14/01/2017 Click - Short Edition

But first, here's Click.

Driving stateside can be a liberating experience.

Wide roads, big trucks, massive cars, but at a desert

bottleneck like Las Vegas, it can be ever so slightly frustrating.

Beep, beep!

Come on.

But today I am driving an Audi with a little more brainpower under

the hood, sorry, bonnet.

There is extra information about the current speed on it,

and it also is telling me there is a red light that will turn

green in about 30 seconds up ahead.

Three, two, one.

Here we go.

The car is connected to Las Vegas's Traffic Management Centre over 4G.

It reports its position and the centre tells them how long

until the next light turns green.

Indicate left, and the centre informs me about the left light

instead.

And round we go.

One of the advantages, says Audi, is that it is a bit of a stress

and tension relief as you know you have some time before the light

goes green so there is no point getting impatient.

At the moment, this is only available in certain models of car,

and only in Las Vegas, because this city has just one

traffic management centre that handles all of the lights.

Some cities have more than 100 different authorities in charge

of their signals.

So, one obvious use for this in the future is to feed

into an autonomous driving system.

If the car knows when the lights are going to go green in front

of it, then it can better driver itself.

If it has some kind of backup data signal

from the Traffic Management System then it should get it right more.

Which is a good thing.

It is judging that I will not make these lights.

Oh, and it is right.

Now, I do not know much about the car industry,

but what I do know is getting into it when you are a new player

is really tough, and complex, and expensive.

Faraday Future is a company that heard all of those warnings

and said, eh, let us try anyway.

How is that going for them then?

Dave investigates.

Faraday Future, a new car company that promises to beat Tesla

at its own game.

Last year at CES they showed us a scale model of a concept car

they had no real intention of making.

This year they promised something more, well, real.

Introducing the FF 91.

They're pretty proud of it, they say it can do zero to 60

quicker than a Bentley or a Ferrari, and of course, a Tesla Model S.

It can even park itself.

Just press a button and...

RECORD RIP.

It is being lazy tonight.

I'm being cruel.

It can park on its own.

I saw that for myself.

It's going wide at the minute.

This is a three-point turn.

One of the reasons we do that is because we want to make sure

all of the sensors in the car, of which there are many,

can get a full view of the empty spot to verify there

is no one there.

Look at that.

Spot on.

Straight.

Quite impressive.

It is all well and good, but it will be some time before

you can actually do this yourself.

Each and every car park will need to be approved by Faraday Future

before the feature will work.

And there would need to gather data on the system and future cars

so it is less chicken and egg and more chicken and $150,000 car

that isn't even on the market yet.

Speaking of which, Faraday Future have promised it will be

ready by 2018.

There is a lot of potential but it is hard for them to deliver.

The factory they need to build this thing for example,

they showed a picture of it and it is just a pile of dirt

at the moment.

The factory.

To build its car, they have planned a huge plant in the Nevada Desert

planning to become possible to make the cars next year.

There are reports the factory is on hold because they are running

out of money.

Hello?

It looks ready for construction but there is no equipment,

no materials.

And if they want this place ready by 2018,

it doesn't look like they are making much progress.

We are resource-limited at sometimes.

Things like this need to take priority.

Construction of the factory has stopped for some point and it

still looks like it is stopped.

It will start soon.

Was it because of financial restrictions?

It is a matter of keeping the cash flow balance between the projects

we are trying to do.

Not too encouraging.

But the good news is if they ever release a car it will blow

your socks off.

All right.

Heads back.

Hold on.

Let's go!

Oh my god!

That is so quick.

Oh my god.

This is now the fastest production vehicle in the world.

And we are just getting started.

Well...

Well it is not very useful on a school run,

is it, really?

That was Dave with Faraday Future.

Hello and welcome to the Week in Tech.

It was the week Facebook announced it would start trialling ads

in the middle of videos, and Norway became the first country

in the world to turn off its analogue radio signals.

It was also the week the US military released footage of a test

in California where it launched a swarm of 103 mini drones

into the sky from fighter jets.

The unmanned aerial vehicles were deployed

to operate autonomously.

It's thought the system could potentially be used to carry

out surveillance operations in the future.

Hello, I'm Charles Martinet and I'm the voice of...

It's a me, Mario!

Woo-hoo!

And Luigi too!

Haw-haw!

And Wario!

And baby Luigi!

And baby Mario!

Let's go!

Ya-hoo!

And that was Charles Martinet, the voice of Mario, Nintendo's

most famous character.

And he's helping us to introduce Ninty's brand-new games console.

It's a little bit different as you might expect and Marc has

been trying it out.

Nintendo Switch is an unusual games console because it does a couple

of different things.

Firstly it's a portable machine.

It's got this tablet like touchscreen with a 720p

resolution, it can be played out and about on the move and then

when it docks in this little station here,

like Mario after he has chowed down on those power-boosting mushrooms,

it supercharges the machine graphics capabilities up to 1080p full HD

and can be played using a normal television becoming a home console.

The controllers, which Nintendo has dubbed joycons, can slide off

the side of the portable unit and they can be configured

in a couple of different ways.

The individual joycon parts can be used for multiplayer and when it's

docked, the player can use a separate controller or plug them

into a battery pack, turning them into this beast.

Now, the joycons have got a number of different motor control features

that can be demonstrated in this mini game here.

It's called Quickdraw and weirdly what it does is it pulls the player

away from the screen and towards one another.

So to that end I have a cowboy opponent here and we're

going to have a shootout.

So let's load our weapons, get ready.

This is where you get your best Clint Eastwood on.

And I live to fight another day!

But what that ably shows is that the designers are thinking

differently about the kind of games that can be played

using this device.

As far as games are concerned, in the works is a new title

for the portly Italian plumber, the real-world set

Super Mario Odyssey and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

Nintendo's last console, the Wii U, had a bunch of issues from day one.

There was an additional controller for their already Wii console,

where in fact it was a brand-new console.

With the Switch they have the same issue again but this time they have

to nail down the third-party support and getting more of the core gamer

back on board with their product.

Perhaps the biggest hurdle for the Switch is its price.

At ?279, the Switch might have a tough time against its rivals

from Microsoft and Sony.

We'll find out when it's released on March the third.

BBC Click, here we go!

That was Lara and I've been out of bed for precisely the length

of that report.

About time I turn in for the night but oh,

no, I've forgotten to make the bed.

Fortunately I've got a smart duvet, which means that from anywhere

in the world I can click the app and the thing makes itself.

It's got an inflatable sheet inside and the idea is you programme

it to do this at any time you want on any day you want.

Yes, it is a bit noisy but the idea is you're not meant to be

here when it does it.

It might scare the cat mind you.

But that's not the end of the story.

If you're a snorer or you sleep with a snorer then pay attention

because tonight I am sleeping on Nora, which is an anti-snoring

device you put under your pillow.

If this microphone detects the sound of snoring during the night,

it will activate this silent fan which inflates Nora,

moving the pillow and your head just enough to reactivate your throat

muscles, open your airways and stop you from snoring.

You can track how many times it's been activated during the night

on the app if you want, or you can just have a good night's

sleep, safe in the knowledge that whoever else is in the room

with you is also getting a good night's sleep.