Gadgetory

no this is not a clip from Terminator 6 this is real but don't expect to see it on the road anytime soon welcome to what the future on today's show BMW self-driving motorcycle california's plan to fight climate change from space and we finally learned who will be the first paying passenger on a SpaceX mission to the moon ok this might be the coolest video you see all week BMW modified this motorcycle to drive itself now the bike can't start on its own somebody has to get it balanced and moving but once it's going it can do pretty much everything else righto brake steer and stay balanced this is just a prototype the goal isn't to put it into production but BMW is using this to study writing dynamics and hopefully build new safety technologies in the future so think features like Lane Assist and automatic braking who knows when any of that would actually go into production bikes but BMW says it hopes to implement findings from this research soon all right governor Moonbeam is living up to his nickname California's Governor Jerry Brown says his state will launch satellites to monitor climate change actually he said so we're gonna launch our own satellite our own damn satellite ok why the fighting words Brown suggested that the Trump administration isn't using NASA enough for climate research California has teamed up with a company called planet labs it specializes in tiny satellites in fact there are more than 150 planet lab satellites taking images of the earth right now the plan is to develop satellites that can pinpoint the source of a pollutant that data would be made available to the public along with the help of the Environmental Defense Fund no timetable on when California would launch its first satellites we do know when SpaceX plans to send a torch to the moon and we know who it is on Monday Newland musk said you sakae ozawa will be the first paying SpaceX passenger he's the Japanese billionaire that founded online fashion models o town and he's not going alone he says he'll invite six to eight artists he hopes they'll create art based on their experience or a project he's calling dear moon Misawa hasn't said how will select the lucky few but if you're watching I like to consider myself a bit of an artiste it's not clear how much coin II drop for this all we know is has already put a deposit down that must called a quote non-trivial amount now if all goes as planned the mission launches in 2023 and one more note NASA's tests has sent back its first image and the satellite has already found its first new planet scientists call it a super earth that's orbiting a star nearly identical to our own Sun all right what makes you say WTF let us know in the comments that's going to do it for this week thank you for watching what the future I'm Andy Altman we'll see you next time