It’s Friday at the end of what’s felt like a long week. Maybe we all just miss Mercedes [Editor’s Note: Why is this a “maybe”? -DT]? She’s out playing with Toyotas in Hawaii. Whatever the reason, we’ve got a nice mix of stories to bring you in today’s morning news roundup. We’re starting, of course, with the Hyundai-Kia settlement, but the last story is something so happy it’ll make you smile all the way to the weekend.
I’ll give you a hint:
Good News If You Own One Of Those Kias Or Hyundais The TikTok Teens Love To Steal
Did you know that The Autopian has a brand new TikTok page? Please follow us before the app is banned everywhere, leading to the surprise election of single-issue candidate Selena Gomez (for the record this is not Selena Gomez shade, I’m a big “Selena + Chef” fan and also “Only Murders in the Building.” Please do not come for me Selena stans).
A funny thing about TikTok is that it’s great for short tutorials. For instance, last year a bunch of young people on TikTok figured out how to steal Hyundais and Kias with just a USB drive (and a screwdriver or other prying device). It turns out, Hyundai and Kia didn’t offer immobilizers on their lower spec cars (like my parent’s Kia Soul). This led some insurance companies to refuse to insure these vehicles. There’s a fix, apparently, but it’s been slow to rollout.
At the same time, the inevitable lawsuits began, and Hyundai and Kia have settled for a little over $200 million to help make those lawsuits go away.
Automotive News has the details on how people impacted by the car theft spree will be remunerated:
A large portion of the settlement, $145 million, will go toward out-of-pocket losses experienced by owners, including vehicles lost or stolen, vehicles that incurred damages, loss of personal property and insurance-related expenses, according to attorneys.
Steve Berman, managing partner at the Hagens Berman law firm in Seattle and lead attorney in the lawsuit, said in a statement that they “worked to achieve a settlement that covers many types of losses — from those who were lucky enough to have never had their theft-prone car stolen, to those whose stolen cars were totaled completely due to Hyundai and Kia’s negligence.”
A spokesperson for Kia confirmed the settlement and said in a statement the company is “pleased” to resolve the class-action litigation.
If your car was stolen or your insurance went up, hold onto all the related documents!
Congress Wants To Save The AM Radio
I’m a big fan of FM and satellite radio. While I mostly listen to Apple Music, I enjoy the curation. Radio, it’s a sound salvation. Radio, it’s cleaning up the nation! Radio, it’s not a legal requirement to have in cars… yet!
In a rare bit of bipartisanship in Washington, both Democrats and Republicans are pushing to keep AM radio in cars at no cost to consumers. Here’s a copy of the bill if you’re curious. Here’s the AP summary if you’re not used to reading legislation. Basically, it means that automakers have to keep AM radio in their cars and, if the cars predate the mandate, to let buyers know. Currently, both Ford and Tesla have dropped AM radios.
Ok, so, why are the automakers doing this? Again, from the AP:
Supporters of preserving AM radio in cars cite public safety concerns. The bill’s sponsors note AM radio’s historic role in transmitting vital information during emergencies, such as communication during natural disasters, especially to people in rural areas
“Carmakers shouldn’t tune out AM radio in new vehicles or put it behind a costly digital paywall,” Sen. Edward Markey, D-Mass., one of the bill’s sponsors, said in a statement. He added that the bill aims to “ensure that this resilient and popular communication tool does not become a relic of the past.”
Ok, what about the automakers?
“This is simply a bill to prop up and give preference to a particular technology that’s now competing with other communications options and adapting to changing listenership,” the alliance said, while adding that automakers are committed to ensuring drivers have access to public alerts and safety warnings.
I don’t know, automakers, I think you better do as told. I think you better preserve the radio.
Time For Some Ferrari Drama
John Elkann, the chairman of both Ferrari and Stellantis (along with two of his sibling), is apparently suing his mom over his inheritance. Awkward.
This all goes back to Gianni Agnelli, the legendary head of Fiat who turned the company (and the country of Italy) around after WWII. His daughter Margherita inherited about $1.3 billion from the estate and agreed to split that up between three of her children. Margherita, though, had five other kids with her second husband, and she’s trying to make sure they’re not going to get cut out.
Reuters does a fantastic job of going through all the twists-and-turns of the deal, and this is mostly just me telling you to go read that story. This has been going on for 15 years and may finally come to some resolution, maybe, in the coming weeks. There’s a catch, though, because there are cases happening both in Switzerland and Italy!
The Happiest Story You’ll Read All Day
I like Bentley. The brand makes some nice cars. I once went to a party at one of the auto shows Bentley threw and Solange was there, so I got to see Solange sing to like 12 people. It was fantastic.
Bentley also has bees! As part of the company’s move to make the HQ in Crewe, England more environmentally friendly, it’s created an apiary to make honey. I bet it’s amazing honey.
Also, Bentley gave it the most Bentley name possible: The Excellence Centre for Honey Production.
