SpaceX launches the most powerful rocket ever—plus Elon Musk's car

PLUS: A handy guide to lidar, a San Francisco politician who wants to change how cities grow, and photo algorithms that struggle with diversity. [View this email in your browser]( [logo]( [[WIRED Magazine]2.7.18]( Dreams do come true—especially if you happen to be Elon Musk. Yesterday afternoon, the SpaceX CEO successfully sent his Tesla Roadster into space atop the Falcon Heavy rocket. And that rocket is now officially the most powerful launch vehicle in the world, following its successful test flight over the Kennedy Space Center. Tens of thousands of people turned out to watch the launch, including WIRED contributor [Robin Seemangal]( who describes the silent lead-up to the “thunderous firing” in a nail-biting [dispatch from Florida’s space coast](. It now looks like that Roadster might get even farther than its planned Mars orbit. As Musk [tweeted]( last night, the Falcon Heavy overshot, and his cherry-red car is now bound as far as the Asteroid Belt. That’ll be quite the view for its “driver:” “SpaceX revealed last weekend that a mannequin wearing the company’s new spacesuit would ride in the driver’s seat of the electric sports car,” Seemangal writes. “Nicknamed Starman, the dummy will listen to some tunes on its long and endless journey: David Bowie’s Space Oddity.” Also: Everything you ever wanted to [know about lidar]( a San Francisco politician who wants to [change how cities grow]( and photo algorithms that [struggle to see race](. Space SpaceX Launches the Falcon Heavy—And Elon Musk’s Roadster By Robin Seemangal SpaceX’s stated goal is to get the Roadster about 250 million miles away from Earth, its journey tracked by cameras and sensors on the rocket’s upper stage. It’s heading to chase Mars around the sun, sharing the same orbit—forever approaching the red planet but never actually reaching it. Pew! Pew! What Is Lidar, and Can It See Nerf Bullets? By Alex Davies We met up with Austin Russell, the CEO of Luminar, the lidar company he founded six years ago, after dropping out of Stanford at 17. (Slacker.) Russell says his sensor can see much farther and with better resolution than anything on the market now. But can it see the dart from a Nerf gun? Watch the video to find out. In the Zone A San Francisco Politician Wants to Redraw How Cities Grow By Adam Rogers “If you want to limit carbon and reduce congestion on freeways, the way you do that is by building a lot more housing near public transportation,” says California state senator Scott Wiener. “You get less driving, less carbon emissions, less sprawl so you can protect open spaces and farmland, and healthier families.” Identifying Bias Photo Algorithms ID White Men Fine—Black Women, Not So Much By Tom Simonite The companies’ algorithms frequently erred when analyzing images of women with dark skin. The skewed accuracy appears to be due to underrepresentation of darker skin tones in the training data used to create the face-analysis algorithms. [advertisement]( [Powered by LiveIntent]( [Ad Choices]( [WIRED Magazine Subscription] Get Wired The future is already here. Try 3 months of WIRED free. START YOUR TRIAL. physics Something's Off About This Slow-Motion Bullet Video By Rhett Allain I want to know if it's possible to estimate the amount of air resistance on these bullets as they leave the muzzle. I have to admit that air resistance on bullets can be pretty tricky. When these suckers are moving super fast, the simpler models for air resistance don't always work. ZOMG 9 Gadgets I Can’t Stop Thinking About From Outdoor Retailer By Adrienne So Going to Outdoor Retailer is like going to the biggest gear sale in the world. You can wander around and spend the whole weekend repetitively texting your friends, "OMG! I WANT THIS." Here are nine things that I'd love to have. social media How to Take Back Your Facebook News Feed By Louise Matsakis Over the course of about 10 days, I used Facebook’s built-in features—as well as several third-party tools—to see if I could make the platform fun and “meaningful” again. Some of it worked, but a lot of it didn’t. Mostly it was a reminder that you have more power over your News Feed than Facebook often lets on—for better or worse. hacks This Researcher Steals Data With Noise, Light, and Magnets By Andy Greenberg Guri's Ben-Gurion team revealed a new technique they call MAGNETO. By carefully coordinating operations on a computer's processor cores to create certain frequencies of electrical signals, their malware can electrically generate a pattern of magnetic forces powerful enough to carry a small stream of information to nearby devices. Partner Content Network Connectivity's Existential Challenge Connectivity today is as omnipresent as the wind; the problem is that exponential growth in connectivity has created a monumental task—to secure it all operationally, and keep it out of the hands of bad guys. [advertisement]( [Powered by LiveIntent]( [AdChoices]( [WIRED Magazine]( [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [Pinterest]( [Youtube]( [Instagram]( This e-mail was sent to you by WIRED. To ensure delivery to your inbox (not bulk or junk folders), please add our e-mail address, [wired@newsletters.wired.com]( to your address book. View our [Privacy Policy]( [Unsubscribe]( Copyright © Condé Nast 2018. One World Trade Center, New York, NY 10007. All rights reserved.