#3G

There’s a gaggle of Mazda owners in Seattle, Washington, that have reportedly been stuck listening to National Public Radio (NPR) over the last few weeks. The manufacturer has addressed the problem, saying the local affiliate had broadcast images files with no extension causing an issue on some 2014-2017 Mazda vehicles with older HD radio software. This effectively bricked the infotainment system on some vehicles, locking them into listening to NPR and out of literally everything else.

When people started burning down 5G towers in fear, the practice seemed a little misguided. But if you happen to be the owner of a connected automobile, there’s a chance you’ll be wishing enough of them had been taken down to delay those low-latency spires from becoming the default broadcasting network.

While you were probably aware that 3G cellular networks will be shut down in the U.S. next year so the telecom industry can focus in on 5G, you may not have been hip to the fact that this could totally nullify the connected features inside of your car. Unfortunately, loads of automobiles manufactured the early days of phone pairing and internet integration won’t be able to make the journey into 5G like the new phone or tablet you purchased. Worse yet, there are even some modern vehicles that are about to become a lot less feature rich with companies that have no intention of offering updates.

China has barely received wireless 3G service (a little later than the US, much later than Europe and Japan.) China has three competing 3G technologies, one based on the globally accepted WDCMA (UMTS) standard, the other two homegrown. That, and the fact that coverage is still spotty, doesn’t stop them from networking their cars. Chinese love their mobile phones and they love their cars. In Beijing, nearly one in every inhabitant has a mobile. China counts approximately 700m mobile phones, one for every two people.

Changan Auto has signed a strategic cooperation agreement this week with China Mobile to develop a smart vehicle based on 3G wireless technologies, Xinhua reports via Gasgoo.