OR "2nd Stupid Thing I Did This Weekend" Rented an Equinox, which has a built-in wireless charging pad under the radio / at the front of the console. Area is 6" wide, and if they had left it flat you could have charged any size phone that exists. But no, they cut a notch exactly the size of a small phone for the charging pad. So if you have a big phone -- no dice. Got a case -- no dice. Just exactly big enough for an S7 with no case. Which shows an amazing lack of foresight by the Chevy engineers. What -- design something so that 70% of drivers can't use it? Nice plan. Anyway, I removed my case to try it out -- see if it worked as well as other charging pads. It does, so good on that. Got out of car, dropped my phone, cracked the screen. Shazbot.
our late model GM trucks has the same issue, wife has new i phone and wont fit in the spot for wireless charging, i am a GM guy but frustrated that they are way behind the techno curve.
Im not sure how GM is behind the technology curve. Sux to hear about your phone. GM may be a little lacking in innovation but each car manufacturer is. I am waiting for a car manufacturer to standardize more of the internal infrastructure of vehicles so that people can upgrade as technology progress. GM or any car manufacturer sometimes have very deliberate designs to exclude use outside of what was engineered. This could be for a variety of reasons. For wireless charging, not all phones are the same. Distance is also a huge factor so all things considered, another less practical feature added to the car that works perfectly according to the engineered design.
Just 5 more minutes of thought the engineers really need sometimes. My 18 Sierra Denali charging pad is very big. Which is great. Except I have an iPhone..
Charging pad? Just pull out the cig lighter and stick a cord in there. Problem solved! Oh wait. your guys new stuff dont have cig lighters, nvrmnd.
I installed a separate USB charger in the ashtray of the Cat. Unlike using an adapter in the lighter itself, I get 2.1 amps of power and I can close the ashtray and just have a thin cord pop out. As for GM, it's easy to see their mistakes now but I suspect the design cycle on that interior was probably 2 or 3 years and that was 2 or 3 years BEFORE the first year of that interior. So when they started designing that space most folks probably had smaller phones. They were probably trying to use some extra space or were concerned that a large space would allow the phone to slide around and stop charging. I've worked on some projects that involved mobile phone hardware -- it's a nightmare as the whole industry changes specs every 18 months...changing cables, changing charging specs, removing features like headset jack. The phone vendors love it because they can sell us all new accessories every year or two but it's a nightmare for the car companies. BTW -- ever wonder why we ALL have to buy cases for our phones -- maybe they could MAKE them so we could drop them???
