Ten things we learned this week: 24 July 2015 edition

That’s right. Skoda’s ‘Dog Safety Belt’ latches on to an existing seatbelt, and can even be used as a lead. It’s available in sizes ranging from small to extra large, so even the most obtusely shaped dogs are catered for.

Yes, this is real, and yes, it’s brilliant.

Quite what the Floridian gentleman caught nutting a bus in this security footage was hoping to achieve, Ten Things cannot say. All we know is this: in a head-to-head contest, bus will always come off better than human.

Florida police say the hapless commuter alighted from the bus, only to change his mind and get back on board. The driver asked him to pay another $2, at which point he rather lost the plot.

Cue the first recorded instance of the masochistic sport of bus-butting. Ten Things’ favourite detail? The gent on the bench to the left of shot, masterfully achieving the dictionary definition of ‘impassive’.  

Watch the video here

Buy a normal Ford Mustang, and you’ll get a head-up display that flashes a bar of warning lights if you’re about to rear-end the car in front.

Buy the new Shelby GT350 R, however, and you’ll find that same lightbar serves a rather different function: indicating, Ferrari-style, the perfect moment at which to change gear.

It’s the work of Shelby electric engineer Mike Makled, who had the brainwave after triggering the collision warning light on his Ford Taurus.

“I thought, ‘Wait a minute, why don’t we use that technology for the shift light on the GT350?’” explains Makled, “With a few tweaks, it could have a big effect on high performance driving.”

We’re told the shift light has three modes: Tach, Track and Drag. This makes Ten Things want a Shelby GT350 even more than it wanted a Shelby GT350 before, which was really quite a lot.

So say the dedicated wheel-shufflers at the Institute of Advanced Motorists. Nine per cent of the 500 drivers it surveyed admitted to snapping a selfie behind the wheel in the last month. The biggest offenders were 19-25 year olds – nearly a fifth admitting to drive-selfie-ing – and more than twice as many men confessed than women.

Handily, the IAM’s head of driving standards recapped the basic principles of sight for the Independent. “If you're busy taking a selfie, you're looking at where the camera is, you're looking at what the image might be. That means you're not looking where you're going,” he said. Noted.

But it did stand up to the hit surprisingly well, if we do say so ourselves. The stretched Chrysler 300, which was apparently carting a gaggle of teenagers to a birthday party, tried to cross the tracks in Elkhart County, Indiana, when its significant mid-section snagged on the tracks, beaching the big 300 like a great, gaudy whale.

Thankfully all the limo’s occupants scrambled to safety before it was hit by the train, and pushed straight down the tracks. Moral of the story: don’t mess with trains, kids.

Watch the video here

And make it do scary things, if they're so inclined. Hackers Charlie Miller and Chris Valasek used Wired’s Andy Greenberg as their test dummy, sending him out in a Cherokee equipped with Chrysler’s Uconnect infotainment system.

Using a backdoor since patched, the pair were able to manipulate not only the Jeep's air-con and radio, but even disable the brakes, operate the steering (in reverse) and kill the engine. From 10 miles away.

Chrysler's official response states: "FCA [Fiat Chrysler Automobiles] has a dedicated team focused on identifying and implementing software best practices across FCA globally. The team’s responsibilities include development and implementation of cybersecurity standards for all vehicle content, including on-board and remote services. 

"FCA recently released a US Market-specific software update that offers customers improved vehicle electronic security and communications system enhancements. The Company monitors and tests the information systems of all of its products to identify and eliminate vulnerabilities in the ordinary course of business."

Welcome to Chapter Seven of ‘Sports You Never Knew Existed But Are Very Glad Do’.

Motorcycle limbo, as you may have guessed, is like normal limbo, only with added speed and danger, which is exactly what it’s been missing all these years.

Click here to watch the good people of Norfolk demonstrate…

Spain's Ciudad Real Airport cost more than €1billion to build. But a consortium of Chinese investors has just bought it for the grand sum of just €10,000 (around £7,000). That’s some last-gen-Maybach-level depreciation, right there.

The Chinese may yet be ousted from the deal if someone puts in a higher bid, but whatever happens, that’s still an international airport with one of Europe’s longest runways for less than a parking space anywhere remotely useful.

And yes, Ciudad Real was the very airport at which Top Gear thrashed a trio of super-cabrios back in Series 20…

Ten Things suspects no one has ever hailed a cab at an airport, only to love the experience so much that they decided to cancel their hotel booking and spend the night in the taxi instead.

That hasn’t stopped one enterprising New Yorker from fitting out an old cab with a bed, and then renting it out for £46 a night on AirBnB. Times Square may only be ’10 minutes’ or so away, but it doesn’t have a toilet and, y’know, it’s a taxi, which means more people may have been sick in it than you’d care to imagine.

Oh, and you can’t even drive it. What exactly was wrong with a normal hotel?

Earlier this year, Christopher Kingsnorth was stopped by police on Rushden High Street after sparks were seen flying from the rear of his VW Golf.

Closer inspection revealed Kingsnorth’s car to be missing a rear wheel, the naked brake disc scraping along the tarmac and creating ‘a large groove’.

Kingsnorth admitted to police he knew his car was missing a wheel, but had driven it because ‘he had no other way of getting home’.

The 35-year-old was convicted of dangerous driving, and banned from driving for a year. Next time, Mr Kingsnorth, Ten Things recommends you attempt the ‘it’s a new Reliant Robin prototype’ defence.