voice-over: this is bbc news. we'll have the headlines for you at the top of the hour, which is straight after this programme. this week, we're looking back at some of our favourite forms of transportation. there was the time we rode around wheels of steel with a swedish scooter that's as flat—packed as its furniture! with the curve—folding, we dance with the metal. alasdair uses a bit more pedal power. i can feel the device - giving me a boost as i cycle.

only a bit, though! but how do the same engineers create this? no, that is not real. that cannot be real! adrienne checks out a pioneering scheme to get electric cars moving around our cities. we can get the pick—up down. yep. there we go. oh, yeah. i can see the green light. and paul is on his latest railway adventure, trialling a new kind of train in italy. scooters. they're lean, nifty, greener than cars — really green if they're electric — but there's one thing about them that could still be greener... the way they're made and what they're made from. this is stilride 1.

it has one very unusual feature — its chassis is made from one piece of steel. all the curves, all the lines have been folded like origami, following a design by its creator, tue beijer. with the curve—folding, we dance with the metal. the reason is notjust about aesthetics. see, a typical scooter is assembled in special factories from more than 100 parts, and then it's shipped around the world. but for this bike, all that would need to be sent anywhere is the design. because a bike, if you would

send a bike in a crate, you're just shipping air. you don't want to ship air. whether you're in sweden, you're in england, you'll probably find sheet metal, right? so it's better to send the code rather than to send yourfinal product. that's a very, very efficient way to do it, you know? so you want to produce near the end customer. i've been given permission to fire the laser. the plan is for locally sourced steel to be laser—cut into the flat chassis pattern, and then for robots to bend it into the right shape like these ones are currently doing for other simpler objects. all in all, there are 15 components, including a saddle that also starts life flat. and once it's all been folded up, it comes here to be welded and it looks like this.

while the design is still being perfected, the prototypes are bent manually. the curved folds in particular are hard to get your head around. stilride has developed its own software to calculate how to get the shapes that they need — with help from a hand—cranked folding machine back at the office, that is. but i know what you're thinking. without all those bolts and screws and separate supports, can a folded piece of metal be strong enough to ride around on? if you put a straight fold into a material, it doesn't become that strong. because even if you lock one side of the fold, it can carry on bending like that. but if you put a curved fold into a material, then as you change the shape on one side of the fold, it forces the other side into a particular shape too. and that means if you lock this side into position, the whole structure

becomes rigid. the best example i've seen of that is your french fries container, which is pretty flimsy when you're only using the straight folds on the edge, but there are two curved folds on the bottom, and if you engage those, the whole thing locks into place and your chips don't fall out. the bike that we created now, or the chassis that we've done for the stilride 1, compared to a competitor bike — it's a tubular frame, a typical scooter. we created a chassis that's even 50 times stronger or more stiff, rigid, than the tubularframe. stilride has bigger ambitions than just two wheels of steel. parts of larger vehicles could also be made this way, along with the footings for wind turbines that would imitate tree roots, and... really?! even whole bridges? well, maybe in sections. one step at a time, though.

the scooter goes into production later this year and it'll cost 15,000 euros. 0k. from bikes to trains now. and did someone mention trains? then everyone make way for mr paul carter! this is a dream come true. choo! he loves a train. loves a train. in the past, he's been in italy, testing out its modern ticketing system. what else? oh, yeah. here he is checking out a high—tech solution to leaves on the line. and he was one of the first to check out the new cross—london elizabeth line before it officially opened in 2022. this station is paddington, where this train terminates. all change, please. all change. i've always wanted to do that! so a show devoted to transport

tech would not be complete without paul carter on a train. these might look like any other train, but they're a first for europe. these trains, being built in the heart of tuscany, are europe's first tri—mode trains to enter passenger service, having started running on routes in italy at the end of 2022. as well as being fitted with a pantograph for overhead power and a standard diesel engine, they're also fitted with a battery pack power unit and can be switched between modes. these trains are being manufactured by hitachi rail for italian rail operator trenitalia, based on hitachi rail's masaccio platform.

the characteristic is that he can combine during the trip and change this technology in during the life, so without any sort of discontinuity and any sort of disruption. trenitalia brands their services around different music genres, such as rock, pop orjazz. they've decided to brand their masaccio trains as blues. diesel trains are still necessary and are likely to be for some time, because of the wide variation in the amount of electrified lines, particularly across europe. so train manufacturers and railway operators across the world are looking at greener and more efficient ways to power their trains when external electric power isn't available. however, these trains will still rely on diesel power for large parts of some routes.

