10 Of The Wildest Features Ever Built Into A Car

Cars used to be little more than horseless carriages, but as technology has improved, that's changed. Some advances have been as basic (and crucial) as improved safety and gas efficiency, while others have created new "features" to push car performance even further or just add more tools to a car's overall bag of tricks.

While many car features are useful, not all are created equal. Some, such as warning systems that keep you within highway lanes, are more annoying than practical, while others are so high-tech they defeat their own purpose.Then there are car features that just make you tilt your head and ask, "Why?" 

Why did someone build a car with a single door that opens like a fighter jet cockpit? Why did a car company add video game functionality to its automobiles? Why did an engineer try to literally reinvent the wheel? We can't answer most of these questions, but we can tell you about the crazy and jaw-dropping car features that would make you wonder these same thoughts.

Here are 10 of the wildest features ever built for or built into cars.

All cars utilize one of two transmission styles: manual and automatic. Both have different advantages and disadvantages, but they both have one thing in common: You only have to worry about one stick. So why would anyone want to change that? To make it flashier, of course.

In the 1980s, Oldsmobile teamed up with the gear shifter company Hurst to create the Lightning Rod Shifter. Unlike traditional automatic transmission shifters, this component had three gear levers, each topped by a large orb and button. All in all, not that strange aside from its multitude of levers, until you try to use it.

The true weirdness came when getting the Lightning Rod Shifter to work. For normal driving, you had to pull the left lever down and the other two all the way up. To put it into first, all three levers had to be placed as low as they could go, and to go into second, the right lever (and only the right lever) was moved up at the appropriate time. The Lightning Rod Shifter also had a unique "Overdrive" setting that shot the car into its highest gear, but you had to first work through lower gears and their respective lever position combinations. Given how the device turned the act of shifting gears into a pop quiz, is it any wonder the Lightning Rod Shifter was discontinued after a few years?

Steering wheels are a crucial part of any car since they, well, steer the car. And while most steering wheels already allow you to adjust them up and down for comfortable use, some engineers believed they could improve on the design by adding even more degrees of freedom to the component's adjustment range.

In 1961, Ford introduced a new feature to the already iconic Ford Thunderbird: The swing-away steering wheel. As its name suggests, this optional add-on let drivers adjust the steering column up to 18 inches to the left or right. Of course, users could only access this feature when the car was parked, but that was entirely the point. People were meant to swing the steering wheel out of their way to more easily enter and exit the vehicle. If someone accidentally started their car when the swing-away steering wheel wasn't placed dead center, the transmission wouldn't work until the issue was fixed.

The swing-away steering wheel proved an instant hit and was eventually ported to other cars, including the Ford Galaxie and Mustang. However, evolving safety standards doomed the feature. Just before to 1968, a new rule limited the amount of rearward movement a steering wheel could exhibit during a collision. While this new standard resulted in companies adopting collapsible steering columns, Ford's Swing-Away Steering Wheels had to be dropped.

Driving requires your full attention — any distraction, no matter how small, can result in a devastating accident. However, you can't drive as well when you're tired, and plenty of people carry a large mug of coffee while in the driver's seat. One car offered what seems to be an even more stimulating alternative.

In 2012, Fiat introduced the 500L, which it called the first standard-production car in the world to offer a true espresso machine. Each car came with a Lavazza espresso maker compatible with A Modo Mio coffee pods. To use the device, one only had to fill the espresso machine with water, install the pod, place the machine into a dedicated slot next to the driver's seat, and press the start button. Oh, and put up with the racket the espresso machine made while the coffee was brewing.

While the espresso machine helped keep drivers awake, the device's design prevented them from pouring themselves a fresh cup unless parked. Unfortunately, Fiat and Lavazza built the feature with unintentionally planned obsolescence due to the aforementioned A Modo Mio pods. Lavazza has effectively phased out the product, so even if you can purchase a "fresh" batch of pods, their shelf life is steadily ticking away. Users can make do with A Modo Mio-compatible pods, but again that's assuming companies plan on making and selling these products ad infinitum.

