Wandering around the web as one tends to do, I wound up on YouTube watching a video about the Nissan “Cube”, a quirky little car targeted at young people. [Info here]. It’s the kind of car the “Good GM” has got to think about if they want to recapture the next generation of car buyers, and stop making only cars for Grandpa.
Just as a throwaway line in the middle of the review, they compared the U.S. Version with the Japanese domestic version (which of course needs the steering wheel on the right side since Japan drives on the British side of the road)…. and makes a snarky remark that the Japanese version does not come standard with a radio, and guessed that Japanese kids maybe are in love with their iPods and earbuds or something, and just moved on without actually finding out why. Ignore a trend like that at your own peril.
At the time the NAB is paying pollsters to tell them what they want to hear about what a great job Radio is doing, the culture that is going to dominate the U.S. car market is starting to make cars with no radio. Why is that and what does it say about the future of the Radio Business?
Can you imagine for a moment what it is like to drive a car that has no radio? People might talk to each other, and the driver might pay attention to the road and have fewer accidents. People may start thinking more about the amount of time they are wasting every day to make long commutes to work, rather than choosing to live close to where they work. Next time you’re out in your car, turn the radio off and see just how addicted you are.