0:00:06 > 0:00:37filling up with hydrogen. Today, I am driving a very rare
0:00:38 > 0:00:43car. One that could save the planet. And our lungs. If there's one good
0:00:44 > 0:00:48thing that's come out of the Volkswagen scandal, it is that it
0:00:49 > 0:00:56has highlighted just how bad diesel is for the environment and for our
0:00:57 > 0:01:04health. Cue my ride for the day, a car powered by hydrogen. This one is
0:01:05 > 0:01:11a modified Hundai and I have someone on hand to talk me through the
0:01:12 > 0:01:15science. -- Hyundai. There it is. May I congratulate you on a really
0:01:16 > 0:01:19ordinary looking piece of equipment. That looks like a normal engine. But
0:01:20 > 0:01:25it does work in a different way, doesn't it? This is a hydrogen fuel
0:01:26 > 0:01:31cell. This vehicle generates its own electricity onboard. How it does
0:01:32 > 0:01:34that, we draw hydrogen gas in, because that with oxygen, and
0:01:35 > 0:01:38electrochemical reaction gives us a couple of results. One is a flow of
0:01:39 > 0:01:43electrons that powers your motor, another is pure water. In one
0:01:44 > 0:01:49sense, this runs just like an electric car, the difference is how
0:01:50 > 0:01:53it gets electricity? That's exactly how it is. This is an electric
0:01:54 > 0:01:57vehicle that produces its own electricity onboard. You don't need
0:01:58 > 0:02:03to plug it in. There is hydrogen fuel cell technology big at the
0:02:04 > 0:02:10moment? Well, nowhere. OK. Who is most likely to make it big? First,
0:02:11 > 0:02:13this is something interesting, 20 years ago Europe and Japan made two
0:02:14 > 0:02:20different decisions on whether to back diesel. Europe said yes, Japan
0:02:21 > 0:02:25said no. This is what happens next. Yes, diesel usage in Japan pretty
0:02:26 > 0:02:30much disappeared. And it looks as if they were bright to turn away from
0:02:31 > 0:02:36diesel. Instead, Japan concentrated on alternative sources of power.
0:02:37 > 0:02:39Think of the electric Nissan, Mitsubishi and Honda have also been
0:02:40 > 0:02:45pushing electric vehicles for a while. Now Japan is putting a lot of
0:02:46 > 0:02:51political will behind hydrogen cars. If it was right with diesel, will it
0:02:52 > 0:02:56be right again? Here is Dan Simmons with the case that Japan is putting
0:02:57 > 0:03:05forward for the hydrogen society. Japan is in a hurry to make cars
0:03:06 > 0:03:09differently. So, why are Japanese carmakers assembly lining up to
0:03:10 > 0:03:15create what in the past has proven to be an expensive, impractical,
0:03:16 > 0:03:19unloved white elephant? The answer is as much political as it is about
0:03:20 > 0:03:23technology. Ahead of the 2020 Olympics, they are thinking big. We
0:03:24 > 0:03:57need to have a dream for the This is Tokyo's first hydrogen
0:03:58 > 0:04:04filling station. The city has five now and they are all as busy as this
0:04:05 > 0:04:10one. Gosh, it's quiet. Traditionally hydrogen has been made using fossil
0:04:11 > 0:04:14fuels but Japan doesn't have any of those on the Honda has made a clean
0:04:15 > 0:04:19away, using electricity, ideally produced from renewable sources and
0:04:20 > 0:04:25it is designed stations that store and make it. This is one of the new
0:04:26 > 0:04:32stations and overhear this is where the hydrogen is stored. About 18 kg
0:04:33 > 0:04:37work. But the new method does have its limitations. It can only top
0:04:38 > 0:04:41that up by about 1.5 kilograms a day and that's particularly bad news
0:04:42 > 0:04:45when you consider that if any more than four of these hydrogen cars
0:04:46 > 0:04:50rock up in a day and want filling up that would be this station
0:04:51 > 0:04:57completely emptied. It would need two weeks to fill itself up again.
