The 2024 Ford Mustang is the following automobile to lose AM radio

It’s important to hand it to AM radio—it has outlasted the 8-track, the cassette, and the compact disc as a method to ship audio content material to a automobile. This primary-generation radio broadcast expertise dates again to the daybreak of the final century earlier than it was outdated by FM, which has higher sound constancy and is much less prone to undergo from interference.

However good previous amplitude modulation joins these shiny CDs and twisted tapes on the scrapheap of historical past, a minimum of so far as the following Ford Mustang is worried. When the 2024 Mustang goes on sale this summer season, it can achieve this with out an AM radio operate, in line with Ford Authority.

That may make it the second Ford to lose entry to this vintage broadcast choice. After together with it within the first mannequin yr 2022 F-150 Lightning electrical pickup vehicles, Ford dropped AM for MY2023 onward. Different electrical automobiles have notably dropped AM radio—Tesla moved away from together with it in new vehicles in 2018, as did BMW with its i3 metropolis automobile, citing the potential for electromagnetic interference (EMI) from the EV powertrain. (AM radio is a function on loads of different EVs, so this clarification is unconvincing.)

These strikes haven’t been universally well-received. Final yr, each the previous head of the Federal Emergency Administration Company and US Senator Ed Markey (D Mass.) referred to as on automakers to protect AM radio. Whereas AM radio performs no function in a lot of our lives, some nonetheless use it to take heed to sports activities or discuss radio, and the federal government continues to depend on it for the Nationwide Public Warning System. Final yr additionally noticed the FCC commissioner reject calls to reassign AM radio’s spectrum.

Sen. Markey went additional, asking BMW, Ford Normal Motors, Honda Motor, Hyundai, Jaguar Land Rover, Kia, Lucid, Mazda, Mercedes-Benz, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Polestar, Rivian, Stellantis, Subaru, Tesla, Toyota, Volkswagen Group, and Volvo to clarify whether or not they have dropped AM from any automobiles. He additionally needed to find out about any future plans to drop AM or FM, the explanations for dropping AM, any steps these firms have taken to defend AM radio receivers from EMI, and whether or not the businesses provide any free digital broadcast radio of their vehicles.

Ford’s causes for dropping AM radio from the following Mustang are unknown, though for the reason that subsequent Mustang will not be electrified, the transfer cannot be resulting from EMI from an electrical powertrain.