the batteries only have a range of 15km at present, though they can be recharged while the train is in operation, both in diesel and electric mode. when it's near a station, the batteries power the train completely, cutting emissions and reducing noise. at other times, they will use overhead power — or, when the line is unelectrified, the diesel engine. however, the batteries will still be able to power other aspects of the train thanjust propulsion, such as lighting and heating. so what are some of the challenges with implementing battery technology in trains? is it weight or is it power consumption? it's a combination of these two items. so our experts and our designers are continuously working on it. reduce the weight means also reduce the energy and the consumption. and it's a problem of space, it's a problem of weight. so the evolution of the proposal for battery is improving this aspect. this is why, in terms of weight and size, it's ok,

but now it will require test and test in order before to go on the market. despite this, hitachi claim these new trains will produce 50% less emissions than regular diesel trains. currently, we are totally focused on battery solutions. of course, our research and development is working on it. but in terms of time to market, we are confident and believe that this solution will be...will have strong success in medium and short—term. like cars, the direction of travel for trains is towards that of battery power. but unlike cars, trains aren't quite there yet. now, trains like this specific one are a step in the right direction, but we're still quite a few years out from having fully battery—operated trains. but at least we're on the right track.

time for a look at this week's tech news. zoeggeler, the chinese car company claims to have developed the world bills bars discharging electric vehicle battery stopperjoins a sizeable list of firms making the same claim. the 2025 ziggler 007 model to be launched next week will be first vehicle to have the new battery, which the batteries are —— companies des cann charge from 10% to 20% in just over ten minutes when using their ultrafast charging stations. google has revealed its new pixel range, including mobile phones, earbuds, and a smartwatch. this smartwatch includes a loss of pulse detection feature, which uses ai detection feature, which uses al to identify if the wearer's pulse has stopped and triggers alerts. scientists have discovered water on mars. 6—12 miles deep in the rocky outer

crust of the planet. although there is frozen water at the poles and evidence of but in the atmosphere on mars this is the atmosphere on mars this is the first time that liquid water has been found there. fig]! water has been found there. ri study water has been found there. i study takes water has been found there. ri study takes that speed of seismic wave data and existing gravity data and it interprets what the best explanation for those observations are, which is the liquid water in the cracks of rocks. there when it comes to motorsport, formula 1 is by far the most expensive, with teams spending millions on their efforts to win. while competition is now hotting up, with others starting to take the top spot on the podium, red bull are still out in front with the most wins. it's clear their engineers are building cars at the cutting edge of tech. but this isn't where their

design innovation stops, and their other projects might surprise you. if not, they'll certainly catch your breath. this extreme bmx bowl was built with the help of red bull advanced technologies, or rbat — a spin out from the racing team embarking on lots of different engineering projects. the thing that links them all together is taking this formula 1 technology and methodologies, and applying it to other things. so, yeah, the common theme is the formula 1 tech in all of them. these are the cars that red bull racing is all about, but there are lots of bits of this tech that you can take forward into other areas? yeah, absolutely. so i mean, it's like you can, you can look at this and you can see, like, on the floor there, you can see some different types of carbon fibre, different weaves. and those materials we very

much can carry forward through directly from the race car into other products. you've then got sort of more specifics, like the actual aerodynamic shapes of all this complexity around here. well, it's very unlikely we'd ever take any of that and use it elsewhere, but it goes back to the tools and methodologies that we use to understand the airflow around those parts and develop those parts. this is the bmxer kriss kyle, but creating his unique skatepark isn't without challenge. that's where rbat came in. they came to us and said, "what can we do material—wise "to make it lighter, but also strong enough so "that when it came down it didn't shatter?" their initial design was steel and wood. you know, we could design it out of composites, but also it had to be... you had to be able to take this apart so you can get it through a farmer's field. so there were a number of interesting structural challenges that we had to overcome. the main challenge was keeping that weight down. we had a little bit of margin with the balloon, and i think it... i think the balloon that we've ended up manufacturing was the biggest in

