Any way for CarPlay to play nicely with both Lightning and USB-C phones?

Hardware
1

My wife and I share a car that has wired-only CarPlay. Currently we both have Lightning-connector phones, but as soon as one of us upgrades, I foresee annoyances. If one of us has to plug into the car with Lightning and one of us plugs in via USB-C, we’re going to have to keep swapping our cords or dongles each time one of us takes the car. (If we get a BlueTooth adapter to avoid wires, we’ll have a different kind of annoyance whenever both of us are in the car together and need to determine who it connects to.)

Is there any splitter that plays nicely with CarPlay and would allow each of us to plug in with the correct connector without needing to unplug cables or adapters?

Or some other elegant solution I’m not thinking of?

2

I can’t vouch for this, but you can buy a dual USB-C/Lightning cable.

Of course, the true answer is that it’s an excuse to buy two nice new phones. :innocent:

3 Likes
3

Oh interesting. I’ve seen these for power, but not for data. This one says it can “sync & charge” so I guess it can carry data and would work for CarPlay. I guess the only way to test it is to upgrade my phone and find out!

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4

You could buy the adapter that makes it wireless so you would not need the cord.

5

I believe there is no solid solution other than swapping the cords for whoever is driving.
I believe most of the wireless dongles have some limitations when it comes to CarPlay, I believe related to bandwidth, and the refresh rate on screen, and there will be lag.
Also the multi-connector cables are not reliable, but may be you have luck with a good cable.

Sorry if my message is negative, just my two cents as someone who is using CarPlay everyday for the last 7 years.

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6

There are a bunch of cables with attached-to-the-cable but removable-from-the-tip usb-c to Lightning adapters on Amazon. Of course, I don’t recognize any of the brand names. That gives me pause.

https://www.amazon.com/Charging-MJEMS-Braided-Charger-Compatible/dp/B08PVLGWQY/ref=sr_1_15?crid=33VRX0A0NK245&keywords=usb%2Bc%2Blightning%2Badapter&qid=1695298413&sprefix=usbc%2Blightning%2Badapter%2B%2Caps%2C107&sr=8-15&th=1

7

Would love to hear back when you test the cable out!

8

The cabled, CarPlay life is one of uncertainty and bated breath.

9

My Honda Accord (2016) head unit crashes about once or twice a month when running CarPlay. Sometimes I actually have to restart the whole car to get it going again. Not really that big a deal unless I’m relying on Maps to get me somewhere I’m not familiar with. But annoying.

10

Might be worth looking carefully with a flashlight to see if there’s another USB port in the car. Our Subaru has two USB A ports in the front that both work with CarPlay. We have a Lightning cable plugged into one and a USB C cable plugged into the other, and they both work fine. There are also two more USB ports in the back but they both appear to be charge only.

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