My '23 GLA has Wireless Charging. I like to use the CarPlay feature. My question is, is my iPhone being charged when I cable it up to use CarPlay?
If yes, should I be careful not to set the iPhone on the wireless charging pad - to avoid some kind of "double" charging?
When I ordered my GLA I specifically added Wireless Charging but no Navigation, intending to begin using CarPlay for navigation. I thought erroneously that wireless charging was wireless CarPlay (it's not). I understand how the wireless charging works and how the CarPlay works - but am not sure of the smartest way to coordinate the two.

 

I would suggest that you check with your local MB dealer on how to correctly operate these features. Your owners manual might also be a help.

 

The iPhone automatically selects the fastest charging method available. So when plugged in for CarPlay it charges via the USB port and you can safely set it on the wireless charging pad. I do that whenever I use CarPlay. Wireless charging with wireless CarPlay is not all what it is cracked up to be. For starters, the wireless chargers are slow chargers, so they don't actually provide enough power to charge the phone while using wireless CarPlay. They provide just about enough power to keep the battery from draining further while CarPlay is being used. The phone also gets very hot in the process.

I also don't have wireless CarPlay in my C63, but I just came back from a trip to Europe and had a Golf 8 which has both wireless charging and wireless CarPlay. I had to end up using wired CarPlay, though, because as said when my phone already had low battery it wouldn't charge enough while using wireless CarPlay and the phone got so hot, that wireless CarPlay started to crash after about 30 minutes. But when I had it plugged in the USB it didn't get hot and wired CarPlay was working way more reliably than wireless CarPlay. Part of it might have had to do with the crappy VW software, but I heard similar stories with other brands.

I rarely use the wireless charging pad in my car. As said, it charges very slowly even if the phone is not doing anything. I generally get through the day w/o having to charge my phone, and only charge overnight at home and I don't use CarPlay much. One of my issues with CarPlay is that it keeps the battery essentially at 100% on a long drive, which is not good for battery life. The interesting thing in Europe was that because I was driving around so much, the Optimized Charging of the iPhone learned that and it kept the battery at 80% during the day while plugged in to the car. But at home with my overnight charging routine, it only does that for the overnight charging and when I use CarPlay it fully charges the battery every time, so I tend to only use CarPlay on short drives and use the MB navigation on long drives.