0:04:58 > 0:04:59It may take a while to produce but the beauty of hydrogen is its only
0:05:00 > 0:05:06waste product is the pure water emitted through the exhaust. Japan
0:05:07 > 0:05:09has set its sights on being the leading exporter of these super
0:05:10 > 0:05:18clean cars to the rest of the world. To go to recently revealed the first
0:05:19 > 0:05:24of its fuel cell cars to parts of Europe, and here in the UK. This is
0:05:25 > 0:05:27the world's first mass-produced hydrogen car designed from the
0:05:28 > 0:05:31ground up, which means they have just taken an existing model and put
0:05:32 > 0:05:34the hydrogen tank in it. They put the tanks in the back and
0:05:35 > 0:05:39effectively the engine, with all of the chemical reactions going on
0:05:40 > 0:05:42between the two front seats, so it handles nicely. It is a little bit
0:05:43 > 0:05:51heavier than the normal car, but it stacks back up. 111, top speed, zero
0:05:52 > 0:05:56to 62 in about nine seconds. But there is one statistic that might
0:05:57 > 0:06:01concern you. The cost. It is over ?66,000. About twice the amount you
0:06:02 > 0:06:09would expect for the sort of car in its petrol form. In California,
0:06:10 > 0:06:14these cars receive a 25% subsidy. In Japan, it is over 40%, making them
0:06:15 > 0:06:18much more affordable than the UK, where there is no discount to make
0:06:19 > 0:06:23this technology get out first gear. Of course the Japanese can't help
0:06:24 > 0:06:28that, but to go to is keen to speed things up by sharing all 5000
0:06:29 > 0:06:31patents it holds for this car by other manufacturers. And it has gone
0:06:32 > 0:06:39the extra mile to quell any fears over safety. What with hydrogen
0:06:40 > 0:06:44being quite flammable at all -- and all. We crashed to that heavy
0:06:45 > 0:06:48speeds, set fire to it, even for shot it with a high velocity rifle
0:06:49 > 0:06:52and it can take something like 150 tons of pressure on the fuel tank
0:06:53 > 0:06:57casing. So, it is as safe as anything on the road. It's a safe
0:06:58 > 0:07:05and slow start to Japan's waterpowered revolution.
0:07:06 > 0:07:08That was Dan Simmons. Meanwhile, I am at one of four hydrogen fuel
0:07:09 > 0:07:14stations in the UK, although there are only seven Hyundai hydrogen cars
0:07:15 > 0:07:19on the road at the moment so I guess that is a reasonable figure. Time to
0:07:20 > 0:07:22fill up. This is one of the selling points. It only takes few minutes,
0:07:23 > 0:07:30compared to a whole lot longer to charge an electric car. This is
0:07:31 > 0:07:34where the hydrogen is stored. 104 litre tank and a 40 lead a 40 just
0:07:35 > 0:07:41in front of it. Yes, it is bigger than a petrol tank, but what can you
0:07:42 > 0:07:45do? And that's another selling point over electric. A full tank of
0:07:46 > 0:07:55hydrogen can drive you for up to 400 miles. Back at the front, here is
0:07:56 > 0:07:59Robin again. Next question. How do you make the hydrogen that goes into
0:08:00 > 0:08:04this car? There's two ways for hydrogen production. One of them is
0:08:05 > 0:08:08heavily dependent on fossil fuel. That's one method which does have a
0:08:09 > 0:08:12carbon footprint associated to it. The other method, which we are
0:08:13 > 0:08:19pushing towards, is producing hydrogen from renewable energy,
0:08:20 > 0:08:23solar or wind power, which gives you a good carbon footprint and zero
0:08:24 > 0:08:28emissions. To create the hydrogen in the first place requires
0:08:29 > 0:08:32electricity. When you put it in the car, you are turning that hydrogen
0:08:33 > 0:08:38back into electricity? Yes. Why do we bother putting this hydrogen
0:08:39 > 0:08:44complication in? You will get a higher storage of energy in hydrogen
0:08:45 > 0:08:47than batteries. The site of the battery required to store the energy
0:08:48 > 0:08:53this has in its fuel tanks is enormous. First question you will
0:08:54 > 0:08:55probably want answered, what noise does this car maker? Ready? Here we
0:08:56 > 0:09:09go. That's it. A nice little tring and
0:09:10 > 0:09:12the radio, but no other noise. If you have electric vehicle you will
0:09:13 > 0:09:18be used to the complete silence that will will be driving under. So,
0:09:19 > 0:09:23seeing as the engine really is working, -- assuming the engine
0:09:24 > 0:09:28really is working, off we go. Given this is a green driving experience,
0:09:29 > 0:09:32you get all the dials and stats on the dashboard to show off that you
