this week, it's all about cars and cardio. yeah, we have teslas looping the las vegas loop. spencer takes a swing for it. yes, got a seagull. and lara gets mean. well, she tries to.

i'm a bit slow with this. i'd be in terrible trouble if there was a person punching. and is that... both: a flying elvis? as thousands of tech companies descended on las vegas this month for the consumer electronics show, we've been bringing you some of the highlights. but this week, we're getting away from the show floor. i've been made to work up a sweat and he's been sent to freeze. but first up, we're going below the bright lights of the strip with james clayton, as he checks out an unusual way to get from a to b. las vegas convention center is huge. it can take half an hour to walk across it. however, there's a new way to get around — tunnels with teslas in them. this is what elon musk claims is the future of transport, so we're here in las vegas

to check it out. the station looks like a cross between a taxi rank and a subway. i've never been here before, and it's very pleasant. it kind of feels quite cool. but the most obvious thing that you notice is that there aren't fumes here, and you kind of realise, first off, that this would absolutely not be possible without electric cars. but this isn't quite what elon musk had envisaged when he created the boring company. elon musk�*s initial idea was incredibly ambitious, that people in teslas would be transported into this huge network of tunnels and they'd be transported at more than 100mph using its autonomous features. this emphatically isn't that. for one, as you can see, these aren't robots driving these cars. these are real humans. secondly, they're not going at 100mph. not even close. they might be going at 30mph. and they're certainly not

being transported from above. they're actually just going around what is effectively quite a small loop. however, even though this is pretty far away from what elon musk said he wanted to create, many people at ces loved it. excuse me, madam. i'm from the bbc, we're just asking people what they thought about the loop just now. i love it. you loved it? it's really cool. how much would you give it out of ten? ten. well, not quite everyone. it'sjust like the classic meme of, like, oh, let's reduce the numberj of drivers by linking them together and make it more efficient- by putting it on a steel wheell and bubble loading platforms, and they're just - reinventing the subway. there's also a much more fundamental question, which is, is this actually a good idea? if you look at the number of teslas here that are all being driven by expensive humans, it kind of begs the question, why notjust use a train? we didn't want tojust be able to move people around our campus in an efficient way. we wanted them to kind of have a smile on their face

at the end of the day, and so when you see the lights in the tunnel and the energy of the music, there's a big love for teslas that really came together in an exciting way. and to be fair, this kind of does work, at least for a las vegas convention center. it's fun and a bit different, but is this really going to revolutionise transport? the boring company had announced projects in la and baltimore and washington. however, these projects appear to have disappeared from the company's website. las vegas, however, does have plans to work with the boring company to create a huge tunnel network that would span central las vegas. right now, there's upwards of 65 miles of underground tunnels that are planned for as far north as downtown las vegas through the las vegas strip and as far south as allegiant stadium. but will this actually happen? the boring company delivered on their promise to us. they worked collaboratively with us and they delivered

on what we asked of them. and we know the future of being autonomous is that last piece of the puzzle, and we're patiently waiting for it. over ces, the boring company claimed nearly 100,000 people used the loop. that's a lot. and there's hope the cars will soon be autonomous, too. however, its real test will be in the years to come. can it go from a gimmicky convention centre ride to a genuine travel game—changer? many will be watching here in las vegas to see whether this is yet more elon musk hype or something genuinely important. and when it comes to elon musk, it's often hard to tell which that is. that was james underground. now we're moving from cars down there to cars up in the air. yeah, not so long ago, we saw this thing take off in france. and now at this year's ces, paul carter has witnessed another one going up.

and you're not going to believe who's driving. if you were walking down the las vegas strip a few weeks ago, you might have caught a glimpse of elvis as you've never seen him before. no, despite the rumours, the real elvis hasn't been moonlighting on the vegas strip all this time. this is eric, a pilot who's demonstrating the first flying vehicle of its kind ever to be flown at ces. so, this is the rise recon. in technical terms, it's an ultralight evtol, but to you and me, it's essentially a giant piloted electric drone. now, it's obviously only flying a few feet off the ground behind me, but it is licensed by the faa to fly up to 700 feet.

