In my youth, there was a joke that went like this:
Did you know that Paul McCartney was in a band before Wings?
That was the whole joke. If you were there, you probably understand the context. Because the joke is close to 50 years old, I’ll explain briefly.
One thing that is common to pretty much every new generation is a measure of ignorance about what came before. In the 1970s, a new generation was arising that didn’t owe their character to the tumult of the 1960s. Folks who had lived through that time laughed at those who didn’t, and the idea that someone would not know that Paul McCartney was in The Beatles was laughable. ‘Nuff said about that.
I am reminded…
I am reminded of that joke, or at least the underlying facepalm behind it, when watching this video:
The underlying conceit here is that some GenZer or Alpha (the folks who come after GenZ, I didn’t invent the term) might not have any idea why cars have round DC power sockets. Fair enough I suppose since most cars stopped coming with ashtrays over a decade ago. But still, it’s going to make anyone over 30 feel ancient.
Most folks I know still call them lighter sockets
In this blog, I tend to refer to them as something like “12 volt utility sockets” because I want what I write to long outlast me. But folks my age know them as lighter sockets because through most of our days, that was the only thing that went in them. Today, they’re principally used to power a phone charger if your car doesn’t have dedicated USB ports for that. You can also use them to power a cell phone signal booster (if you were beginning to wonder how I would shill for Solid Signal in this article.)
The video also asks the question of whether or not we would have any sort of power socket in our cars if it weren’t for the humble cigarette lighter. I suppose the answer is, we can guess either way. I would suspect that 20th century cars wouldn’t, and then as the need arose they would be put in. Back then, the electrical system was used for the starter, lights, radio, perhaps a power steering pump or power brake system, and little else. Today it’s practically impossible to use a car without a couple of dozen electrical devices. We all want cars with big screens and lots of features. A robust electrical system is a must today.
Power to the people
It turns out the 12 volt utility socket is a pretty good match for our needs. With a simple transformer it can supply 5 volts and 2 amps for charging a phone, or even supply 110 volts for a short period of time. It takes very little wiring or cost to get this done. If your car doesn’t have a 110 volt outlet, you can add one with an inverter by the way. Some of the ones we sell are pretty pricy, but if you’re just looking for a simple outlet you can get one well under $100. (See, I did it again, another shill.)
I suspect that in the near future, providing DC power to people in the car will be even easier. It’s beginning to look like electric cars are starting to take hold, and with gas prices in some corners approaching $6 a gallon it’s easy to see why. Electric cars today often have a 12 volt accessory battery to power the stuff inside the cabin but even that is getting less common. Those 12-volters are being replaced by capacitors that store enough to get the car’s system started. All the power needed while moving comes from the much larger battery.
End of the socket?
I could see a time when the humble 12 volt socket stops showing up in cars. As cars get more and more USB ports, it won’t be needed. It probably only costs a dollar or so to put one in. That’s not the point. The point is that money saving is important. I imagine that like the ashtray, it will be an option at first. Then it will stop coming standard. Eventually I imagine that we’ll see a bit of a twist. Rather than having USB ports powered by the utility socket, we’ll see add-on sockets that are, predictably, USB powered.
And someone, somewhere, perhaps someone who isn’t even born, won’t know why.
