Super Transport Absolute Genius Super Tech with Dick & Dom

This is... BOTH: Absolute Genius.

'Come with us as we dive into the wonderful world of technology.'

This is mind-blowing!

'Each show, we introduce you to geniuses

'whose inventions have changed the world forever.'

THEY SHOUT

'We then take their tech

'and supersize it in our genius tech challenge.'

No!

'The question is, can we pull it off?'

Is this his brain?

'If you love gadgets, then strap yourself in.'

-It's genius.

-Absolute Genius.

THEY GRUNT

THEY EXCLAIM

'On this show, we look at the sonic world of speed.'

Ah, yes!

'We reveal how technology has changed the way we travel...'

DOM SCREECHES

-'..both in the past...

-..and in the future.

'Plus, we try to make history

'by making a mini version of a future transport.

-'Will we succeed...

-..or will we fail?'

-It's stopped!

-Argh!

Today we take you to the fast and furious world of...

transport!

We're going to show you three geniuses whose ideas

have revolutionised the world of transport.

From the man who got us to change horses to trains...

..to the people whose ideas are so big,

they might change the world for ever.

And we are going to go supersonic ourselves.

This is the genius world of speed.

We humans have always been trying to find better ways of getting around.

In the modern world, transport options are plentiful.

From the normal...

..to the weird and wonderful...

..getting from one place to another has never been so easy.

But it wasn't always like this.

Just 200 years ago, you wouldn't have much choice

when it came to transport.

There were no planes, no trains, and certainly no automobiles.

Taking a long journey would have meant going by horse and carriage

and goods might have gone by canal barge.

Until one man had a dream to use technology to transport us

-as fast as possible.

-His name - George Stephenson.

Toot! Toot!

George Stephenson was a true genius and had loads of ideas.

From creating a safety lamp

that prevented causing explosions in mines

to inventing a device to grow straight cucumbers.

-Lovely!

-But it was his work with railways that really made his name,

so much so that he's now known as the "Father of the Railways."

In 1825, he built the world's first ever steam-powered public railway.

And four years later, he and his son Robert built the Rocket,

the most advanced train the world had ever seen.

Stephenson's Rocket really was a revolutionary bit of kit.

-And here at Beamish Museum, they have this!

-Ta-da!

It's a replica of one of Stephenson's steam locomotives.

-We're going to need some coal...

-Yes.

-..some oil...

-Right.

-..and a man called Paul.

-And a... Eh?

Genius helper Paul Jarman works at the Beamish Museum...

..and he knows more than a bit about steam engines.

-Hey, Paul, how are you doing?

-How are you doing?

-Hi, Paul.

So this is a replica. What was Stephenson's genius, though?

Bringing together lots of people's ideas

and marketing them, getting the finance, bringing the technology

and making people money.

He did everything - he was like a celebrity engineer, really.

If it wasn't for him, we wouldn't have a railway

-that we know today, then?

-No, cos the other thing his genius was

was standardisation and he got everything together

and he made it all fit and it fitted universally.

Our railway tracks are Stephenson's true legacy.

He made sure the tracks were all the same width apart,

whether in Scotland or in London

so that trains can run the length and breadth of the country,

as they do today.

He also brought together existing steam technology

to create the Rocket, the greatest train of its time.

The design of the Rocket became the basis

on which all steam trains were built.

-'But how does a stream train work?'

-Do you want to have a go?

Everything on the left is hot.

DICK GRUNTS

'The fire heats a boiler full of water, which turns into steam.'

Ah, yes - stoked!

'The pressure from the steam powers pistons back and forth,

'which then turns the wheels - genius.'

I presume it's going to get a little bit faster than this?

A little bit faster.

You could probably walk nearly as fast as this.

Probably, but you couldn't do it

with tonnes and tonnes of coal on your back.

'It might seem tame nowadays,

'but when passengers first started taking trains,

'people had some odd ideas about what would happen

'when going at this speed.'

