Hasta La Gadget!

Here’s another small victory for HD Radio: Mercedes-Benz will extend the use of HD Radio in its 2010 cars and SUVs from five models to 11, which covers the majority of the Mercedes-Benz fleet. It’s a partial victory, only, for HD Radio, because it’s again an option, and an option that’s part of a package (premium package). What HD Radio needs is to be a standard feature of the head unit, like the CD player is now or a cassette player was 15 years ago. The HD option will be added to the CL-, CLS-, E-Coupe (nee CLK), S-, SL- and SLK-Class models. The M-, R-, GL-, G-Class (all SUVs) and E-Class already have the option. It brings to an even dozen the automakers offering HD here. HD radio adds one or two additional stations to each currently broadcast frequency (AM or FM), in digital, one being the same programming in digital (about the same quality as satellite radio) and the other something completely different.