europe at the time. it's perhaps not a surprise, though, that some of rbat�*s projects come back to formula 1. the most recent helping to create what could be the world's fastest drone. the original brief was to be able to film the car and keep up with the car. and so that was what was done, and then the footage is really impressive, and so then you start thinking, "well, how can that be used in the future? "where do we want to go with that?" and the main thing they wanted was a weight saving. and so we looked at the drone�*s sort of what i call the bodywork on the outside of it, and then the sort of cruciform structure that actually holds the motor. we took those, we re—engineered them in composite materials, so i think overall we reduced the weight of the drone by about 10%. and, yeah, that helped just lift that performance of the drone to the higher level so that it was able

to keep up with the car. i think, straight line, it's probably faster than the f1 car. i think its biggest challenge is how you stop the drone because it's not... it hasn't got four nice sticky tyres in contact with the ground to slow it up. so it's pretty much having to reverse the direction of the drone and fly it backwards to actually slow the drone down. and for me, the most impressive thing there is that they're able to control the drone, flip it on its axis to slow it down whilst still keeping the car in picture. um, so, you know, the pilots of the drone are incredibly impressive. but it isn'tjust the superfast that they're working on. so this is the skarper device that we helped skarper develop, and it turns your bike into an e—bike. this little device is the creation of a start—up in london. the skarper unit has a motor, full gearbox, control electronics, full battery pack and battery management technology all built into one unit. so you simply click this onto your disc brake on the bicycle, and away you go.

so this is where it clips on to any bike? absolutely. this is a bog—standard, normal bike, and i've replaced the rear disc brake with a skarper disc. now, this is the skarper disc brake. it looks and feels and behaves exactly like a normal disc brake. it's a little bit thicker at the back, and that's because it's hiding our full gearbox. and when you want your bike to be an e—bike, you simply open the handle, line up these metal pins with our disc, slide it onto the disc, close the handle and just let it drop and click into place. and then we turn on the unit, like so, and you have an e—bike. and when you want it to be a normal bike, you just take it off. exactly. and away you go. exactly. 0k. time to give it a go. i can feel the device giving me a boost as i cycle. it's not on sale yet, but with it due to cost more than £1,000, i think i'll still be relying on my own leg power when it is. like most inventors, skarper faced challenges in creating their tech. for them, it was in the gear

system, and that's where they leant on the expertise of red bull. if you imagine the geometry and the space around the rear disc brake of a bicycle, these are really highly conserved areas with a lot of standards describing how they sit on a bike. we had to fit a full gearbox into that space. we had that gearbox... that gearbox had to work in a reliable way for thousands of kilometres and be waterproof and provide low drag. so, really, it's fitting everything we needed to do into that small space available was definitely the hardest challenge to overcome in this project. with such a range of extreme projects, i do wonder if they ever have to say no. i think sometimes people are shocked how much ideas are going to cost to actually bring to reality, and so that's perhaps the biggest stumbling block. the kriss kyle stunt, where he was in the bowl beneath the balloon, i mean, i remember people saying to us then, "well, what did you say when people said, "�*we want you to do this'?" we were like, "well, it doesn't feel that unusual "for red bull to come up

with that kind of an idea." so, no, it's never a flat no. we'll always look at it. spencer: meanwhile, let's go back to the real world, shall we? electric vehicles still have many issues that need to be ironed out. the fear of range anxiety, the wait to charge them up, and limited battery resources. sweden is embracing a different approach that hopes to tackle some of these problems — electric roads where vehicles can charge up on the go. adrienne murray has paid a visit to a demonstration project in the south of the country, where a new type of electric road technology is being put through its paces. adrienne: charging up without plugging in. could this be the future for electric vehicles? in the town of lund in southern sweden, i'm being taken for a spin along

evolution road. this looks like a regular electric vehicle, but underneath, there's something different. there's a pick—up that means it makes contact with an electrified rail, and can charge up while it's on the go. the road consists of short segments that actually switch on power under the vehicle. the power is following the vehicle. mm. and we have more than three sliding contacts, so we get a steady current from the road. the technology here isn't wireless. it's called conductive charging. imagine a scalextric. electricity flows to the vehicle through a metal strip that slides along the rail. a camera follows the green led lights to help keep it centred, while an antenna system and series of sensors ensure only specific sections have live current.

and because it ids the vehicle, the owner can be billed for their energy use. under here you have an antenna receiver. so the vehicle comes, sends a signal. this will switch on to 650v when the vehicle is over it. and then, when it has passed, it will immediately switch off. elonroad, the firm behind the tech, argued that electric roads make more sense than building a huge network of chargers. this is especially important when you have long haul trucks or buses, and it's actually cheaper to build electric roads if everyone has smaller batteries. it will pay for the infrastructure. it works for all types of four—wheeled vehicles. to test it out, a tesla and nissan leaf have been modified, though there's no connection to those companies. the tech has also been applied to a local bus, and even this commercial van.

