Weird News · 7 stories · no politics, ever
Week of November 2, 2026
Cars that flee parking lots, a foot bath under the passenger seat, a drone cannon in a bumper, a crab-walking stalk, a copper supercar and two recalls that will make you check your wheel nuts.
This week's stories
Seven stories from the last ten days, all checked against the original reporting and none of them about politics. As usual, most of the weirdness is in the patent office.
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Weird patent Car and Driver · October 25, 2026
Ford patents a car that re-parks itself when it gets nervous
A Ford patent application describes a parked car that notices someone peering in its windows, or another car circling, and quietly drives off to a safer spot. It can also park nose-to-wall so nobody can get at the wheels or the bed. Coming back to an empty space and being told "it's fine, it just felt watched" is a brand-new kind of anxiety.
Read the source at Car and Driver ↗ -
Weird patent CarNewsChina · October 30, 2026
Changan's Deepal files for an in-car foot bath
The patent describes a retractable basin that hides under the front passenger seat, with anti-slosh baffles, a quick-connect water line and its own disinfection kit. Nobody has said which car might get it. We'd like to meet the engineer who signed off on 'anti-sway structures' for hot water in a moving car.
Read the source at CarNewsChina ↗ -
Weird patent CarMoses · October 25, 2026
Audi wants to fire drones out of an electric pickup's bumper
Three German patent applications cover a drone that launches from a compressed-air tube in the nose of an electric off-roader, scouts the road ahead for rocks and animals, then lands on the roof while you keep driving. Audi doesn't sell a pickup. It's patenting the pickup's party trick anyway.
Read the source at CarMoses ↗ -
Weird patent CarMoses · October 25, 2026
GM wants a dedicated stalk for driving sideways
The Hummer EV's CrabWalk only works at a crawl. A new GM filing describes a dial, stalk or paddles that slide the car sideways while it's already moving, with 'little to no' rotation of the body. The stated reason is passenger comfort, which is the least likely justification for a sideways car we've ever read.
Read the source at CarMoses ↗ -
Bizarre one-off CarBuzz · October 30, 2026
GFG Style builds a supercar out of hand-hammered copper
Fabrizio Giugiaro's studio has revealed the Peralta D, a Maserati GranTurismo-based 2+2 wearing a wedge body inspired by the 1972 Maserati Boomerang, with panels beaten from copper by hand. Nobody has explained what copper does for the driving. It will develop a patina, and that's the whole point.
Read the source at CarBuzz ↗ -
Strange recall Road & Track · October 27, 2026
Every US Koenigsegg CC850 recalled because the parking brake gives up in reverse
All seven American CC850s are affected. With the engine running and the car in reverse, the electronic parking brake only stays on while you keep holding the button, so a car left like that on a slope can wander off. That's a seven-figure hypercar with the same habit as a 1970s shopping trolley, and it's fixed over the air.
Read the source at Road & Track ↗ -
Strange recall Carscoops · October 23, 2026
Porsche tells some GT owners to stop driving until their center locks are checked
548 cars from 2024, from the 911 GT3 RS to the 718 Spyder RS, may have center-lock wheel parts made out of spec that can fracture and let a wheel leave. That's on top of a similar campaign in 2024. The single-nut wheel is a racing idea, and it turns out racing ideas sometimes come with a racing pit crew's worth of homework.
Read the source at Carscoops ↗