I love that name. Currently, Bentley has 600,000 bees but, in honor of World Bee Day, they’re going to upgrade to 1 million bees. 1 million bees, y’all! That’s a lot of bees:
“Our Bentley Bees have been at our site for almost five years, producing over 2,000 jars of honey for our extraordinary colleagues and customers. We hope that by installing seven new hives, in addition to ten hives already in place at our Excellence Centre for Honey Production, we can further enhance our positive impact on the local environment as part of a wider sustainability programme. This is to ensure Bentley remains a significant contributor to local biodiversity and adds to our ambition to be the leaders in sustainable luxury mobility.”
In partnership with ‘Buckley Bees’, Bentley installed a colony of 120,000 indigenous honey bees as part of British marque’s #GOTOZERO sustainable strategy. This year, the colony will now grow to over one million bees across 17 active bee hives at the company’s headquarters. The Crewe-based manufacturer, hopes that in 2023 Bentley can surpass last year’s record honey harvest, where the bees produced over 1,000 jars of honey whilst helping to pollinate the on-site flora and bring wider benefits to the surrounding Cheshire countryside.
Fancy bees!
The Big Question
When was the last time you listened to AM radio? What did you listen to?
Photos: Kia, Bentley, Giphy, HBO
I live within listening range of the only all-digital AM station in the country: WWFD The Gamut. Near FM sound quality if you have an HD Radio-capable car. Awesome radio station too. I also listen to Orioles games on AM radio occasionally.
The thing that makes AM important is its propagation characteristics. At night, the signal can be received very far away because of the interaction with the ionosphere. I agree it remains important for emergency alerts and is not replaced by FM or streaming.
The only time I even attempt to listen to AM radio is when the electronic signs on the highway informs us that there is some road info available on the AM radio. By the time I figure out how to change to AM, figure out how to change the station to the prescribed frequency, fiddle with volume, I am already long past the very small decent-reception area. The few times I was actually successful in tuning in, the static and garbled voice on the message is basically gibberish.
The last time I listened to AM radio was actually a few months ago, when there were severe storms and tornado warnings all around us. I’ve got a mid 70’s stereo cabinet (complete with working phonograph) and it’s our only radio that’s not in a car. Sometimes it gets FM too, but that seems to depend on its mood. It’s not storm season without hearing that awful tone they use to interrupt programs! It’s a bit anachronistic at this point though, since the city’s major news stations have apps with live streams of meteorologists when the storms roll in.
I still listen to AM sports talk when I’m driving around sometimes.
Last time listening to am radio, probably the mid 1990s.
The last time I listened to AM radio I was a very small child listening to the end of a baseball game with my dad that we’d left early because staying to the end was way past my bedtime — decades ago.
I’ve seen the “Tune to AM 690 for an important message” signs on the highway but never bothered to tune in. I didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary on the route, so my suspicions were confirmed that they were exaggerating with the use of the word “important”. I’ve been desensitized to “important messages” ever since I was a kid when my TV shows would be punctuated by announcements that the show will “be right back after these important messages” which were nothing more than advertisements for toys and sugar cereals.
My in-car listening habits have evolved over time but have never regularly included radio. When I started driving, I’d make custom mix CDs to listen to. Then I got a car with a USB port, so I’d load up a flash drive with a bunch of my favorite tunes and play them on shuffle. Now I just stream Amazon Music from my phone. The robots learned the sort of music that I like after playing just a few artists and now serve up a nice variety for me.
I wish Bentley had named their bee center the Excellence Center for Honey Operations: better acronym, ECHO. Or maybe the Winnie the Pooh Excellence Center for Honey Consumption.
Listen to AM a couple times a week, mainly for sports, weather and news. I do find it better for long car trips for its longer broadcast range. No satellite or streaming radio for me, thanks.
I listened to AM, just this morning. Good old WCCO is a legendary news, weather, and talk format station in Minnesota. Plus, they broadcast Twins Baseball.
They’ve been calling themselves “The Good Neighbor” for something like 80 years, which is still surprisingly accurate.
I love bees. I’ve done a little beekeeping and wish I could do more. It’s extremely satisfying work.
Last AM usage? On the way into Chicago yesterday morning to check traffic conditions inbound, and yeah, SpeedJokes. Otherwise, when I’m driving at night, I often tune around the band for a little AM broadcast band DX-ing (looking for long-distance stations). The high-power/clear-channel (NOT iHeart, nee Clear Channel) station in Toronto, ON still plays music at night. The Grand Old Opry is still broadcast on WSM out of Nashville, too… and it’s often interesting to listen to local news/traffic from halfway across the country from where one’s at.
AM’s listenership problems are as much the fault of owners (both big and small) and programmers, who so often just run syndicated sports/toxic political talk off a feed, rather than doing local radio as a part of the community they’re in. I know, people cost money, and that cuts into ownership revenues… <shrug>
AM radio? Last summer, the Boston Red Sox. Cruising to music is my usual thing but some summer evenings just call for the retro-ness of baseball on AM radio.