0:09:33 > 0:09:36are regenerating energy when you brake, you can see the usage stats,
0:09:37 > 0:09:41where the flow is going to which part of the car. Don't scrape the
0:09:42 > 0:09:48car please! You have no expensive to make idea how expensive this is! --
0:09:49 > 0:09:52you have no idea how expensive. It will be awhile before hydrogen cars
0:09:53 > 0:09:56can relieve us of all of the diesel fumes, which hearing this part of
0:09:57 > 0:10:02London really bad. That's because down there is Oxford Street, which,
0:10:03 > 0:10:08according to scientists, is the worst place for nitrogen dioxide
0:10:09 > 0:10:11emissions in the world. Goodness! Well, in the meantime, maybe we
0:10:12 > 0:10:16should all try and use technology to limit our exposure to the fumes. We
0:10:17 > 0:10:20have been finding out how. It isn't much better here on this road, where
0:10:21 > 0:10:23the slightly secretive wooden structure hides one of the UK's
0:10:24 > 0:10:28largest air pollution monitoring centres. Kings college London has
0:10:29 > 0:10:33over 100 sites throughout the city. They are looking for levels of
0:10:34 > 0:10:38dangerous fine particles in the air. These are 2.5 Micra metres in
0:10:39 > 0:10:42diameter, or smaller, as well as gas and nitrogen dioxide. Nitrogen
0:10:43 > 0:10:45dioxide is prevalent in emissions from diesel cars and tends to stay
0:10:46 > 0:10:49in one area, but the dangerous particles spread around a bit.
0:10:50 > 0:10:54Living in London I know the area is extremely polluted. It is
0:10:55 > 0:10:57disgusting. I can come home, sometimes there are black things
0:10:58 > 0:11:02coming out of my nose when I get home from work. That stuff in your
0:11:03 > 0:11:07nose, those are large particles. But the particles we are really worried
0:11:08 > 0:11:13about are the small ones that you can't see. They are very small. They
0:11:14 > 0:11:19are cooling the air from the roof, they come down this pipe and onto a
0:11:20 > 0:11:27little filter which sits inside there. These filters start off...
0:11:28 > 0:11:35They start like that. Clean? Particularly white. After a couple
0:11:36 > 0:11:38of weeks... Wow! They end up like that. That's mainly black carbon
0:11:39 > 0:11:43from the traffic outside. But after two weeks? Unbelievable. These
0:11:44 > 0:11:48detailed readings are now being fed into a variety of applications to
0:11:49 > 0:11:52help motorists and cyclists. You can use this data to plan your walk
0:11:53 > 0:11:56around London. It gives you the best route to avoid the worst of the
0:11:57 > 0:11:59pollution. Simply enter your location and destination and its
0:12:00 > 0:12:06maps out the best route with the cleanest air. You can also get the
0:12:07 > 0:12:08latest pollution forecasts. Another fresh air app is Clean Space. It
0:12:09 > 0:12:13offers rewards to its users to cut down on air pollution. From
0:12:14 > 0:12:17November, it will link up to a portable carbon monoxide sensor. For
0:12:18 > 0:12:20the first time in a commercial device, the sensor will be
0:12:21 > 0:12:26permanently power with by using unused radio waves in the air. These
0:12:27 > 0:12:30invisible waves provide a very small amount of energy from wireless and
0:12:31 > 0:12:36mobile frequencies through this paperthin harvesting antenna. The
0:12:37 > 0:12:40company developing this tech is led by a former UK science minister. He
0:12:41 > 0:12:44was actually part of the Labour government that promoted diesel car
0:12:45 > 0:12:54use but he now says that was a mistake. He thought it was any --
0:12:55 > 0:12:59only able to power things using small amounts of energy. It is
0:13:00 > 0:13:04recycling energy, which will otherwise go to waste. We aren't any
0:13:05 > 0:13:07to any of the transmissions, so we don't have the need to have any
0:13:08 > 0:13:12dedicated transmitters to boost the signal. We can harvest just the
0:13:13 > 0:13:18ambient energy. Yes, we do silly -- see it as a sustainable way of
0:13:19 > 0:13:23powering small devices. The readings would be as sophisticated as those
0:13:24 > 0:13:27we saw from King's College, but being portable has its benefits. It
0:13:28 > 0:13:32is early days. The sensors need more work. But in a few years it will
0:13:33 > 0:13:33give us much better information about what our individual exposure
0:13:34 > 0:13:44is, as we move through the city. The big tech news this week was the
