Airbus Wants Pilots To Fly From The John, Luxury Cruise Passengers Go On Hunger Strike And The Voyager Probes Are Dying In This Week's Beyond Cars Roundup

When airlines are in serious financial trouble, they start furloughing pilots. Airbus is working to transform the desperate measure of reducing operations costs into a sales pitch for its planes. The Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) claims the European aerospace giant is proposing putting a toilet in the cockpit to allow for single-pilot flying. The world’s largest pilot union is understandably pissed about the idea. - Ryan Erik King Read More

Disgruntled passengers onboard a luxury Antarctic cruise went on hunger strike last week after the ship was forced to turn back from sailing to the South Pole. After 14 days at sea, the SH Diana was forced to sail to Argentina early after one of the ship’s two motors malfunctioned. - Owen Bellwood Read More

After launching into space almost 50 years ago, NASA’s Voyager probes are reaching the end of their lives. The nuclear batteries onboard the two spacecraft are running out of juice, which means NASA is counting down the days until the death of Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 by slowly shutting off systems one by one. - Owen Bellwood Read More

More than eight months after a huge container ship hit and destroyed the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, investigators have begun piecing together the failures that led up to the disaster. The Dali ship hit the vital river crossing after a blackout onboard and now it’s emerged that the loss in power could have been caused by loose cables and low fuel pressure on the ship. - Owen Bellwood Read More

There’s an old saying in motorcycling: It’s not if you’ll crash, but when. At some point, your number will come up, and it’s important to know what to do in the aftermath: What organs to get checked out, which bones to mend, whose insurance to deal with for months on end until it almost doesn’t feel worth it any more. Oh, and how to get your bike back up and running from all that damage. - Amber DaSilva Read More

American trains are pretty simple beings, really. They carry people from A to B in rudimentary comfort with very few bells and whistles. That isn’t the case with rail travel overseas though, and trains in Switzerland even come with the ability to run on different width tracks thanks to some very clever wheels. - Owen Bellwood Read More

Indian motorcycle outfit TVS purchased the historic band Norton last year, promising to bring the British marquee back to life after mismanagement from its prior owner. And the owner before that. And the one before that one, the one before them, and so on and so forth, because it turns out Norton is on its 11th owner since it was formed. - Amber DaSilva Read More

Fun fact about New York City: It gets cold here. The wind chill outside my apartment right now is a brisk 26 degrees, and last weekend we got down to 25. I, a moron, of course spent that 25-degree day trundling all across Brooklyn on my motorcycle with nothing but a leather jacket, heated grips, and Gore-Tex gloves to keep me warm. - Amber DaSilva Read More

The world is looking for cleaner ways to get around, with everything from solar power to hydrogen power currently being tested by various startups around the world. Now, a budding Australian has come up with a new clean way of getting around on water, and it swaps horsepower for fish power. - Owen Bellwood Read More