This Week in Tech – 02/11/2018: Elon Musk’s Falcon Heavy Rocket Launches Successfully
Elon Musk’s Falcon Heavy Rocket Launches Successfully
US entrepreneur Elon Musk has launched his new rocket, the Falcon Heavy, from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The mammoth vehicle – the most powerful since the shuttle system – lifted clear of its pad without incident to soar high over the Atlantic Ocean. It was billed as a risky test flight in advance of the lift-off…
Elon Musk: ‘We Want a New Space Race — Space Races Are Exciting’
Just hours after SpaceX thundered its first Falcon Heavy rocket into space and showed off its launch system as the most powerful of its kind on Tuesday, the company’s founder, Elon Musk, called for a new space race. “I think it’s going to open up a sense of possibility,” Musk said of his freshly demonstrated 23-story launcher. “We want a new space race. Space races are exciting.”…
Face Recognition Glasses Augment China’s Railway Cops
Railway police in Zhengzhou, the capital of central China’s Henan province, are the first in the country to start using facial recognition eyewear to screen passengers, the online arm of Party newspaper People’s Daily reported Monday. Security personnel at Zhengzhou East Railway Station donned the new accessories ahead of the Chinese New Year travel rush to help them verify passengers’ identities, spot impostors — and even catch suspected criminals…
U.S. Consumer Protection Official Puts Equifax Probe on Ice
Mick Mulvaney, head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, has pulled back from a full-scale probe of how Equifax Inc failed to protect the personal data of millions of consumers, according to people familiar with the matter…
A Tesla Employee Who Builds Robots Told Us Why Production Hell Is Actually a Good Thing
Engineers are great at identifying and solving problems. They’re students of the practical, scrutinizers of systems, and, at Tesla, pretty much heroes. Few companies in history have so thoroughly combined a compelling vision of the future with innovative ways to design, build, power, and sell cars…
Equifax Lost Even More Information on Consumers Than It Told the Public
Confidential documents filed with the Senate Banking Committee suggest that Equifax could have lost considerably more personal information about over 145 million Americans to hackers than it’s publicly let on, CNN Money reported…
A Self-Driving Semi Truck Just Made Its First Cross-Country Trip
Embark’s self-driving semi truck just drove from Los Angeles to Jacksonville with minimal help from its on-board human driver, the company reports. The autonomous tractor trailer completed a 2,400 mile trip from Los Angeles, California to Jacksonville, Florida in five days, traveling for “hours at a time with no disengagements,” says Embark CEO Alex Rodriguez to Engadget…