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Do You Expect A Radio In Your Aptera?
As a retired former broadcasting technician, one of the reasons I retired a little earlier than I planned, was I saw the writing on the wall. Legacy broadcasting on both TV and Radio are going the way of newspapers, not gone, but dying a very slow death. That said, some people (mostly over 50 like me), still expect a traditional AM/FM radios as part of their infotainment system. Tesla has recently ditched the radio altogether, with this quote from theirr FAQ “<strong style=”font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;”>Is anything removed with the Infotainment Upgrade?
Yes. You will no longer have access to AM, FM or Sirius XM radio. The upgraded infotainment system is not compatible with the original radio tuner that came equipped on your vehicle. You will still have access to internet radio and music streaming, including streaming over Bluetooth®.”
Do you want or expect a radio in your Aptera? The specs for their infotainment system have yet to be released, but even if it does have a radio, it will probably be FM only. AM is a much lower frequency medium with a greatly reduced bandwidth compared to FM and as such, electric motors interfere with their reception. Many of you probably don’t care, but others may not even be aware of this, that’s why I created this post.
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54 Replies
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Do You Expect A Radio In Your Aptera?
updated 6 months, 3 weeks ago
47 Members
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54
Replies
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The videos that show the infotainment system Ui has a radio button. No idea if it’s traditional or internet (or will end up in the release version). I haven’t used old-school radio for 5 years so no loss as far as I’m concerned. If vehicles continue to drop radio and demand exists a standalone radio sending to Bluetooth should be an cheap / easy workaround.
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in my 1969 ford I only get AM, the radio knob is broken so I leave it on local talk radio. My wife drives a Tesla model 3, it doesn’t get AM only FM when there isn’t anything good I connect my phone and play some classic rock. I hope aptera puts at least FM it’s fun to browse stations when driving long distance.
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The only time I listen to FM radio is when I’m in my car or wearing my Earmuff with built in radio receiver. That’s mostly because it’s the easiest thing to listen to under those circumstances. My car is too old to be connected.
If Aptera can stream radio from any station my phone or computer can stream, which should be possible with just a modern enough web browser, I see no need for a conventional tuner, though I would probably use it occasionally if they provided one.
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I expect HD Radio as well as streaming, would like Sirius. I hadn’t listened to terrestrial radio for about 14 years because my previous two cars had Sirius which works everywhere, FM is local and streaming only works where you have cell coverage. Tesla doesn’t have Sirius but it does have HD so I occasionally listen to WGBH because the audio quality is so much better than for Slacker which is the only streaming service on a Tesla. However I mostly listen to streaming because it’s so much more flexible than broadcast.
There was a mention about of them not having anything, just a Bluetooth connection. If they do that I won’t buy the car, that’s a dealbreaker ladies. I want Android Auto, I had it in my Volt and it was much better than Tesla’s system because it had Google Maps, which is much better than Tesla’s nav, and it had lots of streaming services (I prefer Pandora). At a bare minimum they need to match what Tesla has but I’d be much happier if they had Android Auto and happier still if they had Android Automotive which is Google’s built in system (Polestar is the first car to come with it, but others are coming).
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I feel it should be embedded as part of the infotainment system. I imagine it is pretty much a single chip or part of an SoC for telecom/radio/etc. Yes, an antenna would be needed but it is early days for a ‘no radio transition. This could still be viewed as a fairly basic feature gap for some consumers looking at the Aptera. Remember, if Aptera succeeds it needs to sell to a wider cross-section of people far beyond the early adopter ‘evangelists’ such as ourselves.
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FM receiver in the car is a requirement for me. When natural disasters strike (and we all know that they do), the first thing to go (or get overwhelmed) is the cell network. Gets pretty spotty out in the sticks where I live too.
That being said, that selection criteria is applied when I buy smart phones also (Motorola and a few others include FM receivers). If I find that I have to use Bluetooth or even a plugin to play FM from my phone on a car’s infotainment system, then that’s no issue of concern for me. Could easily be an issue in the minds of many people if they think about it though.
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For those who want Sirius XM, you can buy a car kit module to add inexpensively if you want not to use your smart phone or app for music.
There are a variety of kits available. Try searching Amazon as one example and you’ll see a bunch. Cheers!
