iPhone SE (2016) Wireless CarPlay working better than Wired?

[turbineseaplane]

This seems impossible to believe, but for some reason it is?

For the last three years we've had a Chevy Bolt that only had wired CarPlay.
In all that time, it's worked mostly ok with my 2016 SE1, but over time I'd noticed pauses, some audio skipping if too much going on at once and I've always chocked it up to "my old iPhone SE1" and just dealt with it.

We got a 2023 Chevy Bolt that can do wireless CarPlay -- and I was honestly shocked to see my SE1 could do it..

..and it's performing WAY better using wireless CarPlay as opposed to wired.

Am I crazy? How could that be?
Is there actually more of a bottleneck on the wired connection?

The one caveat here is that it sucks the hell out of the battery, however I'm contemplating just using the 12v plug + lightning cable to only provide phone power ... and doing CarPlay wirelessly still, simply because of performance.

I'm just shocked by this.

Anyone found similar results?

 

[murray1152]

Many new cars on the market after 2023 have wireless carplay as standard, but I heard that there are many problems. You're the only one I've seen to praise it, you're lucky

 

[Fatus_Asticus]

My Santa Fe has been great wirelessly.

 

[BrianBaughn]

The Lightning cable and ports introduce potential connection issues. The firmware of the particular Carplay unit can be dodgier regarding the wired side. Presumably, the wired connection is sending more data than the wireless one (audio files compressed via Bluetooth).

My Mazda does well with the wired connection but I have to keep my iPhone's port clean.

 

[beerseagulls]

after I got a car with wireless CarPlay, I have not taken my phone out of my pocket once... unless the phone needed to be charged. never had a problem. although.... that's not actually a good thing. I kept my 13 Pro in my front pocket all the time while driving. A couple months ago, I somehow bent the phone. I compared it to another 13 Pro in the store and sure enough it was bent. Fortunately, AppleCare took care of that.

 

[ghostface147]

My only issue with CarPlay, wired or wireless, is that when I'm listening to an album like Metallica's S&M 2, it puts gaps in the songs that are meant to be continuous. Doesn't do it with similar albums that are downloaded on my phone.

 

[Mahili]

Sure, If I could, I wish my car had wireless CarPlay . But my carlinktbox has worked fine to bring me Wireless CarPlay so far. I have been using it for two years.

 

[jm31828]

I have a 2022 Kia Niro electric, and wireless carplay is flawless for me- never once has disconnected or had any sorts of problems.

 

[Jackbequickly]

This seems impossible to believe, but for some reason it is?

For the last three years we've had a Chevy Bolt that only had wired CarPlay.
In all that time, it's worked mostly ok with my 2016 SE1, but over time I'd noticed pauses, some audio skipping if too much going on at once and I've always chocked it up to "my old iPhone SE1" and just dealt with it.

We got a 2023 Chevy Bolt that can do wireless CarPlay -- and I was honestly shocked to see my SE1 could do it..

..and it's performing WAY better using wireless CarPlay as opposed to wired.

Am I crazy? How could that be?
Is there actually more of a bottleneck on the wired connection?

The one caveat here is that it sucks the hell out of the battery, however I'm contemplating just using the 12v plug + lightning cable to only provide phone power ... and doing CarPlay wirelessly still, simply because of performance.

I'm just shocked by this.

Anyone found similar results?

Technology has come a long way for 2016 to 2023 models. 7 years is light years into the future.