0:13:45 > 0:13:49announcement that YouTube is to launch a subscription service
0:13:50 > 0:13:55offering original and exclusive content. Originally only available
0:13:56 > 0:14:00in the US, YouTube Red will cost about $10 a month and be completely
0:14:01 > 0:14:04ad free. Never fear, there will still be normal YouTube with
0:14:05 > 0:14:09billions of cat videos to watch, filled with lovely adverts. It was
0:14:10 > 0:14:17also the week that Disney announced it would launch a streaming service
0:14:18 > 0:14:25in the UK. TalkTalk was hacked, leaving customers' banking
0:14:26 > 0:14:31information up for grabs. And seals using the internet. It was also the
0:14:32 > 0:14:35week that Apple News finally arrived in the UK and Stanford engineers
0:14:36 > 0:14:43celebrated acts of the future day in the best way possible, with a self
0:14:44 > 0:14:46driving DeLorean that does doughnuts -- Back To The Future. Finally, we
0:14:47 > 0:14:53got a glimpse of what reality might look like once it is augmented,
0:14:54 > 0:15:00believed to involved a form of retinal projection. Magic Leap has
0:15:01 > 0:15:02promised to change the world. They have raised $500 million from
0:15:03 > 0:15:05investors but this video made without special effects apparently
0:15:06 > 0:15:10is a little teaser of what they have in mind. And let's face it, every
0:15:11 > 0:15:21office could be brightened up by having a solar system hovering
0:15:22 > 0:15:25around our desks. Here at Bridge And college in Wales, his high school
0:15:26 > 0:15:29kids are not cheering for us. They are cheering for their sporting
0:15:30 > 0:15:34heroes who are paying them a visit. -- Bridge End College. Three of the
0:15:35 > 0:15:40All Blacks who may be the world's best rugby team are here to play
0:15:41 > 0:15:44with the kids. And for us it's a trip to see the tech that keeps them
0:15:45 > 0:15:54top of their game. Today these youngsters are donning kit usually
0:15:55 > 0:15:57reserved for elite athletes. Sensors on their bodies will be monitoring
0:15:58 > 0:16:01their performance as they play. With millions of data points collected
0:16:02 > 0:16:04during a game, the coach can analyse the performance of a particular
0:16:05 > 0:16:09performance of a team as a whole. The big thing in professional sport
0:16:10 > 0:16:11now is all about workload. With it being such a saturated calendar
0:16:12 > 0:16:13throughout the year it is really important for us to understand how
0:16:14 > 0:16:19hard the athletes are working on when to back off and when to push
0:16:20 > 0:16:21forward. There were some papers released recently where we saw that
0:16:22 > 0:16:24when they are operating at high heart rate intensities and after
0:16:25 > 0:16:27running at high speed they are not necessarily making the right
0:16:28 > 0:16:32decision or they are avoiding making a decision. Sensors like these,
0:16:33 > 0:16:37providing GPS tracking, and Excel matter, and heart rate tracking, are
0:16:38 > 0:16:39pretty normal these days. It is the software doing the numbercrunching
0:16:40 > 0:16:44afterwards that is more interesting. And this is where
0:16:45 > 0:16:49competition is getting stiff. The numbers of parameters that you can
0:16:50 > 0:16:56monitor is in the hundreds. So it is used in all sorts of sports. Each
0:16:57 > 0:17:00coach can personalise the stats they'd like to analyse, with the
0:17:01 > 0:17:04software then providing the rather colourful chart. And for us as
0:17:05 > 0:17:09viewers, we can see some of the data on our TVs. I think you've got to be
0:17:10 > 0:17:13careful that you use it for what its purpose is. You can overemphasise
0:17:14 > 0:17:16some of the technology. The key part is it allows us to be more
0:17:17 > 0:17:19individualised with the way that we prescribe things, to be able to put
0:17:20 > 0:17:22a training programme in front of a player that we know is being
0:17:23 > 0:17:25monitored. And we can track their progress more accurately, is of
0:17:26 > 0:17:34course really helpful. And of course no tech can prevent every injury but
0:17:35 > 0:17:38the use of these EMS sensors could help speed up recovery times. I
0:17:39 > 0:17:42always like an excuse to work out on the job and today are definitely got
0:17:43 > 0:17:47one. Here is a sensor attached to my bicep and I now need to do some
0:17:48 > 0:17:53bicep curls. So what better to do them with than the Click monopod.
