Huh. We use it in our car and it works OK. I do know other with the car who have issues with lag however.

Slow charging though... that seems orthogonal?

It's orthangonal until however you're charging it can't keep up with demand. A 14 Max on a standard USB-A -> Lightning connection is already really marginal. Like, I can drive for an hour with waze running and the phone plugging in (wired carplay) and it'll charge maybe 5%.

Sounds like waze is the problem… I regularly drive all day with Apple Maps, MagSafe charging, and Bluetooth data. No issues keeping my phone charged

What kind of amperage is your car putting out? Older cars really struggle to power phones. In some cars, it's possible to upgrade the USB port - otherwise, you may be better off using the 12V port (cigarette lighter) since you have wireless CarPlay available to you.

In my Fusion, I'm stuck using wired Android Auto, so I am unfortunately not able to use the 12V port for charging.

No clue, it's a 2017 model so reasonably new. It doesn't even have a cig lighter.

Mine is also a 2017 and can barely charge my phone. :(

You can get an adapter to change that wired android auto to wireless. I've done this in my ute. Then with my s22 I can use the 12v port with a QC3.0 compatible charger and get above 1% per minute charge whilst still having android auto running.

The adapter plugs in to the USB port for android auto and then offers up a wireless connection. Everything is automatic once set up.

My car only has wireless Carplay, yet it supports wireless and wired Android Auto. It sucks. The only thing worse would not be having Carplay at all.

I think that's largely due to car manufacturers being shit at software. The previous generation of my current car was absolute trash when it came to CarPlay. Even the wired version of it sucked.

The 2023 model had the entertainment system massively upgraded. Wireless CarPlay is seamless and fast. The wireless charging pad isn't amazing but it does the job just fine.

I love wireless CarPlay now. :)

Wireless CarPlay works great in our VW. What sucks is that when Apple abandoned Qi wireless standard the wireless charging pad in the car doesn’t work well or consistently with the MagSafe design.

Apple didn’t abandon Qi… all wirelessly chargeable iPhones are Qi compatible.

They’re technically QI compatible but they don’t work as well with those chargers — much harder alignment issues and therefore less stable and reliable charging in my experience.