and, remarkably, it doesn't even require a pilot's licence. it's an ultralight vehicle, and therefore you don't need a pilot licence. in uncontrolled airspace in the united states, you're welcome to fly the vehicle without having a pilot licence. the computers are keeping everything stable and you're essentially guiding it. so it's like a magic carpet ride. the company says it takes just 15 minutes to teach a novice how to use the controls. but, really, they say it takes up to two to three hours to learn all the relevant aviation rules. still pretty quick in the grand scheme of things. the vehicle is controlled and monitored via an interface which basically looks like a tablet. 700 feet still seems pretty high for a non—pilot to fly independently, but the vehicle has built—in safety features to try and make sure flights are fail—safe. the idea is that each of the motors operates independent of the other. if something goes wrong in one,

it does not affect the other. and the idea there is if something happens, the computer knows it and it says you need to land now. so you just pull back on the stick and it'll safely land you from the vehicle. the company is taking reservations for its aircraft and is planning to deliver 100 units this year. with a price tag of $150,000, it's still pretty inaccessible for most consumers. the target market, though, is a group of professionals you wouldn't normally expect to see in the air — farmers. if it's early in your season and your crops are wet, you can't drive into the field, but this can fly over land. if you have some sort of a blight or a fungus, you can get there. you can repair it without stomping down a lot of soil. or maybe it's the dry season and your crops are as high as your shoulder. you can't walk through them, it's too tight. but this can fly over and it's sized perfectly to land in an irrigation patch. the vehicle isn't designed to fly

in built—up metropolitan areas. in fact, they had to get special permission from nearby harry reid international airport just to carry out these flights at 20 feet. so a future where aircraft like these are commonplace still seems quite far off. but it mightjust be a step towards a reality where flight is accessible to everyone. that was paul. hey, paul. what did you see in vegas? oh, just elvis in a flying car, move on. socks, check. shirt, check. ridiculous star spangled slippers, check. so, you're off on an adventure and you want to hire a car so you can get about? but the usual rental places either don't have a car available or they're way more expensive than you thought they were going to be. well, there are other options available. turo is a car sharing app that works a bit like airbnb, but instead of houses,

you're using someone else�*s motor. tell it where you're going... las vegas. ..and how long you want the car for. and let's hit search. unlike regular rentals, you pick the precise car you want. and that's it. we're good to go. where's my passport? in the last place i put it, obviously. 0nce booked, your host should message pick up instructions. and today i'm checking myself in, as it were. step one is photographing the car for existing damage. you don't want the host to say later, "oh, you damaged the vehicle. you damaged the windows." this is proof. you see it there. depending how forensic you're feeling, you can be in and away within a couple of minutes. so ijust need to get a code, which my host has sent to me, so i can open the key box with the car keys inside. i'm in.

a couple more snaps of the interior and the trunk. i'm covering all bases. we are in sin city, after all. let's take it for a spin. you'll notice i had to use my phone a lot. if you don't have yours on you or it's run out of battery, you're stuffed. and no internet, nojoy, which can be a real problem when you're abroad. but when it works, it works. actually feels a little bit like i'm doing something wrong. no standing in lines at the dreaded rental counter. also, didn't need to actually speak to anyone. so for the antisocial among us, it's winner—winner. in all seriousness, though, during something like the pandemic, this was pretty handy, because there's no human contact at all. but it's not perfect. firstly, you need to get

to the vehicle without having a vehicle, so likely you'll need to shell out for a taxi, although you can also pay some hosts extra to drop off the car directly to you. plus, it can be frustrating if you want to do a long road trip, as you usually need to return the car back to where you collected it from and make sure you have a data plan for checkout, too. a lot of the cars that are available are available where at least there's some cellular service and/or wi—fi in the area to be able to get connected. there'll be people watching this going, "hold on, i'm hiring bob's car from down the street." is there a little bit of apprehension there about renting a particular vehicle as opposed to one that maybe comes from an established car rental company? there's a lot of things that we do in terms of making sure the age of the vehicle is appropriate before you can list on the platform, as well as the number of miles that are on the vehicle as well. we also are implementing required vehicle inspections in some geographies to make sure that hosts are constantly on an annual basis continuing to provide or do the vehicle inspections to make sure

everything is working as expected. you're encouraged to take out insurance when booking a car, which can be pretty pricey, depending on the level of cover you'd like. but turo is about hosts, too. it's quite good for people who don't drive that often and have a car that's just lying around in their garage or driveway that could be out and about making a bit of cash. which probably sounds rather appealing for many of us at the moment. but then again... would i be comfortable letting a stranger drive my car, especially someone like me? it's only available in the usa, canada, the uk, france and australia. but more countries, i'm told, are on the way. this is this week's tech news, the

