MP3 players, memory sticks). But when AM radio is gone, there is NO replacement. You may not use the 8 AM presets on your vehicle, but is everyone else just like you? Answer: No. Some of the highest rated radio stations in the USA transmit on the AM band.
In my jurisdiction, AM radios offer several talk, weather and road report stations that I would miss.
This interference thing is fixable and Ford would do well to keep AM in all its products.
Being the first at anything often means the next guy is saved the negative blowback of ill thought out ‘knee jerk’ decisions.
Ford appears to increasingly rely on these types of changes and announcements all of which never fix their poor build quality and reliability issues.
I expect that Ford’s BEV products will be similarly challenged going into the future.
Sorry cheerleaders…. you need to pom poms.
This is nothing more than Ford being able to buy a cheaper radio from its radio supplier and then keep the profits. Ford continues to decontant its vehicles while the price goes up and QC plummets. Now many are off to the competitors for a vehicle that isn’t recalled 7 times in its first year of life.
No 6 Speed Ecoboost, No foglights, No AM radio. NO THANKS. Results. IBE= I Buy Elsewhere.
Plus, no: CD players, no spare tires, and no floor shifters.
Unless some selection of major AM stations returns to satellite radio, dumping AM capability is a major inconvenience. Emergency Broadcast System alerts, local/regional news, traffic reports, and radio broadcasts of live NCAA and major league sports teams are all AM features we enjoy, especially when traveling five hours or so from home where we can still catch up through our local 50,000 watt clear channel station. In 2023 there must be a way to eliminate interference in EV’s rather than throwing the baby out with the bath water.
You also cannot stream your local teams on the phone apps like Iheart because of digital rights. Not everyone can afford to or justify signing up for SiriusXM NFL, MLB, NBA package to listen to their local team. This only work if you have a FM version of every AM channel.
Even when am AM station is simulcast on the FM band, the coverage area is not the same. Usually the AM signal travels much farther than the FM sister station simulcasting.
lol, AM 790 Talk Radio is probably having a field day with this!