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Whether we currently listen to AM,FM, or satellite radio is irrelevant. A well designed infotainment system will give the owner a maximum of choices. We do not know what we will use in the future. I do not buy Tesla’s excuse for one moment. AM and FM is extremely simple and extremely easy to add. The real reason they are not including these is because they want to look more advanced than others. They want to appeal to the insecure “terminally chic” people who want something to bolster their sagging self esteem. As I stated earlier, a well designed infotainment system will give the owner a maximum of choices regardless of what is trendy.
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Just to clarify the Tesla FAQ quote in my first post, it was in regards to the infotainment upgrade, so if you don’t upgrade it, you’ll still have a functioning radio like Joshua. I don’t own a Tesla, so this is just my interpretation of that quote. That said, I believe this upgraded-radioless infotainment system is what you now get in any new Tesla going forward.
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It would be nice to have a tuner in the vehicle. Probably wouldn’t be necessary to include an 8 track player but a radio would be nice to have.
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No, I don’t expect a radio.
If it has built in speakers and the ability to play music from a thumbdrive or bluetooth connection that would be fantastic!
If I want a radio I can always add one myself at home.
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NPR is on most of the time in my car. A drive to the Boise airport is 120 miles. Only 40 or so of those miles provide cell service. I need an FM receiver, and even that doesn’t work for about 20 of those miles. Welcome to the rural US folks. Going north, reception is worse.
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FM just needs an antenna and tuner. If Aptera wants to offer FM they could laminate a wire into the composite roof as the antenna.
AM is very difficult in an electric car with LOTS of interference from the drive system. The Tesla Model 3 never had it.
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It would be nice at almost no additional cost and weight, but hey, here in Switzerland FM broadcast will be stopped altogether by the end of 2024, so for me a cassette player would come in more handy than FM radio ????
I guess my last FM radio reciever and cassette player will be those in my now 22 y/o car.
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Are they eliminating all radio or just analog FM? We have HD radio which is a digital format, in Europe there is the DAB standard.
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Only analog FM (87.5 – 108 MHz) will be eliminated. The only audio broadcasting here will be DAB (Digital Audio Broadcating, 174 – 230/240 MHz).
Of course, technically speaking DAB is also FM – frequency modulated, using FSK (Frequency-Shift Keying) – but we over here usually don’t refer to it as such.AM broadcasting in Switzerland was stopped by the end of 2008 but I guess that due to the way larger distances in the USA it still might be around there for quite a while.
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I like flexibility in terms of entertainment and emergency communications. All of the highway road conditions/alert systems are on AM still. They might move to FM someday. I would want digital-capable FM in the car; AM and XM are optionals for me.
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No, streaming all the way, preferably SiriusXM.
Dave
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I want a radio. For emergencies/disasters if naught else, though I do listen to the local NPR affiliate. I understand that AM may be impractical, but there’s no reason not to include FM/HD. The parts are cheap enough, and the technology still used enough, that it would not make sense to leave it out.
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since i don’t have regular tv or cable i only use streaming services, i usually get my news while riding in the car, so YES i would like to have FM radio
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Because Aptera is made of composite, it can have an antenna embedded in the body. It would be the only vehicle made that way.
Another unique design feature of the Aptera.
Perhaps adding to free media coverage (advertising) of the Aptera.
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I’m an old fuddy duddy. Give me FM radio, please. I live near and travel I-95 in Virginia and would hate to be stuck trying to rely on internet service in rural areas in bad weather.
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I like the idea of listening to local broadcasting for traffic reports during commute times. That works far better for me than looking at the traffic layer on Google Maps.
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I expect it all. Sirius Xm is a must but I love tuning in to local stations on my road trips and catch crazy local broadcasts. I want it all. AM FM XM HD STREAMING ETC. Why not. You might need AM for some kind of emergency broadcast down the road. You never know. And again, you find interesting local stuff sometimes.
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It seems like many folks on here are expecting luxury options on this vehicle which they’re getting for a family sedan price. I’m getting this vehicle for practical commuting purposes and don’t expect the bells and whistles on the dash that you get on a Land Cruiser. Whatever they make standard I’ll make it work, given the extraordinarily low price they’re offering it for.
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I expect a radio still on the Aptera. I still listen to a few FM HD stations here in LA (classical, country, pop and even a Sinatra 24/7 at times). Otherwise I’d listen to a streaming 80s/New Wave and classic rock via an app/Bluetooth. AM is solely for traffic and some (lame & biased) news for amusement..
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I would like FM as a bare minimum. As to the rest, I’ll leave that up to the experts.