Does your car have a USB-C port? Here are 5 things you can connect to it

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Automobile technology has improved dramatically over the past decade. You can be treated to a whole host of convenience features that make the driving experience much more comfortable and fun, rather than just being tied to the terrestrial radio. The driving experience can be customized according to your preferences. These technological improvements have also resulted in improved safety features and better efficiency. All that being said, sometimes the most appealing feature you can find in a vehicle is the ability to plug something into the car, using it as a power source.

People have been able to do this for a long time with the cigarette lighter socket, but lately we’ve seen a massive increase in the number of USB sockets in vehicles, the latest of which is USB-C sockets. It’s a real treat to see a USB-C socket in the center console, but things get even better when there’s more around the vehicle, including being accessible from the rear seats. There are a surprising number of different devices you can connect to these USB-C ports.

While some of them are incredibly obvious to most people, there are a number of surprising ways these ports can be used as well. Here, we’ll look at five different ways you can use your car’s USB-C ports. These will be categories and not specific products, as a list of USB-C products for cars would be cumbersome and far too long. Products that might be mentioned will most likely fall into one of five categories.

Read more: 5 things you must stop doing if you drive an automatic car

Devices that require charging

We start with what is probably the most obvious use for a car’s USB-C ports, namely charging a variety of electronic devices. USB-C products have been in production for about a decade at the time of this writing, but it’s only in recent years that that USB format has really taken on the USB-A style that preceded it. You’ll usually find USB-C connections for most smartphones, whether they’re iPhones, Androids, or something else, and being able to connect your smartphone to your car is a major benefit. Gone are the days of worrying about your smartphone battery dying while you’re out and about. Of course, you can connect more than just smartphones for charging. You may have a tablet that needs charging.

This is where having USB-C ports around the car helps a lot. This way, you and your friends or family can charge all their devices simultaneously, and with everyone’s addiction to these types of devices these days, everyone keeps a close eye on their device’s battery. Some vehicles will be able to charge your devices faster than others, but it’s better to get any sort of charge for them during your commute than none at all. There are certain items you should avoid plugging into your car’s USB-C port, like laptops, because they simply require too much power, but if the device you need to charge is fairly small, you should be in good shape.

Apple CarPlay and Android Auto adapters

Apple CarPlay and Android Auto have been extremely helpful in enhancing the driving experience. You can easily play your music, play podcasts, make phone calls, use a navigation app, send text messages, and more without ever having to look down at your smartphone. Not only is it easy to use, but it improves how safe you are when you’re driving because you’re not constantly looking at your phone or taking your eyes off the road. Although many vehicles have Wi-Fi connectivity to set up Apple CarPlay or Android Auto, this is not the case for every car.

Some vehicles require you to connect your smartphone to the car for it to work. Here you can use the USB-C port in the center console or on the dashboard. You’d plug in your smartphone just like charging the device, but this also allows you to pair it with the vehicle for one of two hands-free gaming features. If your car allows you to pair your smartphone wirelessly, you can most likely use the USB-C connection instead if you prefer, as this method will also charge your phone at the same time.

If you’re all set on wireless but your car doesn’t support it, there are also adapters you can buy that can plug into your car’s USB-C port. These dongles can wirelessly connect your smartphone to your vehicle and allow you to use these features just as if you had a brand new vehicle. Plus, there are many great adapters to choose from.

Board cameras

One gadget that more and more people have found to be a must-have for their vehicle is the dashboard camera. These are cameras that you can mount on your front windshield, and while it may seem like an odd piece of equipment at first, there are a lot of benefits to having a dash cam. For example, if you are in an accident, being able to capture the entire incident can give you a more accurate picture of who is at fault for the collision. You can also use it as a surveillance camera when you are away from the car, capturing any wrongdoing that may be done around it. If you’re going to have a dashcam, that camera will need power to operate, and that’s where the USB-C port comes into play.

Dash cameras were usually powered by plugging the power cord into the car’s cigarette lighter. But as USB-C becomes a more popular connection, more dash cams are hitting the market that allow you to connect to your vehicle this way. If your car is working, this connection will continuously power the camera without any problems. However, if your car is turned off, your dash cam will need to have a parking mode enabled for this USB-C cable connection to still power the camera. Having this type of connection also allows you to easily switch from connecting to the car’s USB-C port to an external power brick if you don’t want to use the car’s battery when it’s off.

USB-C drives for firmware updates

So many vehicles run on incredibly complicated software and firmware these days. Because they’re so complicated, they often require periodic updates, just like you would your smartphone, laptop, or any other technology in your life. For some vehicles, they can conveniently update these things over the air via Wi-Fi, but not every vehicle has the ability to do this. If this is the case, how else should you update the vehicle’s firmware? Well, you have to do it yourself and it can be done with your car’s USB-C port.

If there is new software or firmware that needs to be updated for your vehicle, you can download it to your computer. After doing this, you can connect a USB-C drive to your computer and transfer the update to the removable drive. Next, head over to your vehicle and plug that drive into your car’s USB-C port. From there, you should be able to easily update anything in your vehicle that needs updating. This can be a bit of a laborious and annoying process, but it’s a very important business to attend to if you want to make sure that everything in your vehicle is working as it should.

LED lights

All of the ways you can use your car’s USB-C ports are pretty intuitive and address the things so many people need for their driving experience. However, there are other fun ways these ports can be useful to people that you may not have thought of. One of them is to provide power for the LED flashes inside your vehicle.

If you’ve been in an Uber or Lyft in recent years, you may have come into contact with a driver who has transformed the interior of his vehicle into something incredibly colorful and bright. This is usually done with LED lights, either individual bulbs or light strips. There are several ways you can get lights like this in your car, and one of them is to buy lights that work by plugging them into a USB-C port.

If you’re looking to give your vehicle a whole new color palette or simply add some accent lighting to certain parts of your car’s interior, there are LED light strips that have a USB-C plug on the end and if you plug them into your car, they light up. These LED lights can connect to your smartphone so you can change the color to whatever you want it to be or adjust the brightness to best suit your needs. Some even connect to music so the lights can change color and pulse to the beat of the song. While so many of the uses for a car’s USB-C port are functional, sometimes it can also be used for a bit of fun.

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Read the original article on SlashGear.