LET'S GO EU!
These headlines make me proud. Let's reach a global standard for charging stuff.
I wish everything that had to be charged sometimes had a USB-C plug. But also I hope that the USB standard gets less messy in the future.
These headlines make me proud. Let's reach a global standard for charging stuff.
I wish everything that had to be charged sometimes had a USB-C plug. But also I hope that the USB standard gets less messy in the future.
I love the fact that there is a standardized port, and I can get devices of any type to charge with a single powerful charger. But connector and cables are wonky at best if you want to have a single cable for everything too (look up prices, thickness and lengths of USB-C PD 100W, alt-DP 1.4 capable, USB 3+ speeds cables, and then watch them break in a few months of "regular" use like in a car charger).
But I want a better, more robust standard than USB-C! Can that happen with the law in place? I don't know, but that scares me.
I’m aware of your sarcasm, but it did bother me that my Tesla used a proprietary port that made it more difficult to use other charging locations, such as the charger next to my apartment. Electric vehicle charging ports need standardization as well.
Perhaps having these laws standardizing ports will set the groundwork for a more robust standard in the future. I don’t think there’s ever going to be a perfect solution since there are so many differing opinions, but I do believe this is a good start.
This is happening in europe, tesla is switching to type 2 connectors. I think these laws certainly play a role in motivating the company.
Similarly for cars: as you push for faster charging, you'll need bigger connector pins, though I am sure (I hope?) standard EV ports are sufficiently over-engineered for the time being.
> Regardless of their manufacturer, all new mobile phones, tablets, digital cameras, headphones and headsets, handheld videogame consoles and portable speakers, e-readers, keyboards, mice, portable navigation systems, earbuds and laptops that are rechargeable via a wired cable, operating with a power delivery of up to 100 Watts, will have to be equipped with a USB Type-C port.
Amazing that people still don’t get it.
That's not how USB works.
Tech history, and human history in general, is littered with examples. Especially in the old Warsaw Pact states.
> why should the committee put any effort into developing anything better?
The EU is absolutely not in the business of developing any connector whatsoever. They wanted _a_ standard (for eco/market reasons), and asked the industry to create one. This became USB and the USB Forum. Now they make it mandatory to follow that standard. In the act they passed, the power to set the specific standard is deferred to the European Commission, to make it easier to update it if necessary. These are called delegated acts [0]. If a new physical connector is ever necessary, the USB forum will write the standard, ask the EU if they can update the reference, which is easy since it's only a matter of pushing paperwork. _Not_ hardcoding a feature like this, and following what industry wants is an explicit goal of the legislative process. It has worked extremely well in these sorts of circumstances. The only risk I could see is a technical innovation for connectors, which the USB Forum refuses to implement for some reason. This could happen, but I don't see it as being any different then current industry practices.
[0]: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=LEGISSUM...