No two people pack the same entertainment for long car trips. Some prefer good old-fashioned books or the Amazon Kindle — or non-Kindle e-readers — while others opt for handheld gaming devices like the Nintendo Switch, Steam Deck, or Steam Deck alternatives. However, some Tesla owners don't need any of that to play Steam games on the go. Sorta.

In 2022, Tesla introduced the Steam app to its Model S and Model X cars. These cars had previously been reworked to include gaming GPUs and 16GB of RAM under the hood, but the 2022 update finally let passengers and drivers use these components to their fullest. Of course, this functionality comes with quite a few caveats. For starters, users are limited to what games they own on Steam and the titles they can fit on a Tesla hard drive — each sold separately, mind you. The car's GPU and operating system may also struggle with graphically demanding games. Oh, and Teslas are all BYOC (Bring Your Own Controller).

Since Tesla's Steam app function takes up the car's entire touchscreen, users can't (and shouldn't) use the program while the car is in motion — assuming they can even make it work at all. In 2024, Tesla announced that new Model X and Model S cars would no longer support Steam. However, in December of the same year, the company sent mixed signals by rolling out a patch that improved Steam performance optimization for cars that could still run the app. Who knows what Tesla is planning anymore.

Cars generally have between two and four doors on the sides — not including the front or rear trunk lid. Convertibles follow this design blueprint despite their general lack of roofs, and even most miniature cars still have two doors. However, the smallest of the small only have room for one door, and often in unorthodox locations.

The Isetta was one of the smallest cars ever made. The Italian company Iso SpA initially manufactured the vehicle, but BMW later picked up the license. The Isetta had only three wheels, which is already strange for a car, but the vehicle's strangest feature was its singular front door which sat where most cars' engines are held. Did we mention that the Isetta's door swung open like a refrigerator? Not surprising since Iso SpA was known for its refrigerators.

While the Isetta was eye-catching thanks to its mono-door design, it was far from unique. The German aircraft manufacturing company Messerschmitt also tried its hand at designing cars. Like the Isetta, Messerschmitt's car, the KR200, was also a tiny three-wheeler, but instead of featuring a single door, the KR200 didn't have any doors. Instead, the car featured a bubble roof that hinged open like a fighter plane cockpit. Again, this design choice shouldn't surprise you because Messerschmitt was a major contributor to Germany's World War II air force. In fact, Messerschmitt built the KR200 because the company was banned from building airplanes after the war. Without the KR200, Messerschmitt would have gone under.

When you go camping, you need to pack quite a few essentials, including your sleeping accommodations. Lots of people stuff a tent into their backpacks and lug it to the designated location, which is ideal for most situations, but others prefer to camp next to their car. So some designers asked what it would be like to turn your car into a camp.

Introduced in 2000, the Pontiac Aztek was primarily designed for outdoorsy types. The car offered several "lifestyle" packages based around activities such as hiking and biking, but its strangest option bundle was a "tent." In truth, it was little more than fabric that stretched over the Aztek's rear, complete with fiberglass support rods. Anyone who used the Aztek and its tent ended up just sleeping in their car's trunk, but at least the Aztek came with a comfortable air mattress.

Audi had a similar — and slightly better — take on the concept. In 2013, the company teamed up with the hiking/camping firm Heimplanet to pack a tent into the Audi Q-Series. This add-on was an inflatable tent that, unlike the Aztek, didn't have users sleeping in their car's rear end. However, the Q-Series' rear end was still a crucial element of setting up the Heimplanet tent — the car's trunk poked into the enclosure like a pair of big metal buttcheeks. Still, at least this tent was more spacious and let users rest their sleeping bags on the grass.

When the sun goes down or you enter a tunnel, you need a way to not only see the road but also make sure other drivers see you. Headlights are a common (and legally required) solution, but many are so bright they blind other drivers. In the past, manufacturers have experimented with more unorthodox methods of ambient lighting.

In 1961, two chemists at Goodyear Tires, William Larson and Anthony Finelli, created a new type of polyurethane, dubbed neothane. This material could be poured into tire-shaped molds and baked in ovens. Not only were these synthetic doughnuts allegedly easier to make than traditional rubber tires, but Goodyear claimed that neothane was just plain superior to other tire materials. And as an added bonus, they were translucent.