There were people who said you wouldn't be able to breathe

-travelling at the speeds trains could.

-Travelling at this speed?!

Scream if you want to go faster!

And can we breathe all right?

-DICK INHALES

-Fine.

It's fine, it's fine.

'Stephenson's Rocket may have been revolutionary,

'but I reckon I could beat it in a race.

'Go on, then, little man, let's see how you get on.'

Mr Dominic Wood versus the train.

Three, two, one, go! BELL RINGS

Look at him go, he's off.

Put your back into it, man.

'Dom may be taking the lead,

'but he's not carrying a load of coal and passengers on his back.'

This is not a fair race.

'And the Rocket could travel up to 18 miles in one go,

'unlike you, mate.'

What was that all about?

All right, you win, you win.

There you go, Stephenson - you may be an absolute genius, but I won.

Yeah, but you didn't pioneer a mode of transport

that is still used today.

You win.

Still to come...

I put a driverless car to the ultimate test.

HE YELPS, DOM CHORTLES

And we learn all about a new hi-tech,

hyper-sonic mode of transport.

It'll be as smooth as a magic carpet.

Thanks to Stephenson, the way we travel changed forever.

But cars are still the number one form of transport

and 80% of the miles that we travel are done in a car.

And since they were invented, cars have always needed someone

in the front seat to make the journey possible.

But that could all be about to change.

Yes, our next genius might have just removed the need for the driver.

Oi! I heard that!

-Sorry!

-Introducing to you genius number two,

Sebastian Thrun.

Brum! Brum-brum-brum-brum!

Cars have been on our roads for over 100 years thanks to Karl Benz,

who invented the first petrol-powered vehicle in 1885...

..but our genius has taken cars to the next level.

Sebastian Thrun is the German mastermind

who's helped make driverless cars a reality.

In 2005, Thrun made a car that changed everything

and it was called...Stanley.

Stanley was the first driverless car to successfully complete

a challenge to drive a 160-mile course through the desert.

No drivers or remote controls, just sensors and artificial intelligence.

Thrun is a true genius and we're going to get to talk to him.

Just one problem - he's in America and we're in a taxi in Manchester.

-Why don't we call him?

-You're a genius too.

-Yes.

Hi, Sebastian.

Hi, Dick and Dom, it's a great pleasure meeting you.

What inspired you to make a driverless car?

Every year, we lose something like a million or so people

in traffic accidents worldwide.

I thought, "Look, why not just make cars smart,

"and make them so smart that they're smarter than people,"

so they avoid all the stupid mistakes

that we humans do when we drive cars.

They'll just be safe, they'll just avoid each other perfectly.

How long is it going to be before we can expect to see one

on a public road like this?

The technology is ready and we're going to see products very soon,

but it's going to be a while before everybody in the countryside

will have one of these self-driving cars,

but when it happens, it's going to be really amazing.

-See you, Sebastian!

-Thanks for talking to us.

-OK, take care, bye-bye.

-Bye!

Well, that was very interesting, but I think to get a good idea

of how they work, we need to go and see one up close.

Driver, the airport, please.

So you need me now, do ya?

Oh, yeah. No, sorry about that. Yes, we do, thank you.

We're going to fly to Germany and with planes in mind...

..IT'S THE NOT SO GENIUS IDEA!

Concorde was a genius, super-fast passenger plane

-that launched in 1969.

-It could fly at 1,350mph,

which meant it'd take less than three hours

to get from London to New York.

Unfortunately, it was so expensive

that tickets cost thousands of pounds!

By 2003, airlines were losing so much money

that the decision was taken to take the planes out of service.

Supersonic passenger air travel was no more.

Concorde - genius invention,

but not so genius outcome.

Concky-bonk!

The age of the driverless car is nearly upon us.

So we've come here to Berlin in our genius's home country of Germany

to have a little go in one.

Where better to try out a driverless car than...

-DRUMROLL

-..at the airport.

