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I use a short lightning cable to plug my phone to my car for carplay. I just leave it plugged into the usb port (without the phone) when I'm not in the car. Do you think it's slowly draining some energy from the car battery?
The cables themselves do not use power. It is the brick.
Your radio being off would not push any power through a cable. Also your cigarette lighter being off would not push any power. Which is why plugging it in won't do anything.
To continue the metaphor - your water is turned off. You can't use up water that isn't there.
The reason the brick uses power is because it is available 24/7 for you to plug something in - and when you do - it can ask that device how much power it wants - does it have fast charging? Etcetera.
Thanks. About the cigarette lighter - my dashcam plugs into it but I always unplug it before I turn the car off so never noticed if the camera turns off along with the car. If it does, does that mean I can just keep the dashcam plugged in and it won’t draw power even though the camera is connected on the other end? Or does closing the circuit mean it will start drawing power?
If the camera turns off when you turn the car off then you're safe to keep it plugged in.