0:17:54 > 0:17:58Here behind me on the screen we can see the movement of these biceps. I
0:17:59 > 0:18:01can show you what it looks Lacroix the other totally relaxed. You can
0:18:02 > 0:18:05see that there is no movement being tracked at all. As soon as I pick up
0:18:06 > 0:18:08monopod you are going to start to see a bit of a change in the graph
0:18:09 > 0:18:13and when I actually do bicep curl, look at that. You can see I'm doing
0:18:14 > 0:18:19it properly because if I now do it at a slightly awkward angle... That
0:18:20 > 0:18:24graph completely changes. Being able to isolate a single muscle and track
0:18:25 > 0:18:28its engagement isn't just useful for rehabilitation, though. It can also
0:18:29 > 0:18:32teach us to activate the right muscles in the first place. Today we
0:18:33 > 0:18:35are attaching these two biceps or quads but of course you can attach
0:18:36 > 0:18:40them to every muscle in the body, cut your? Correct. In rugby we can
0:18:41 > 0:18:43attach it to the leg muscles and see how the leg muscles actually
0:18:44 > 0:18:48contract during the scrum. The aim of all of this is to make athletes
0:18:49 > 0:18:52more safely, efficiently and harder, well, it seems to have worked on the
0:18:53 > 0:18:57kids. Did it make you want to run further and run faster? Yes, it is
0:18:58 > 0:19:01after he showed me I wish to rant a little bit faster so I could beat
0:19:02 > 0:19:06every one else. And when I spoke to the All Blacks players, they told me
0:19:07 > 0:19:11the difference the technology has been making, even at their level. It
0:19:12 > 0:19:19is to be a lot of games where you feel like you have done a lot in the
0:19:20 > 0:19:27and you have trained really hard, you will wants to make sure the risk
0:19:28 > 0:19:30of injury isn't higher. There is a lot of monitoring in terms of
0:19:31 > 0:19:34heavyweights, but now it is all about the speed that you move the
0:19:35 > 0:19:37weight at, which is meant to be more relative to the game you play.
0:19:38 > 0:19:43You're not moving 200 kilograms often but you're trying to move
0:19:44 > 0:19:45things as hard as you can. You feel that actually makes a difference to
0:19:46 > 0:19:49how you play? You see the way the game has evolved. Guys are a lot
0:19:50 > 0:19:52quicker, they are a lot more powerful, and that has got to be at
0:19:53 > 0:20:02attributed to the weight goes up training now, from a younger age.