i think it's time i give it a go. she laughs i don't get to drive vans very often! so i'm just going to centre the van. yeah. so let's see if we can get the pick—up down. yep. there we go. 0h, yep. it's following the... i can see the green lights, and it's there, isn't it? yeah. so now you will get the energy to drive and you will charge the battery at the same time. and when you leave the road, it will automatically go up. yep. you can continue driving for twice the length. butjust how safe is it having an electrical current in the middle of the road, both for drivers and the public? we believe we have a really safe system that you cannot hack, and it will immediately shut down the road if someone tries to tamper with it. the demo road in lund will be here forjust one more year. this is one of the rails that live out on evolution road and been tested in a real—life environment.

and we take it back, and we open it up to see how has it been affected by snow, water, ice, whatever. now new track is being made ready for high—speed testing in belgium. and the start—up is looking beyond cities to roads at ports and industrial sites. if you have a broad network of charge rails or electrical road system, you don't have to carry on board all the energy you need, that means we can reduce the battery sizes. we can accelerate the electrification, but using much smaller resources than compared to it, than everyone having big batteries. it's still going to need a lot of new infrastructure to be built though, isn't it? all these rails will have to be installed. it will require investments, but we need to do that in order to have this change. and i think, going forward, it won't be either cords or electrical roads — it will actually be all of the above, because we will need so much charging infrastructure to have a 100%

fully electric society. here in sweden, plans are moving ahead to build the country's first permanent electrified road by 2025. so perhaps, in the not too distant future, we could be powering up as we drive. spencer: and that is it for our transportation special. hope you've enjoyed it, and we'll see you next time.

hello there. we're into fine settled spell of weather now, just in time for the weekend, and we should see a lot of sunshine on both saturday and sunday, especially

across england and wales. winds light in the south, always a bit fresher further north. that's because scotland is closer to this area of low pressure over iceland, but the azores high, bringing plenty of sunshine and lighter winds to england and wales. but it will be quite a cool start to saturday morning. cool and fresh, with temperatures in single digits out of towns and cities. but there'll be plenty of sunshine to begin the day, cloud tending to bubble up into the afternoon, and that will bring a few showers to northern and western scotland and northern ireland through the day, where it'll stay quite breezy but light winds further south. temperatures here 211—25 degrees. mid to high teens across the north, maybe 20 degrees across northeast scotland. now the showers tend to fade away across most of the north, the odd one continuing across the highlands through saturday night. lengthy clear skies again, light winds to the south. so it's going to be another fresh night to come with seven to 12 degrees for sunday. the azores, high across the south, just nudges up a little bit further northwards. so large parts of england and wales, maybe northern ireland, southern scotland will see lighter winds, but still quite breezy across the north and west of scotland, where again we'll have a few

showers and a few showers, perhaps for northern ireland, maybe just one or two across western england and wales, but similar sorts of temperatures, mid 20s in the south and mid to high teens further north. now as we head out to sunday to monday, our area of high pressure begins to get squeezed out in towards the near continent as low pressure takes over across western areas, it goes downhill through the day across the north and the west. wetter and windier but central and eastern parts of the country will stay dry. plenty of sunshine and light winds, too. further north and west it will be turning blustery with that rain, so temperatures here high teens at best, quite warm and turning increasingly humid across the southeast 25, maybe 26 degrees. tuesday looks more unsettled generally across the country. could even see a few showers in the southeast. it'll be a breezier day to come, but the heaviest of the rain will tend to be across the north and west of scotland. temperatures here again mid to high teens up to around 20 to 2a in the south. further areas of low pressure will cross the country, bringing wet and windy spells to the north and west, but it should tend to stay largely dry, quite warm, humid and breezy

across the southeast.

live from washington. this is bbc news. as fighting rages on in gaza, negotiators present a new proposalfor a ceasefire and hostage release between israel and hamas. ukraine destroys a strategic river bridge in the kursk region as it continues its cross—border offensive. the world health organisation urges wealthy nations to share mpox vaccines with affected countries as concerns grow over an outbreak in africa. hello, i'm rajini vaidyanathan. us presidentjoe biden says a deal between israel and hamas is "closer than ever".