Genius helper Daniel Gohring

creates driverless cars

at the University of Berlin.

Don't say it's spotted us.

-Hey, Daniel, how are you doing?

-Nice to meet you to.

Come on out of the car.

Now, it looks like a bog-standard car.

What is that spinning round on the roof?

That's actually a laser scanner.

It has 64 beams rotating 15 times per second

and then the car has a kind of perception of what's around it.

This car has...

..GPS units, so it knows where in the world it is...

..laser scanners which allow it to see...

..and sensors so it can sense if anything is near it.

This is a serious bit of tech.

Wow! It's like a little spaceship inside.

So what's that in there?

A scientific laboratory on wheels.

What are you hoping to achieve with all this?

Are we hoping that one day, we won't need drivers,

that there'll just be passenger cars?

Yeah, it should be like an autonomous taxi, you could say.

Can we have a go?

-Well, not have a go, but watch the car doing its business?

-Yep.

Here we go.

Oh, this is the most unnatural feeling!

It feels like there's a taxi driver sat there.

Completely normal, but not.

It measures how fast it can go for this curve we are doing right now

and it goes as fast as it can, but still keeping it comfortable.

-Can we see how fast it can go?

-Yeah, totally.

'The tech in this car is still being developed,

'so Daniel's getting in the front seat just in case anything goes wrong

'when we get it to go 100kph!'

-The car is just accelerating itself.

-Argh!

I just hope it doesn't hit the building!

DOM SHRIEKS

THEY WHOOP

Wow, now, that was so exhilarating,

but what would happen if there was somebody in front of the car?

The laser scanners would detect that there's a person

-and then the car would stop.

-Regardless of who it is?

Oh, I know, now you're going to say,

"Why don't we put him there to put it to the test?"

Me, that'd be me.

What do you think? If we put him in front of the car, would it stop?

-Yeah, it'll stop.

-Go on, then.

-Come on, get out!

-All right!

-Let's do this!

Good luck!

'I'm about to put my life in the hands of technology.'

Do not try this at home, obviously.

DOM SNIGGERS

No, this doesn't feel right now.

'I have to trust that the laser scanners

'will see me and stop the car.'

Here it comes!

Oh, no!

'It's at 100kph now.'

Argh!

-There he is!

-Look how fast it's going!

Argh! No!

No!

Argh!

'The car gets closer and closer as it hurtles towards me...

-'and finally...'

-TYRES SCREECH

Everything's fine.

The lasers picked me up, the brakes went on.

Thank you, car, thank you, technology.

You beauty.

'Still to come...

'we'll learn how people could be travelling in the future.

'And us two will be attempting to go hyper-speed...

-'..in our Genius Tech Challenge.'

-Wow!

So far, we've learned how our first genius

basically just changed the world.

And how driverless cars are set to change our day-to-day travel.

Next up, we're going to give you a genius who had a cunning plan

on how to bring us hyper-speed into the future!

Let us introduce to you the sci-fi world of Hyperloop.

Ladies and gentlemen, we give you the genius of...

Elon Musk.

# Birds go flying at the speed of sound

# To show you where it all began. #

-He's hyper-loopy, ain't he?

-What are you like, Elon, you, eh?

Elon Musk is a genius with big ideas.

Gee, thanks.

He's created a new kind of space rocket

and one of the coolest electric cars.

But he's our genius

because he's come up with a plan to transport people in pods

at around the speed of sound.

It's called Hyperloop and if plans come true,

they could start building one soon.

Here's the problem -

the Hyperloop expert is in LA

and only one of us can go.

Only one will go, but who would it be?

How do we decide?

It's the only fair way.

So who's the lucky one going to LA?

-Heads or tails?

-GASPING: Tails!

Yes! Huh!

Tails never fails, baby.

As you can see,

I'm having a terrible time right here in Californ-I-A

and I'm here to meet some of the scientists

who are going to explain how a Hyperloop might work.

