Wireless android auto.

[Corolly Poly]

Buy some cheap and/or long cables and find out. It is a known issue. I can guarantee using some cables will result in no better connections than wireless and often worse.

[Paul john]

12 hours ago, AndrueC said:

How can software be 'fussy' about a digital cable?

All you need is a cable that adheres to the USB data standard and has the correct plugs on it. I can guarantee that using a cable will result in fewer connection issues than relying on radio signals.

The USB “standard” is only about the shape of the connector. Eg type-a or type-c being the common ones of 8 “standards”

like hdmi the cables will be rated for speed so it is entirely possible to buy a 2m cable from ali express with the correct connectors for usb-c but wired with resistance values that underperform the speed index of usb-a v1 (12mbit/sec) and therefore rejected by phone. 

[AndrueC]

So I'll modify my answer. Don't buy cheap crappy USB cables. But even there - the one I'm using is just one I found in a drawer when I needed it. It's thin and has no obvious markings so is unlikely to be anything special.

From what I can find AA doesn't need much bandwidth - a few hundred megabits a second. That's quite a lot for radio but nothing for all but the crappiest of USB cables.

If someone is averse to getting their phone out of their pocket then fair enough (I prefer not to and will only do it if I need AA for navigation) but to then purchase further equipment to charge the phone seems like a waste of money.

If you are going to have to take your phone out of your pocket to charge then a far cheaper and simpler solution is to plug it in. I have AA and a phone being charged and it cost me..I dunno. Nothing at the time but probably added a couple of pence to the cost of whatever it was I bought that came with a short USB cable.