moment of silence please for google�*s platform. it has retired its three—year—old gaming service, which means the games were no longer be available to owners, but google says it will unlock bluetooth in the control is to make them compatible with other devices. a group of european scientists say they have devastated for the first time that a lightening strike can be deflected by a laser beam. the terawatt laser system took three years to develop and acted as the virtual lightening rod for a telecoms tower which is normally struck by lightning about 100 times per year. it normally struck by lightning about 100 times per year.— normally struck by lightning about 100 times per year. it took so long because we — 100 times per year. it took so long because we started _ 100 times per year. it took so long because we started basically - 100 times per year. it took so long because we started basically from | because we started basically from scratch. and finally we converted to a system here with four laser heads. tech bosses who fail to protect children online could face jail time under new proposals to the uk's 0nline safety bill. the uk government says it will make the bill stronger with an amendment introducing criminal liability for senior tech managers who ignore

child online safety duties. finally, 14 child online safety duties. finally, 1a and 16 inch macbook pro, powered by apple's m2 pro and m2 max chips were unveiled this week along with a new version of its desktop mac mini computer with the m2 chip on board. lara: back in vegas, - we've been checking out some of the sports tech on show at ces. let me tell you about the time i ended up making a complete fool of myself on frank sinatra's golf course. mind you, it all started indoors. this is phigolf, an app and accompanying weird club ball hybrid thing that certainly does have about the right weight. the sensors in the ball tell the app how far your shot would have gone, and the app allows you to play online with friends wherever they are in the world. oh, there we go. straight down the green.

more immersive is golfplus, a vr game that turns your controller into the club. i like the way my controller really does feel like a club. as i tap it on the ground, i can feel the controller vibrating. nice touch. once you got the hang of it, you can play on replicas of golf courses around the world. yes! got a seagull. i tell you, this vr lark really is getting quite realistic. it's pretty immersive and it does feel like i'm kind of on a golf course, but i think it's time to try it for real. it don't mean a thing if you ain't got that swing, as ella fitzgerald once said. not sure how much she knew about golf, but it was certainly more than me. talking of swing, i'm going to get mine assessed. erick schlimmer is a pga apprentice

and stanford golf instructor, and he's been helping to test a new online golf tuition service called golfhow. the app uploads videos of your swing to the cloud, where software analyses it and sends suggestions on changes to your posture. it'll have its work cut out with me because i've never played a round in my life. not bad. it moved. so, let's have a look. "keep your back straight and tilt straight forwards." there's a model of the perfect swing and that is broken down into pieces all over the body. so itjust kind of overlays you on that perfect model. is the perfect swing the same for everyone, regardless of how they're built? there are no two swings that are the same. right. it's like a fingerprint. so if the ai spits out, "hey, your swing path is too upright," i may as a coach say, "oh, let's disregard that "because you're re—routing

the club on a good plane." now, you may have seen all sorts of cool graphics and shot analyses turning up on tv coverage of your favourite sports, and that expertise is now being used to help amateur players, too. this app is called golfboy. what you do is point the iphone straight down at the green, it will auto—detect the ball and then what's really clever is thatjust by looking straight down, it can have a good guess at how far the ball is going to go and how high. now, that wasn't bad. the app takes 240 photos per second and uses them to give you your estimated stats. golfboy will also watch your swing and then compare it to that of a pro, which it has to slow down to match your inferior pace. 0k, look, i'm nota golfer,

so i think i'm going to leave this rather chilly course and go for a different kind of drive, one that leads to the 19th hole. lara: it's that time of year when many of us want to get in shape, and i prance about testing some of the latest fitness gadgets. this is the i—percut, a smart punchbag cover which you can put over any punch bag. at the moment, i'm in free mode, which means that i can decide what i want to hit. but you can also set it to guided mode, where it'll light up in each of the sensors and make sure that you're hitting in the right spot. having to see through the full workout and competing against yourself did feel more motivating than just punching at random. but it is harder work than it looks, even doing it like this. i'm a bit slow with this.

i'd be in terrible trouble if there was a person punching. and as with any activity tracking, you can be surprised by its findings. bit exhausting, really. but i'm done for now. i'm looking at the data and there's some surprising news here. generally very weak, not very skilled, but apparently with my knees, i was pretty strong and i thought i was doing much better with the upper body. but it's my lower body that i was much stronger at. i was particularly weak at the top, although i did keep going and i think the stamina element is also quite important. so it's notjust about how hard you hit, honestly. here's another for the reflexes. blazepod is a workout for the mind and body that's shifting from use by professional athletes and coaches to any of us. the idea is that these pods light up different colours and you've got to move quickly from one to another as they light up, each one assigned for a different exercise. now, you set it all through the app.

there's loads of different workouts you can plan, and then you just tap your foot on here to get started. 0k, green is starjump. red is... what was red? red was push—ups. now for another workout, i have to tap each one as it lights up at speed. this involves less thought, but more needing to move fast and hit it properly. a bit stressful. reminds me of that dance game i used to play. there are also multiple player options and the system is recommended for rehab, where testing memory and reaction times can be pivotal for recovery. 0h! please tell me this is over.