'I'm at the University of California, Los Angeles,

'to see what Hyperloop might look like.'

Professor Craig Hodgetts

has been leading the research

for Hyperloop at the university.

Professor Hodgetts, thank you very much for inviting me

into this prototype of one of the capsules of Hyperloop.

It's an absolute genius idea that Elon Musk has come up with,

but where did it come from?

You know, it's something every kid has done.

If you take a soda straw and you put a grain of rice or a bean in it

-and you...

-HE BLOWS

..pop something out through a tube,

it's just like that.

Musk's idea is that passengers could board a pod in LA,

be shot down a tube at around the speed of sound

and half an hour later,

be nearly 400 miles away in Las Vegas.

You're going to feel it, surely. You're travelling around 750mph.

Surely you're going to feel that speed when you're sat in the capsule.

You're surely going to feel it as you're taking off,

almost like being in a race car and you'll be pressed back

a little bit into your seat like an amusement park ride

and then once you're at that velocity,

once you're travelling quickly,

it'll be smooth as a magic carpet.

Hyperloop will travel on a bed of air and will be solar-powered,

so tickets could cost as little as £12.

You won't be sitting around in a train station, like you do.

You'll immediately be getting on, there'll be a bit of a line,

then half an hour later,

you'll be 500 miles away, you'll be in another city

and I can't wait to get on the very first prototype.

-Can I come?

-Yes! You may come!

DOM LAUGHS

-Professor, thank you very much.

-Thank you too.

Hyperloop sounds amazing,

but I still don't really understand how it's going to travel so fast.

One thing for it -

Fran!

Are you ready?

'Meet Fran, our scientist friend who can explain things in a way

'even we can understand.'

-Oh!

-Whoa! No! No!

-'And she loves a good experiment.'

-Exactly!

'Best of all, she pops up whenever we need her most.'

-Hello!

-Ah, hey, Fran.

Hold on a minute, what are these beasts?

-What's all this?!

-Well, these are hovercraft and hovercraft,

they ride on a cushion of air.

-A little bit like Hyperloop?

-Exactly!

But the thing is, just riding on a cushion of air

isn't going to get you up to the speeds of the Hyperloop

and that's because we need to work on something else,

because air underneath you, yes, it can make you go faster,

but air in front of you can actually slow you down

and that's why I've got these babies here,

because you guys are going to have a race

-so we can see what that means.

-What?!

-Pick your hovercraft.

-We've never even been in one before!

-We'll see what happens.

The only rules are, Dom, you go in the left-hand lane,

-Dick, you go in the right-hand lane.

-What's the difference?

-You'll find out.

-Find out?

-Yeah!

-You'll find out. Let's do it.

Right.

Oww!

-My head's too big.

-'It's time to get hovercrafting

'in the name of science.' How do you drive this thing?

OK!

Three...

two...

one...

-GO!

-HOOTER SOUNDS

'Bring it on!'

Come on!

'It's neck and neck early on.'

Oh, go on, Dom, go on!

'But my hovercraft isn't as fast. In fact, I've stopped.'

-Yeah, whatever, loser!

-Ooh!

Ooh!

'Right, back up and running.'

Go on, go on!

'I soon get stuck again.'

'Whereas I'm speeding away and around the final corner!'

'With our laps done,

'it's time to find out what this has all got to do with the Hyperloop.'

Oh, Fran, that was a great, adrenaline-fuelled experience.

It looked so much fun!

-What was it all about?

-Well, who won?

Oh, come on, I won! What?!

-Why was I starting to go slower and getting stuck?

-That's because...

I've got a little bit of a secret to tell you.

..you were actually on the slower track,

because you had long grass, whereas Dom had short grass.

The grass was getting in your way

and it's the same with air, actually.

Even though you can't see it,

air can create friction that slows you down, just like the long grass.

So whether it's a solid or a gas,

if it's in the way, it's in the way and it'll slow you down.

