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Comment by robot_jesus | Hacker News Reader

I'm curious if this also works for USB-A to USB-C. The use case: My Suburu has USB-A inputs and only allows wired Carplay. When I upgraded my iPhone and ditched Lightning, I had to try 6 different cables from my cable drawer to find one that supported data transfer.

I have so many cables I've accumulated over the years, I should either purge or at least categorize the functionality of each.

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This adapter works with my Android phone and makes my Android Auto wireless: https://aliexpress.com/item/1005008214786824.html

But it is the second product I tried; the first one didn't work (it's a 2020 Stellantis car). So, YMMV.

I see other folks provided options, in case you want to avoid aliexpress, this one worked for me for the past 4 years

https://a.co/d/0d9EOGRW

Does require a bit of setup, can scan reviews to see if people have optimized a config for your specific vehicle

For cheap cables like USB-A to USB-C, I just throw away all cables that do not support data transfer. I don’t need the mental overhead of categorizing these cables. So any USB-A to USB-C cable in my cable drawer would work in this scenario. And CarPlay doesn’t even require USB 3.0; 2.0 is enough.

I'd recommend a wireless CarPlay adapter. I bought one for my car, and it's a game-changer.

I used to use one for Android. It worked for about 6 weeks, then stopped working, then a few months later I tried it and it worked for about 6 weeks before stopping working again!

Your Subaru+iPhone combo already tests that capability, does it not?

Just purge the known-bad cables already. :) (Gather them up and scrap them if the landfill seems like a harsh destination.)

In a situation of surplus, there's no reason I can think of where keeping charging-only cables around has merit.

Later on, if you need a cable that very specifically can do USB 3 speeds, then: Use a flashlight and look inside of the USB A connector. The ones that only have 1 row of 4 contacts will never be able to do USB 3, while the ones with 2 rows contacts will probably work fine.

I keep charge only cables for traveling. I don't trust the USB port in whatever I'm connecting to so the power only cable comes out.

I don't trust a random, in-the-wild USB port to provide sane power, so I bring my own charging stuff. :)

That said: My travel tends to happen with my own car, and that travel is never international. I can see how a charge-only cable would be beneficial for others.

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