0:20:03 > 0:20:06We've been talking a lot today about dirty, dirty air. From cars that
0:20:07 > 0:20:10don't pollute the apps that tell you whether fumes are. Well, here's
0:20:11 > 0:20:15another project that is the about in London although this time it is
0:20:16 > 0:20:23using a camera. Following successful trials in the Netherlands, the
0:20:24 > 0:20:27iSpecs EU project is expanding in Europe and hoping to attract
0:20:28 > 0:20:31volunteers who don't mind attaching a small gizmo to their phone and
0:20:32 > 0:20:34pointing it at the sky. It is all to do with checking the spectrum of
0:20:35 > 0:20:40light and turning your phone into an optical sensor that can measure tiny
0:20:41 > 0:20:43atmospheric particles. Air quality is a massively important health
0:20:44 > 0:20:48issue for many. And Hugo and the team are hoping that 1500 people
0:20:49 > 0:20:52across the UK will volunteer to join the project, and give them a good
0:20:53 > 0:20:58chunk of data to analyse. Are there not, with all respect, sessional
0:20:59 > 0:21:04pollution monitoring project out there? -- professional. Should this
0:21:05 > 0:21:07be left to volunteers with smartphones? Well, the technology is
0:21:08 > 0:21:13really quite advanced in this little widget. On the problem is that you
0:21:14 > 0:21:16only have spot checks, so on the problem is that you only have spot
0:21:17 > 0:21:19checks, so what road it measures the pollution at ground level. But you
0:21:20 > 0:21:22don't know what the ambient pollution is. So it's quite
0:21:23 > 0:21:26important to get a good idea of how pollution moves across the city, all
0:21:27 > 0:21:30forms in a city, and where the pollution is coming from, so that is
0:21:31 > 0:21:35what we hope to get out of it. The results from this project will be
0:21:36 > 0:21:40fed into what, and affect what? I mean, this is real science. So this
0:21:41 > 0:21:45is... These results will then hopefully fed into policy to some
0:21:46 > 0:21:48degree -- be fed into policy to some degree. But at the moment it is an
0:21:49 > 0:21:52experiment. We are hoping we are going to get really good data.
0:21:53 > 0:22:01Obviously it relies on having clear skies which might not necessarily
0:22:02 > 0:22:04happen. And just before we go, a sneak preview of some of the
0:22:05 > 0:22:11greenest cars on the planet. Every two years, Australia Post is the
0:22:12 > 0:22:16World Solar Challenge. It is a race for cars powered entirely by the
0:22:17 > 0:22:19sun. And Jonathan Blake has been accompanying one of the teams from
0:22:20 > 0:22:26West Sussex, right here in the gloriously sunny UK. Three years of
0:22:27 > 0:22:30work finally coming together. Students from this college in West
0:22:31 > 0:22:35Sussex have designed and built a solar powered car from scratch. The
0:22:36 > 0:22:40group had travelled from England to Australia and are now getting ready
0:22:41 > 0:22:43for their epic journey. It has been a huge amount of work just to get to
0:22:44 > 0:22:49this point at the team have arrived in Darwin and for the few days
0:22:50 > 0:22:53before the race they are based here at the Hidden Valley test track,
0:22:54 > 0:22:56where teams are putting the finishing touches to their cars
0:22:57 > 0:23:01before the race. We first competed three years ago, and it was his
0:23:02 > 0:23:05idea, and he proposes to a few of his students. We started getting
0:23:06 > 0:23:08together and working on this car. Every time we sold some kind of
0:23:09 > 0:23:12problem there is another problem that occurs. Every step we take, if
0:23:13 > 0:23:16feels like you're taking another step back. It is so weird, we always
0:23:17 > 0:23:22wanted to be here and we didn't know if we were going to make it. The
0:23:23 > 0:23:26fact that we have is amazing. So it is the day before the race now, and
0:23:27 > 0:23:30after a very early start and a couple of last-minute hitches the
0:23:31 > 0:23:33team are ready for a test lap, and what they call dynamic Skuta
0:23:34 > 0:23:37nearing, testing this steering, and the brakes, and a few other things
0:23:38 > 0:23:39before they can compete. Just a few days ago now and there is plenty of
0:23:40 > 0:23:56sun, which is the main thing. That was Jonathan Blake in
0:23:57 > 0:23:59Australia. A World Solar Challenge has now been run. If you'd like to
0:24:00 > 0:24:02know the results you can get them online. I won't spoil them for you
0:24:03 > 0:24:06here because we will have the full story of what happened next week. I
0:24:07 > 0:24:17hope you have enjoyed our low emissions programme. Read easy, we
0:24:18 > 0:24:19will see you soon. -- breathe easy.