Whenever we travel, I always bring a bag of wires with me. Inside that bag, I carry various cables for my electronic devices. I have a USB to Lightning Cable to charge my iPhone. Of course, I don’t need it if the hotel has a charging device on the nightstand. I also have a USB-C cable to charge my Apple Watch, another cable to charge my Beats earpods, and a mini USB cable to charge my Anker Powercore battery.
If we plan on renting a car, I’d like to bring a few things along. One of which is an extra Lightning to USB-A cable to connect my phone to the car. This lets me easily stream music and get directions via Apple CarPlay on the vehicle’s display screen. However, on our most recent car rental, I couldn’t find anywhere to plug in my phone.
I rented a Toyota Corolla from Sixt Rent-A-Car in Charlotte. Despite having Platinum status, we were not offered a free upgrade and we made do with a smaller car than planned. After packing our luggage into the relatively small trunk, I settled into the driver’s seat. I made the necessary adjustments to the seat, steering wheel, and mirrors. Finally, I went to connect my phone to the car so I could enter our destination into the GPS system.
That’s when I realized that there were no USB-A outlets. In fact, I couldn’t find any connectors for our electronics. After a minute or so, I did find a power plug in the center console. Fortunately, I always bring a car charger that can be plugged into the power outlet. I was then able to connect my phone to the car via Bluetooth which worked out fine.
It wasn’t until a day later that I noticed a plug on the passenger side of the car. We missed it on our original search because it is a USB-C plug.
It turns out Toyota began putting USB-C plugs in all of its Corollas back in 2022. While USB-C is the standard plug used in Asia and Europe, the US has stuck with the USB-A plugs. This will undoubtedly change as the iPhone 15 now has a USB-C connector, doing away with the Lightning connector that it’s used since the iPhone 5 was launched.
But since I still have an older iPhone, I’m still using my USB-A to Lightning connector. It looks like I should add a USB-C to a Lightning connector to my bag of wires if I want to keep connecting my phone to rental cars without having to use Bluetooth.
Apple only charged $19 for these cables and I’m sure I can find ones from a different company for less.
In the grand scheme of things, it wasn’t a major problem as I managed to come up with a simple solution using the equipment I had with me. Nonetheless, I’m planning to upgrade the technology in my travel gear so it’ll conform with the latest standards.
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