Porsche Porsche knows a thing or two about customization. In fact, its Paint-To-Sample option lets buyers choose from over 190 paint colors, but not even the engineering wizards at Porsche can magically make stripes appear. Right? Well, it's the sort of tech that might be on the way. A recent patent filing shows that Porsche is working on a paint that can change on demand, and it wants to use it to outwardly signal things like Sport mode on something called "e-paper." The patent includes a diagram that shows the example of racing stripes that only appear when the Sport Plus drive mode is selected, but it also says it could be used to display an EV's state of charge. Is this the ultimate automotive form of peacocking? It just might be. The technology isn't dissimilar to the electrochromic glass roofs on other Volkswagen Group vehicles, where an electrical current is applied to the tungsten oxide layer of a panoramic glass roof to turn it opaque. Rather than serve a purpose like blocking out the sun, though, Porsche wants to use the technology to let its customers flex on any onlookers. It's a patent on the application of the technology, not so much the technology itself Porsche As part of the filing, Porsche says "the change in the appearance of the outer surface of the motor vehicle is used in an advantageous manner in order to identify properties and/or states of the motor vehicle for external viewers." It also places a focus on applying the coating to aerodynamic elements including spoilers, splitters, vent slats, and side blades to highlight high-performance elements when drivers switch into Sport or Sport Plus modes. If deployable spoilers and sport exhaust settings weren't enough to notify the proletariat of a Porsche owner's sporting intentions, suddenly appearing racing stripes ought to do the trick quite nicely. Porsche cites racing scenarios as a good application for the technology, but knowing the ways of Porsche owners, it's destined to end up being a flex that'll get used a lot in parking lots. I think it'll be one of those things that's cool for about a year, and then it'll become the next immediate giveaway that someone's a bit of a tool. A rich one, but still a tool.