Completely, right? Air can slow us down,

but what the Hyperloop does is they just get rid of some of the air.

They take it out the tube.

-What, with a giant vacuum cleaner or something?

-Basically, yes.

They make what's called a partial vacuum, so it's not a full vacuum.

They just get rid of some of the air

so there's less stuff to get in the way, so the pod can go faster.

So the idea behind Hyperloop is that because air can cause friction

and slow down the pods, some of the air will be taken out of the tubes,

allowing the pods to travel much faster.

Good to know, because this is going to be our Genius Tech Challenge.

Here's the plan -

for our Genius Tech Challenge,

we're going to create and ride in our own miniature version of Hyperloop.

Although it will be diddy,

it will still have to get to the equivalent of 760mph

in just 100 metres of track, otherwise we fail the challenge.

This has never been done before,

so we'll need the help of our old mate Grant

to help build it with us.

The question is, can we get to the speed of Hyperloop?

Whilst Grant gets started on the design,

we've got more pressing matters.

As we want to be the first passengers to ride Hyperloop,

but, obviously, we can't fit,

we need to make mini versions of ourselves.

So we've come a top 3D imaging company for some help.

-Rees, John.

-Hi, boys.

-How are you doing?

Look, we need to be shrunk down so that we're very small

and can fit into a mini Hyperloop. Can you help?

Of course we can and you've come to the right place.

How are you going to do that?

We're going to stick you in this magical booth over here,

which is going to take around 60 photos

from every angle you can imagine.

That's going to get run through a piece of software

that's going to make a 3D model of you guys,

we'll shrink it down and print it out.

-That sounds amazing. So just walk in and out?

-Exactly, go for it.

-I'll let you go first.

-Eep!

Go and be smaller than you really are.

'I may be small, but diddy me's going to make history.'

I've got to recreate a face

as if I'm travelling at roughly the speed of sound.

Something like this.

Argh!

Legs. Where's your head?

-Ah, there he is.

-Is that it?

Right, your go. Look scared.

Argh!

Three, two, one...

Good top shot.

-Quick as that.

-Look at the size of his tongue.

Looks like he's got a plum in his mouth.

'3D images taken, here's what our mini Dick and Doms will look like.'

Next, it's time to catch up with Grant

to see how he's getting on with the Hyperloop.

He's built loads of genius stuff for us in the past,

but this is his most technological challenge yet.

-All right, Grant.

-Hi, Grant.

-Hi, guys.

-All right?

-Nice to see you again.

-Yeah, good to see you.

Look, as you know, we need you to build us a Hyperloop,

-but in miniature. How's it going?

-Very well so far.

We've got the 3D designs here,

so we've got two fans in here...

'Grant has designed a Hyperloop

'which is propelled by two very powerful fans.'

-Can we see how powerful it is?

-Yeah.

-Take his wig off.

FAN BLASTS Argh!

-Nearly did come off.

-Is it on?

-Yeah, it stayed on.

What about the air cushion underneath?

How are you going to make that happen?

From the front fan, we've actually split the whole section in two.

'The front fan will both power the Hyperloop

'and send air underneath to create the air cushion.'

The top half of the fan is then directed

for sucking the air out the front

and pushing it out the back of the shuttle.

-That's exactly what you said we should do, isn't it?

-Exactly(!)

'So our Hyperloop has two fans, one to propel and create the air cushion,

'and one at the back to keep the pod stabilised.

'Genius.'

What are we going to fire this through? What is the tube?

-We've got this...

-Ah, drainpipe!

That's just a completely standard drainpipe.

So how fast is it going to travel down the tube?

Difficult to know at this stage, but...

CRASHING Idiot! Idiot!

THEY LAUGH

'Yeah, I think we'd better leave.'

And whilst we're out of his hair,

Grant uses his super hi-tech 3D printer to create the Hyperloop pod

and the mini Dick and Doms.

A week later, it's challenge day.

This is it, the moment has arrived!

It's crunch time.