Instead of just manufacturing see-through tires, Goodyear tried to turn its neothane products into a fashion statement. The company started dying the tires and stringing lightbulbs together inside the wheel to turn them into roving light shows. Not only did these tires light up the night, but Goodyear figured out how to wire them up to double as brake lights and turn signals. 

Unfortunately, neothane tires were a little too fancy. Other drivers paid more attention to them than to the road, resulting in them suddenly braking in dangerous locations and running red lights. Plus, neothane didn't fare well in rainy and snowy weather, and hot temperatures made the tires melt. These factors doomed Goodyear's glowing tires before they could be mass produced.

The old "killer in the backseat" urban legend is a classic, dating back to the late '60s. The story entails a driver who is unaware a serial killer is hiding in the backseat of their car. Sometimes a gas station attendant warns the driver, other times a tailgater scares the murderer by constantly flashing high beams. While this story has little to no merit in the real world, Volvo decided to hedge their bets.

Volvo's S80 model had a not-so insignificant life, lasting from 1998 to 2016. For the 2003 edition, Volvo added the Volvo Personal Communicator (VPC), which combined the functionality of a key fob and a PDA. Drivers could start their car with the VPC, but it also provided crazy security features including a fingerprint scanner and a heartbeat monitor.

According to Volvo, the sensor activated whenever the driver left the vehicle and a heartbeat was still detected inside the car. On the safe side of things, the VPC could tell drivers they had accidentally left a sleeping child in the car, but it could also warn drivers if an intruder was hiding. How did they get in there? Who knows? But should the sensor go off when nobody is supposed to be in the car, the driver could press the "Panic" button on their VPC, setting off the car alarm, hopefully scaring off the intruder, and potentially deafening them. Of course, this feature was eventually discontinued, as was the S80 line itself.

Cars only have so much room. You can't always fit everything you need or even want, especially when it comes to food and drinks. Perishables and cold liquids are especially problematic, even when you have a portable cooler, but Toyota tried to fix these shortcomings.

In 1984, Toyota produced a van called... the Toyota Van. Uncreative name aside, the vehicle was reliable but didn't have many bells and whistles — save a built-in icemaker. Technically, this feature was a mini-fridge powered by the car's own air conditioner refrigerant lines, so drivers could pack perishable snacks or keep drinks cool. The fridge could also create ice via included ice trays, which were indispensable for drivers and passengers who needed a cold drink on hot days.

When Toyota phased out the Toyota Van in favor of the Previa, the icemaker disappeared along with it, at least in the Western Hemisphere. European versions of the car came with a "Hot/Cool Box," which were removable and plugged into the car's rear power socket instead of being hardwired into the van's AC system. As the name might suggest, this advancement in technology also let the boxes serve as portable food heaters so anyone could enjoy a warm meal while on the road.

While some car manufacturers have tried to reinvent the outer car wheels, steering wheels are generally considered sacrosanct. Even when companies go against the grain with wacky steering wheel designs, the result typically maintains the basic wheel design and functionality. Not this time, though.

Ford's Mercury line of cars lasted for over 70 years, and during that tenure, it used the brand to test out new features. In 1965, the company replaced the standard steering wheel in several Mercury convertibles with an experimental system called Wrist-Twist Steering. To call this feature unusual would be an understatement: It consisted of two small "steering wheels" connected by a yoke that could be adjusted to fit the driver's preferences, but didn't move during normal driving. Instead, twisting the tiny rings steered the vehicle. Technically, drivers didn't need to grip both handwheels; turning only one sufficed. Plus, because the wheels were so small, Ford's designers had enough space to fit armrests into the front seat.

While Wrist-Twist Steering never made it out of the experimental phase, in 2021, the staff at MotorTrend got to try out one of the four surviving Wrist-Twist convertibles. After three minutes of driving, the writers got a handle on the Wrist-Twist Steering's unique controls, and they walked away impressed. According to MotorTrend's writers, Wrist-Twist Steering was a breeze to use and even had a superior steering ratio when compared to most U.S. cars. Perhaps Ford jumped the gun when it axed the project.