An AM radio can be put together for pennies. I’ve gotten them as giveaway swag before. This is the stupidest controversy. You could give everyone in America an AM radio for the cost of this lawsuit and they could just stick it in their car with the stereo jack.
I take no position on this. Seems to me the cost should be negligible if they are forced to include them and the harm will be negligible if they are removed.
My guess is this has been made a big deal by right wing media who see it as a threat to their ability to reach
imbecileslisteners and this would be a footnote otherwise.That being said, having an EBS receiver in cars isn’t a bad thing. Cell networks are unreliable in emergencies. Cell phones didn’t work for days after 9/11. Not that car radios would be particularly helpful in NYC with super low car ownership.
Seems like if they really cared about emergencies they would require car radios to support the actual weather band frequencies as well.
Do they currently require that cars offer an audio system?
ha - they mandate you can receive AM signals. Does the bill state the receiver has to be connected to speakers?
To follow that path, doesn’t everything (people included) receive AM radio waves as it passes through us? We just can’t tune into it. But I’m pretty sure I have all the AM spectrum passing through me right now.
They do require Bluetooth hand free, so I guess it goes implied with the audio system
What’s to stop auto makers from putting one crappy am radio with a tinny speaker built into the dash labeled “Emergency Radio”?
Nothing, other than that there’s no possible way that’d actually be cheaper than just including it in the godawful-complicated touch screen entertainment center that will pathologically already exist in every new car.
I can imagine a troll blasting all kind of crap for the lolz while stuck in traffic on the predefined channel if you can’t turn it off.
Then you severely underestimate the FCC and the amateur radio community. They might not find them immediately, but they will find them. People get tracked down for a lot less than fake emergency broadcasts.
Might be difficult if they only do it randomly.
