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Comment by davidiach | Hacker News Reader

The place where a wireless charger would be really useful is the car.

No, it isn't. I have a 3rd party Qi dock in my car. It works, but the power supplied by inductive charging isn't sufficient to power a phone which is running GPS and playing podcasts via Bluetooth.

I've tried this with a Nexus 6 (built in charging) and a Note 3 (add on cover) - in both cases the charger couldn't keep up with the discharge rate. Sure, the battery drained more slowly than would otherwise have been the case, but it's not a brilliant solution.

Perhaps phones will get me efficient in future, or maybe Qi will one day be as fast as USB charging. For now, the convenience is outweighed by crappy performance.

I installed a Qi dock in my car, and it charges the LG G3 just fine despite huge power draw from the QHD screen.

To maximize the power transfer, I would recommend:

1) Use a charger with 3 coils instead of 1

2) Don't use a cheap car outlet USB adapter. Get a nice one with at least 2A available per port. The nice ones are actually isolated to reduce interference with FM radio, too.

3) Use a very thin case, or no case at all on your phone.

Some cars like the Lexus NX already come with a wireless charging tray.

Source - http://pressroom.lexus.com/releases/lexus+2015+nx+200t+300h+...

I believe Toyota introduced that back with their 2013 Avalon. Indeed, I just found the following Youtube video showing it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5UujRFcmZU

Only if you don't mount your phone as a GPS (or other in-car application)

Why is mounting a phone as a GPS still so terrible? I have one of those suction cup stick on ones that falls off when the outside Vs. inside temperature changes too rapidly (so often).

They either need to allow the phone's video output to be displayed on the in-car LCD (and for touch actions on the LCD to be relayed to the phone), or my preferred option just add a damn screw hole to every dashboard, so we can just screw in a GPS holder (or other accessories) and it will never ever fall off.

Have you frequently moved the suction cup since first installation? The one I bought came with a sticky coating on the suction cup, and it's a beast (never falls, difficult to remove). But I can see potential issues if the sticky coating were to wear thin

No, and I've owned two different ones with different designs. They just fall off a lot.

But around here the temp' falls to well below freezing in the winter to sometimes one hundred degrees (F) in the summer.

I just don't think suction cuffs are the best idea for this application in general. Phones are relatively heavy, cars shake from side to side, and temperature weakens the suction.

For a $1 screw thread in a hole which the manufacturer of cars could add trivially in seconds, it just seems like this should be a solved problem by now.

You need one that "sucks" the air out of the suction cup, if you want it to hold through everything.

Otherwise, get one that is sticky, or one that connect to your dashboard.

Still pretty nice when you mount it for GPS as there are a couple solutions that do just that. Two examples. http://www.theairdock.com/ http://www.tylt.com/vu-car/

My housemate has an inductive charger and uses their phone for GPS. It's rather nice not having to screw with plugging the device in when you're getting in the car.

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