As crucial as Android Auto and CarPlay have become to daily driving, the core problem remains. Wired connections charge your phone slowly, and wireless drains your battery quickly. That’s where the “PDFriender” steps in as a clever little solution.
The “PDFriender 2Pad” is a 65W car charger at its core, plugging into your car’s power port and charging up your phone at full speed as you’d expect from any car charger. What makes this one special is that, on top of full-speed charging, it lets you use wired Android Auto and CarPlay.
The first of the two USB-C ports is the one that connects to your phone, with the other being used to connect to your car.
When both are in use, the signal from your car is transferred from one port to the other, just combined with speedy charging. It’s a simple idea, but one that’s not been so elegant to find so far.
In practice, even on this early prototype I’ve been using, it works really well. I tried this out with my Nothing Phone (3) and my Galaxy Z Fold 7, and it does exactly what it promises. The phone gets full-speed charging – I clocked it at around 25W when it was already at 80% capacity, which is when charging rates tend to slow down – while acting just like a totally normal wired Android Auto experience. It connects instantly and the connection has been completely stable. It supports CarPlay too if you’re using an iPhone. The company designing the device tells me that it is fully USB-PD compliant.
Also, the little face hidden in the design is pretty stinking cute.
There is an obvious question, though, and that’s why you’d want something like this over a wireless Android Auto or CarPlay adapter.
Personally, I’ve been a big fan of these adapters in the past few years, to the point where plugging in my phone while driving almost feels a little weird. But there are some marked benefits to this sort of experience. Over the standard wired experience, an adapter like this means you’re going from charging at a crawl to a quick top-up. But compared to a wireless adapter, you’re also taking some strain off of your device. You could easily connect wirelessly and plug into a dedicated fast charger, but since wireless connections inevitably make your device run warm, combining that with fast charging only makes matters worse.
That’s the primary benefit, really, just making the whole experience run with a bit less strain. Another benefit I noticed was just how much faster it connected compared to those wireless adapters. They work great, don’t get me wrong, but I’d forgotten just how instant Android Auto and CarPlay could be until I got back to testing this out. Wired also obviously cuts out those occasional hiccups you’ll inevitably run into with wireless.
As it stands today, the “PDFriender 2Pad” is just a prototype, with production happening sometime in 2026. The goal, I’m told, is to launch it for around the same price as your typical wireless adapter, with initial runs probably costing in the ballpark of €50 ($60) or so. I’m looking forward to seeing the final product, too, and hopeful it’ll address the very few little nitpicks I have about the prototype, such as the lack of indication on which port is used for what. They aren’t interchangeable, with the left side being used for the phone connection and the right side used for the car.
If you’re interested in a device like this, you can register your interest on the company’s website. Meanwhile, the same core tech exists in the “TreePod,” a product from the same company, which acts as a middleman between your phone, car, and a dedicated car charger. The end functionality isn’t all that different, but it’s obviously not as elegant as the “2Pad” will be.
What do you think?
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