Elizabeth Warren, USB, and Solving Yesterday’s Problem Today

Elizabeth Warren wants to force electronics companies to converge on a standard:

Consumers shouldn’t have to keep buying new chargers all the time for different devices. We can clear things up with uniform standards—for less expense, less hassle, and less waste.https://t.co/rbxLleahIj

— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) July 7, 2022

This is somewhere between dumb and absurd. There was a time when it was really annoying that you had to keep buying different chargers for every different device but that was decades ago. As of right now, I basically have too buy two cables. I do need to buy different kinds of charging bases, but trying to regulate that goes beyond about eight more bunny hops down the trail of absurdity (so much so that I doubt even Warren would do it, lover that she is of regulating things). In recent times there have been basically three standards (USB-C, Micro-USB, and Lightning) for small electronics (I’ll get to bigger ones later) and that’s… fine. Micro-USB cables are weaker but simpler and completely appropriate for simple devices like cheap bluetooth earpieces. It’s really not clear why makers of $4 should equip them with technology far above and beyond necessity. Apple having its own proprietary “Lightning Charger” standard is a bit old school and I might consider that annoying if I were an Apple user but while Apple users may be cool with switching over there is a lot of ambivalence about the impending move to USB-C¹.

Now, I focus on cables above because there are a lot of different kinds of charging blocks using those cables and I do tend to get new ones with new devices. But I assume that she means cables because standardizing the charging blocks themselves (the thing where you plug in the USB cable) would be insane. Either you have high-powered charging blocks that are potentially a fire hazard if using them in devices that aren’t built for them (I’ll get to this later as well) or you are resigning everything to low-powered chargers that will take devices a very long time to charge. The reason I get new chargers with new devices is that they do a better job (the old ones work, just slower than is necessary). Since Europe isn’t doing this, I assume Warren isn’t either. New legislation might require charging blocks to use USB-C to USB-C cables instead of now where some of them use USB-A to USB-C (which does mean having to own more cables), but as far as I can tell the legislation is directed at devices themselves and the one area where it could reduce cable needs it doesn’t. (I am ambivalent about whether this would be a good idea.)

In addition to USB-C and Micro-USB chargers in this house, we also have computer chargers. All of our computers are Thinkpad so all of the chargers are either their old or new proprietary standards. The fact that there are two was the product of a technology upgrade of the sort you don’t want regulation to prevent. But all of this is moot because, even though Warren’t proposal doesn’t appear to apply to laptops, the latest ThinkPads all use USB-C anyway. But here’s the thing: Whether the product of regulation or markets I do not like the decision.

Common cables do not properly account for the fact that the charging blocks, power adapters, or other devices sending power or data to them are highly variable with significantly different needs. A laptop needs a lot more power than a smartphone. So if you plug your laptop into a charging block meant for your phone, it’s not going to draw enough power. If you plug your phone into a power adapter meant for your laptop, it could cause some significant damage (and is, as I mention above, a potential fire hazard²). Universalizing the type of power cables makes the likelihood of using the wrong cable attached to the wrong power source significantly higher — and that’s assuming you know the difference and that it’s important. Because of the different ports, I know the ThinkPad power cable goes into the ThinkPad and the USB-C one goes into the phone. Once I get a USB-C ThinkPad, I’m going to have to use different colors (thus requiring me to have different sets of cables) or use colored electrical tape to mark them. This is not, in my view, an improvement. To the right is a chart that delineates the different types of cables and charging bases.

The chart doesn’t even begin to really scratch the surface, though, when chargers have or don’t have QC2, QC3, or PD capabilities appended on their description, and even within those classifications can send varying degrees of wattage. If the cable can handle it, which you need the chart to see.

Take a step back, and think about gas stations. Now, it used to be there was one kind of gas you could get at a gas station. You had various octane levels, but they all did the job. Then you started having consumer cars use diesel. Now there are other types of gasoline, too. One of the smart things they did, though, was when diesel became a consumer option, they made the nozzles larger so that some dope who isn’t paying attention doesn’t try to put diesel gas into a regular gas tank. I am that dope. That intervention has saved me multiple times from causing avoidable damage to my car. I’m fine having to keep some extra cables and chargers in stock to keep different chargers apart from one another.

Lastly, there is the question of innovation. In response to Warren, Franklin Harris tweeted:

This is one of those ideas that sounds great for the 2 seconds it takes to realize if it'd been enacted 20 years ago, this would be your device charger by law. pic.twitter.com/o46JEWduoc

— Franklin Harris (@FranklinH3000) July 7, 2022

It got a lot of mocking replies from people who are sarcastically saying “Yeah and it’s a fact that regulation standards never change” and point out that Europe previously mandated Micro-USB. However, while I don’t actually think it stops any and all progress it deeply limits the avenues of progress. How much is a tech company with an idea for a better charging system going to invest if they are effectively banned until you can convince regulators to mandate it? Future innovations are almost certain to come from the USB consortium and we basically have to hope they do a good job. Even if it’s outlived its usefulness, the Lightning standard was revolutionary when it happened, and the goal of this regulation is to prevent the next Lightning charger from going to market. It is incredibly hard to see how that does not have an impact on innovation.

Lastly, by mandating a standard, product makers are prevented from having their own forms of quality control over the cables their consumers use. This could be fixed if USB had a better certification program but they’ve had a long time to implement one and haven’t. Enforcement would be a challenge as you’d still have knockoffs. But knockoffs are possible with proprietary standards, too. But at least with proprietary standards the company has some form of recourse.

At the moment, I am dealing with an issue with Android Auto in my car not playing nice with one of my phones. “Incompatible USB”, it says. I go to the website of Pioneer (maker of the stereo head-unit) and it says the following:

Pioneer has identified a connectivity issue between newer phones using USB Type-C (Nexus, Pixel, etc.) and Android Auto compatible Pioneer NEX in-dash receivers when used with a non-certified or non-compliant USB Type-C cable or USB Type-C extension cable.

If you are experiencing this connectivity issue, we recommend directly connecting the Pioneer NEX in-dash receiver to the phone using only the Pioneer supplied USB Type-A extension cable and a certified USB Type-A to USB Type-C cable, preferably under 3 ft. in length. Direct connection using a certified USB Type-A to USB Type-C cable, preferably under 3 ft. in length is also acceptable (omitting the Pioneer supplied USB Type-A extension cable).

They go on to list which cables they consider compliant and certified. The whole point of universalizing this stuff is that we don’t need to go out and buy new cables. And yet.

In the background of all of this you have a market that has converged to a few standard its own volition because it’s just easier that way. Electronics companies want to be in the electronics business and not the cable business. The incentives are already somewhat aligning across computers, phones, bluetooth earpieces, dog proximity collars, and ecigarette batteries. Even in places where I think we might be better off if they didn’t.

If Senator Warren wants to hold somebody to tasks over unnecessary incompatibility issues, she should target cell phone carriers keeping technologically compatible phones off their networks. But that’s a subject for another time.

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1. I could say “the market already took care of this since Apple is moving to USB-C anyway, but that’s reportedly in response to European regulators so that’s not very accurate. But it does lend itself to a “Warren’s proposed regulations are redundant” arguments
2. this may sound like I am being hyperbolic, but the one time I had an ecigarette battery explode on me it was attached to the wrong charger. The ecigarette batteries and smartphones at the time both used Micro-USB chargers. I am convinced that a lot of the exploding battery issues – at least where they explode when plugged in – circle back to people using inappropriate chargers. My wall still has burn marks. I did get new curtains out of the deal, though, since the previous ones had burn holes.