0k. i'd better get up and on my bike. this is starting to feel like a tech triathlon. this may look like a normal bike, but the tyre isn't your average tyre. instead of being filled with air, a form of nickel titanium is coiled inside it. with 80 times the elasticity of steel, it has the give that's needed without the risk of needing to be pumped up. this is what the super elastic metal inside looks like, and once it's coated in polyurethane, it looks like this and bounces like that. metl hopes to be the only tyre that your bike will ever need without tears, punctures or messy sealant to contend with. the technology behind it came out of nasa's research for its mars rover programme. and if it can make it to space, i guess it can make it down the street.

and to ride, well, it feels pretty normal. after all of that, i think i deserve a break. so now i'm testing a breathing coach. 0xa is this device which comes attached to a loungewear bra and connects to an app. i'm wearing one now and it's going to monitor how calm i am, my breathing rate and my heart rate. the aim is that, overall, it makes you feel less stressed and sleep better. but right now it's time for some meditation. i could go to sleep, but i don't think i'm meant to. of course the whole idea of meditation is that you've got to keep doing it. um, let's see. my journey to calmness. it's worked. i've become calmer since i've been doing it. my score has gone up from 66 to 72. my average calmness is that i'm relaxed. she sighs

0k. every time i test any stress—related device, it tends to indicate that if i was any calmer, i'd be dead. but at least there was some change here. and if i want to get all worked up again, well, i definitely know how to do that, too. oh, the push—ups, they're the worst ones. ugh! tell you what, i wouldn't mess with you after watching you box. the kicks were a bit clumsy, though, but it was a workout and it was fun. it depends on your definition of fun, i suppose. anyway, that's it from us, from las vegas. thanks for watching. we'll be back next week. see you. hello there.

today wasn't as cold across southeastern parts of the uk, temperatures have evened out at long last. but if you are looking for sunshine, it was better towards western areas sheltered from the north and north easterly wind. we've still got high pressure sitting to the southwest of us. those winds coming around more from the north today. and have brought in quite a few showers to eastern parts of the uk. those showers will continue well into the night. mainly for eastern parts of england. we will see clearing skies and tumbling temperatures in scotland. the cloud should be breaking up in northern ireland. a frost is likely. could be as low as “4 in glascow. risk of frost across some sheltered western parts of england and wales but further east enough cloud and breeze to keep those temperatures just above freezing. even here, i think the cloud will break up, the winds will be much lighter tomorrow. any overnight showers will soon fade away, and we will see some sunshine at times. sunshine in scotland and northern ireland, although northwestern areas will turn more cloudy later. a little drizzle ahead of the main rain band that arrives to stornoway

by the end of the afternoon. temperatures nine degrees here. elsewhere, typically around six to eight celsius, much as we saw today. we've got that weather front bringing rain into the northwest of scotland. look out as it moves southward, the rain gets squeezed out of it. high pressure continues to shape our weather into the start of the weekend. so we're left almost with a band of cloud clearing in scotland, northern ireland, heading down across northern england and into wales. a bit of dampness with that, to the south of it, some sunshine, to the north following the cloud some sunshine for scotland. a few showers in the northwest. temperatures not changing very much, near average for this time a year. temperatures not changing very much, near average for this time of year. second half of the weekend could turn a bit milder. there is our high pressure to the southwest again. around the top, atlantic winds coming in and winds coming in and strengthening, and those weather fronts will bring rain. ahead of that for england and wales there may well be sunshine once again. cloud increasing from the north.

that weather front bringing rain into scotland, perhaps into northern ireland followed by blustery showers in the far northwest. but milder air on sunday, temperatures a bit higher. could make double figures in scotland and northern ireland. it will be turning windy through the day and stays windy into the night. the winds in northern scotland could be gusting in excess of 60 mph. it looks like a windy end to the weekend.

hello, i'm christian fraser. you're watching the context on bbc news. five officers charged with murder in the united states, in another notorious case of police brutality. the family of tyre nichols say he was beaten like a pinata. the body cam footage will be released tomorrow. the city of memphis is braced for the backlash. mind the gap. an iceberg the size of greater london breaks free from antartica. we'll go live to the south pole tonight to speak to the scientists monitoring its movement. and with the context tonight, the republican strategist antonia ferrier and anand menon, director of the thinktank, the uk in a changing europe.