Chevrolet is looking to make long drives cool and comfortable while adding to your phone's battery life with a new set of vents in its upcoming 2016 range of Impalas and Malibus.
This new addition comes in the form of "Active Phone Cooling," a feature that directs air conditioning unit to a vent that can charge your phone while you're driving, cutting the time it takes for the device to fully charge in the process, according to the Daily Mail.
The system is intended to serve as an alternative to phones' built-in thermal protection features designed to maintain battery life, which can be an annoyance when the phone sometimes pauses charging or turns off until it has cooled down.
Exposing phones to temperatures higher than 95 degrees Fahrenheit while their charging can cause a great deal of damage to their batteries, the Daily Mail reported. This, along with charging at high temperatures, can result in full charges not lasting as long and the overall battery life ending before it needs to be replaced.
Chevy tested the feature by putting their vehicles in extreme climates, discovering that some phones paused charging or completely shut off after just a few minutes in high temperatures inside the cars. Active Phone Cooling solves this problem by connecting an air vent to the car's air conditioning and ventilation system and directing it to the charging bin where the phone rests while it's charged, which helps lower the phone's temperature with cool air.
However, this feature will only work when the driver turns the HVAC system on, the Daily Mail reported.
"Innovation doesn't mean reinventing the wheel," Impala engineer Dan Lascu said. "Sometimes simplicity offers the most elegant solution to a problem."
These Impala and Malibu models will also come with MyLink radio, which lets drivers stream music as well as use steering wheel controls and voice commands to call friends and family. Chevy will also add Auto Phone Cooling to its 2016 Chevrolet Volt and Cruze.
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