01 Elephant takes its EV charger frustration out on the hardware
02 Could cars soon spot kangaroos before drivers do?
Dashboard Bites
WORDS BY ANBY ALCOMENDAS
Wildlife, clever car tech, and luxury accessories. This month’ s automotive oddities are anything but ordinary.
01 Elephant takes its EV charger frustration out on the hardware
Electric vehicle charging infrastructure has encountered an unusual vandalism problem in China ' s Yunnan province, where an elephant reportedly knocked over a charging station after another member of its herd became tangled in a charging cable.
According to The Driven, the incident occurred on 6 August 2026, when a herd of wild Asian elephants wandered into a car park. One elephant caught a rear leg in a charging cable, prompting another to push the offending charger to the ground with its trunk. Fortunately, no vehicles were at the charging facility at the time.
~ 300
wild Asian elephants call Yunnan home, an endangered species
Yunnan is home to around 300 wild Asian elephants, an endangered species, making the encounter an unusual reminder that charging infrastructure can sometimes share space with unexpected visitors.
02 Could cars soon spot kangaroos before drivers do?
Australian drivers know the danger of a kangaroo appearing unexpectedly on the road. Now, technology designed to detect cattle in India could offer a starting point for developing systems that identify Australia’ s most notorious marsupial road hazard.
According to CarExpert, Indian manufacturer Mahindra has developed advanced driver assistance technology that uses radar and cameras to detect cows, warn drivers and potentially apply the brakes to help avoid a collision.
84 %
of more than 15,000 animal-collision claims in 2025 involved kangaroos
Mahindra’ s Binoy Paul said adapting the system to detect kangaroos was possible, although it would require considerable development and testing. Kangaroos move differently from cattle, and their speed and unpredictable changes of direction present a different challenge for detection software.
The potential benefits are significant. NRMA data covering more than 15,000 Australian animal-collision insurance claims in 2025 found that 84 per cent involved kangaroos.
40 ISSUE 61 OCTOBER 2026 / WWW. AFMA. ORG. AU