Automatic retrieval was a feature built into a temporally duplicated DeLorean time machine by Emmett Brown. He programmed the car to automatically jump to four-dimensional coordinates if he did not return the vehicle within an alloted time. As this had happened on one of Doc's journeys through time, the DeLorean went into this mode, entered temporal displacement, and appeared outside of his garage on May 14, 1986 for Marty McFly to find. Marty looked for Doc in the vehicle, but only found Einstein, a shoe, and a tape recorder in the car, which instructed him of Doc's calamity.
When this feature is used, it also leaves the Last Time Departed blank, implying that it bypasses that part of the time circuits when this feature is activated.