I can’t remember the last time I listened to AM, think it was a talk radio station though. I have 2 Kias and both are under this lawsuit. Luckily neither one has been stolen, but my insurance has gone up because of the thefts
Last time I listened to AM radio was for a Xavier basketball game this past March.
Public Radio in the midwest is mostly FM and iffy in spots, fortunately Iowa Public Radio still has a high power AM transmitter that covers all of Iowa and parts of neighboring states.
IPR actually has two medium power AM signals (Ames/Des Moines at 640 kHz and Iowa City, at 910 kHz). Both have been on-air 100+ years and are old enough to have a “W” call sign, yet be west of the Mississippi River.
I still listen to AM radio for certain things. Emergency weather reports when I’m out mostly since I don’t have a cell phone. That or updates on NASCAR races when I’m out driving (because again, no cell phone). Plus local traffic reports when I’m driving long distance come in over AM radio.
That said, the reason why Ford and Tesla are getting rid of AM is because they can’t be bothered shielding the receiver from the phase noise produced by the electric motors. AM being excluded by them is purely about money. Actually… I don’t think Mercedes-Benz supports it on the EQS, either. So yeah, it’s just pure laziness because they don’t want to put in the money to engineer a signal shield. Which, thinking more broadly, should concern you because that disregard for signal shielding is going to screw with other wireless communication standards. The 5GHz band is already oversaturated (thanks Bluetooth!), so the sub-1GHz band is being looked at as the next alternative. Which is why with the FM shutdown tech companies are salivating at the FM band to crowd, and want AM dead next
Every couple of years I’ll be on a car trip of some sort and throw on a baseball game via AM radio, though I’m less likely to do that with XM in my van.
Other than sports broadcasts and traffic info, I can’t think of anything else I’ve used it for.
Last Time I heard AM radio was in 1993 or 94, and it was a death metal station around San Antonio. Which fucking ruled because no FM station would put on Morbid Angel’s Covenant album.
When you’re weathering a storm in a remote area with no FM reception you crave local and regional AM radio. When hurricanes and blackouts take out all the local media and internet, people tune in distant AM stations to find out what happened. Heck, driving I70 through the Glenwood Canyon the only radio I could get was shortwave!
I’m pretty sure the last time I listened to AM radio was shortly after passing one of those “Important Highway Safety Message when Flashing, tune to 840 AM” signs. I don’t really like the idea of drivers instead trying to find the local highway authority’s Twitter account while driving instead…
If automakers have to include AM radio, I wonder if they’ll also have to shield EV motors to prevent interference. I suspect there could be a number of manufacturers who include the AM radio but don’t do anything to make sure you can reasonably listen to it, depending on what lawmakers do.
From US-Bees to Bee-ntleys today. I looked far too quickly at the Bentley image and thought it was like a road sign and the structures were buildings, then noticed the beekeepers at work.
For AM radio, I also did not know there was a push to phase it out. Also seems like the kind of thing us Millennials should get blamed for killing off with our dang podcasts. In seriousness, I think it’s one of those things we assume will always be there.
Tesla I get phasing it out, but not someone like Ford. I’d think Ford buyers are more likely to listen to AM. I don’t think I have ever listened to AM radio, but my father did and probably still does, for talk programs. Although some are more on FM now as I often hear when I start up his car, probably thanks to more corporations buying everything up. He’s also one that really likes satellite radio for the talk programs, but not enough to pay for it.
Ford likes standardized parts and doesn’t want to shield their EV motors to avoid interference. If the radio receiver can be used in EVs and ICEs alike, they’re going to go with it and figure buyers will deal with it.
Last time I listened to AM I think it was from my Uncle’s 50s truck he restored, that’s all the radio could get, and it was either talk radio or Spanish music. Think that’s about all the stations in my area play, and I’d prefer the Spanish music by far.
On one hand, an AM radio station helps pay my rent, so I support any effort to preserve it (when in Chicago: https://www.audacy.com/wbbm780).
On the other, it IS a technology that’s been in existence for an entire century — and while it is still a vital resource in emergencies, much of that information is available through other sources.
I was actually unaware that carmakers were phasing out AM radio.
Plenty of sports broadcasts are still on AM. I guess no bean counters at Ford or Tesla are baseball fans.
The issue is that EV motors can cause a lot of interference for AM radio. Rather than have one stereo with AM and one without it for EVs (or trying to put in a lot of shielding near the motors), some automakers are just removing AM bands from their stereos across the whole line.
Interesting….the more you know.
Well, since the Ford fam still owns the Detroit Lions, it could be argued that they aren’t football fans or broadcast games on AM radio. 😉
The last time I listened to AM radio was when my neighbor would have it on as he worked in his garage. It was a mix of sports talk and Rush Limbaugh.
I didn’t miss it when he moved away.