We're at an athletics track putting the finishing touches to our tubing.

Our Hyperloop is 100 metres long,

so we're laying it right the way down the 100 metre stretch.

Everything about our Hyperloop is scaled down,

so that it's a 25th the size of the actual proposed Hyperloop.

This is the crucial part of the track.

It's the speed trap, where we're going to be measuring how fast

the capsule and little Dick and Dom are travelling.

It's also to work out what speed it would be going

if this thing was full-sized.

Now, the proposal for Hyperloop is 760mph,

so that's the magic number we're looking for here.

Grant, good to see you again.

-It looks perfect, but have you tested it?

-Not on this scale before.

We don't really know how much of a vacuum we need until we test it.

We know we need a partial vacuum,

but if we took too much air out, we don't get the air cushion.

If we leave too much in there, it'll jump up too much, hit the top

-and just not move very well.

-I can't wait to see this.

Have you got little Dick and Dom over there?

-I have, painted up and finished.

-Look at that!

'With the mini versions of ourselves created,

'it's time to get them positioned for the ride of their tiny 3D lives.

'But will they get to the scaled-up speed of 760mph?'

-In she goes.

-Good luck, mini Dick and Dom.

-Perfect fit.

-Be brave, my boys.

-Vacuum works.

Our super, hi tech Hyperloop is all ready.

There's just one final ingredient.

It's the height of technology, it's the piece de resistance, it is...

the vacuum cleaner. BA-DUM TISH!

Right, to the control room.

THUNDER RUMBLES Just as we're ready to get started,

the rain sets in.

# Why does it always rain on me? #

All we can do is wait.

'With the rain on, the vacuum cleaner is back on,

'sucking out some of the air

'and we reset for the challenge.'

It is time to hopefully make history.

Good luck, everyone. Three...

two...

one...

BOTH: Go!

-Can you hear it?

-Here it comes.

-Look!

-That's it!

It's going through the time part.

Where is it?!

-It's stopped!

-Argh!

It's stopped!

-No!

-Hyperloop's stopped!

-No!

-They're one every 30 seconds. You better get out, quick!

Looks hyper-broken to me!

Grant, what went wrong?

I think we may have sucked out too much air from the system,

-so I think we need to adjust that vacuum.

-Less suction?

-Yep.

'The vacuum cleaner sucked out too much air.

'So Grant's team adjust the cleaner

'so that it doesn't pull as much air out.'

-Attempt number two.

-Is it going to work this time?

-Fingers crossed.

-Fingers crossed, all right.

BOTH: Three, two, one...

Go!

It's going fast. Look at it!

-Wow!

-I don't even see it!

Look at that!

Man, that was quick!

It's got to the end, it's all intact, it hasn't shot out.

What's the speed?

Have we made history?

-Come on.

-Just calculating it.

-Let's have a look.

-Whoa!

-1,118mph!

-That's amazing!

-Congratulations!

-Well done, that is brilliant!

-We've made history, it's a first!

'We'd done it!'

-In she goes.

-'By creating a partial vacuum,

'we've sent our mini Hyperloop pod at the equivalent of 1,118mph!'

-Whoa!

-'Plus we learned about the genius

'whose ideas helped create the railway...'

'..About how driverless cars will change the roads...'

Here we go. '..And how Hyperloop

'could change the way we travel in the future.'

What an amazing journey and it all ended with us going hyper-loopy.

We found out about transport from the past

and transport of the future and it's all thanks to this lot.

-Thank you to Stephenson...

-..Thrun...

-..and Musk.

-You are all...

-BOTH: ..absolute genius.

DOM CACKLES

DICK WHIMPERS

THEY LAUGH

Where's Mitch gone?

-Oh!

-Oh!

-It's stopped!

-Argh!

A long line is a "bu-u-u-up".

-BUZZER

-Argh!

Wow! Its head's fallen off!

How'd you find that? "Blew my head off."

-LAUGHING:

-You can't end it like that!