Guantanamo Bay Drive Thru, Unconditioned Subway Platforms And Reversing Bikes In This Week's Beyond Cars Roundup

There are few places on Earth warmer and less comfortable than a New York City subway platform on a hot summer day. The combination of heat, humidity and basement dankness come together to form a really nightmarish concoction. It’s enough to make the average person wonder why there can’t be a better way. Why isn’t there air conditioning on subway platforms? Why does it feel like it’s actually getting hotter? - Andy Kalmowitz Read More

McDonald’s is known for its localized menus in different places around the world. The food you get at a Micky D’s in Europe or Asia will not be the same as the food you can pick from here in the United States. That’s super neat, and it turns out the best McDonald’s in the world very well may be in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Yes, that Guantanamo Bay. - Andy Kalmowitz Read More

Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX, has a long history of being weird about reproduction. Perhaps it’s related to his long history of allegedly harassing and exposing himself to women, which a new report from Bloomberg says has been codified in the culture of SpaceX — a culture that now has the company facing lawsuits from eight ex-workers. - Amber DaSilva Read More

Sometimes it’s the simple little things that get me excited about a motorcycle, and today it’s the ability to engage reverse and back up out of a parking space. It’s just a tiny little change, so easily implemented, that makes a little quality-of-life improvement to the riding experience, and I love it. This morning I rode a 2024 Zero DS (a comprehensive review is comings soon) to the gym and parked nose-in without worry. Once I’d finished my morning treadmill 5K, I jumped on the electric wonder and with a series of button presses, used the electric motor to get extricated from the space. It was wonderful. - Bradley Brownell Read More

The Department of Justice announced on Sunday that Boeing will plead guilty to a single count of criminal fraud for deceiving the Federal Aviation Administration. The aircraft manufacturer admitted to misleading regulators about the 737 Max’s MCAS flight control feature and the training needed to fly the aircraft equipped with the system. The MCAS was largely to blame for two crashes in 2018 and 2019, which killed 346 people. So, how did we get to this plea deal, and what will happen next? - Ryan Erik King Read More

I am fascinated by both Antarctic and Arctic exploration; no where else on Earth wants humans dead quite like our planet’s poles, but folks still manage to eek out an existence in both places. While human populations in Antarctica are limited to visiting researchers, people have been living in the frozen North for quite a while. For the locals in the Arctic this used to mean they’d get the opportunity to means encounter fool-hardy European explorers in desperate situations. - Erin Marquis Read More

A Swiss businessman who slipped on a puddle of Baileys Irish Cream inside London’s Heathrow Airport has been awarded $5 million over the November 2017 fall. And while $5 million might sound like a lot for a simple fall, the Guardian reports that Andreas Wuchner suffered a traumatic brain injury when he fell, resulting in painful headaches and other long-term side effects that he claims have damaged his business. Who knew a little Baileys could cause so much harm? - Collin Woodard Read More

I have become convinced that the truly incredible quantity of junk being launched into space on a regular basis will become one of the world’s greatest problems within our lifetime. According to UN estimates, the quantity of objects put into space by humans between 2019 and today (8,815 objects) exceeds the total number of objects put into space between the start of humanity’s space exploration in 1957 through 2018 (8,448 objects). The number of pieces of space junk launched into orbit has grown exponentially in the last five years and shows no sign of abatement. - Bradley Brownell Read More

Over the past nine days, a few hundred of the best cyclists in the world have been racing their hearts out in the fields and mountains of France as they compete in the grueling Tour de France. The racers compete across intense sprints, rapid descents and punishing climbs that might all have been judged based on the capabilities of the Citroën 2CV. - Owen Bellwood Read More

New York City is flying drones over its beaches in an attempt to spot spot sharks before they become a threat, as well as swimmers who are struggling. While the drones could end up making the beaches safer, they’ve also upset the local bird population, leading to a series of attacks. - Collin Woodard Read More