The Sky's the Limit Click

Now on BBC News,

it's time for Click.

This week, Uber the top. Old art

meets the new. And smile, we're in

Dubai.

This is how a self driving cars

seized the world. Lidar sensors feed

the car with a continuous 360 degree

view of its surrounding, a long with

crucial depth information. It is the

key technology for a successful

autonomous drive. And this week in

the US, a mighty court case has

begun which may take this key away

from Uber, stalling its progress

towards the self driving revolution.

It all revolves around this man,

Antony Lewandowski, who left

Google's autonomous spin-off and

joined Uber a couple of years ago.

Weimo alleges he took 14,000 secret

files with him and that these were

used to develop Uber's technology.

We expect the courts to take about

three weeks to decide on the case

and what impact that may have on

Uber's plans to taxi as a round

without a driver. But undeterred,

Uber continues to look to the future

of transportation, which in just a

few years may look very different to

the way it looks now. Dan Simmons

has been looking up. Even self

driving cabs will get stuck in jams,

so this is Uber's vision. When

you're type full time, go buy a. It

is ambitious and so is the

timescale. -- go by air.

Algol lives

by launch our first demonstrator

flights in Dallas and LA to show

that as a concept this can work and

then work to scale by 2023 and 3025,

so we are providing commercial

flights to a lot of providers,

giving them a new way to travel.

One

of Uber's partners has showed off

its design for a four seater cabin

which could include a pilot. Here is

that 360 view with the alternative

setup, four seats, four passengers.

It is electric with a range of about

60 miles, they say. We've seen other

designs for air taxis of late,

including this Chinese firm's one

which risibly shuttled actual people

in this autopilot had grown. --

drone. And this air cab by a German

firm uses 18 brokers and nine

separate battery packs, just in

case. While NASA and the FAA are

working on new traffic control

systems for these types of craft in

the US, the FAA will have to be

convinced self piloting electric air

cabs are safe.

We will ask the ad

can to come forward with the

engineering proposals and what test

they will propose to do so that we

can ensure that if there's a fire or

a Short or that something goes wrong

on the flight that they can safely

land and get away from that aircraft

before it does damage to the people

onboard, or on the ground for that

matter.

So will it work? Here is

Uber's case study. We've landed in

LA, traffic is a nightmare and a

taxi would take us 80 minutes,

whereas the air trip to the sky

port, plus a small transport, is

less than half an hour and Uber said

it could end up costing about the

same amount. OK, there are many

reasons why self flying electric

taxis sounds like a good idea, but

when you are saving less than one

hour were Uber's dream will need to

run smoothly to deliver.

Apologies, Dan Simmons, very busy

airspace right now. Its blade to

blade up there. Unfortunately the

weather is causing it. We are not

quite sure we will be able to get

you in the night. -- tonight. Really

sorry. We are just bringing out the

cabin. You are two kilos over, I'm

afraid. We are just recharging your

taxi at the moment. It will be a

while.

At least that last one

shouldn't be too much of a problem.

Uber have teamed up with a

specialist and are predicting a

four-minute juice up time. That

would be special!

Sorry, you are

running 17.5 seconds later. Please

do book again via the Alp.

Perhaps

the most challenging part of this

project is to get us, the public,

comfortable with the idea of taking

an air taxi.

When we think about

consumer option and new

technologies, this is not a problem

that's unique to travel. We saw this

with elevator is when they first

came out and actually in order to

get consumers comfortable with it

and L of -- and elevator operator

would remain in the elevator, even

when it was made electronic, just to

give consumers confidence. We are

going to be doing the same with

autonomous vehicles now, as we have

safety drivers staying in the car,

explaining the technology, two

writers, and the same will be true

with our pilots. We will be

launching pilots who will serve not

only as the operators of the flight

but as an ambassador to get ride is

comfortable with this new mode of

transport, so soon enough they'll

forget about its novelty and be back

to taxing and making other use of

their time while in transit --

texting.

Just like the Waymo court

case over who owns the specialist

tech, the creation of the flying cab

will no doubt have its own

dogfighting court. Taps that's

another reason why Kuta is keen to

get early. -- perhaps.

The first place we are expecting

these flying cab to take to the air

is of course the city of Dubai,

which always promises to foster and

allow trials of new technologies.

Although when we visited last month

it soon became clear that flying

taxis there are still a few years

off. But one big change that is

being unveiled is not to do with

aircraft but with its airports. Kate

Russell has been looking at what's

new in arrivals.

Dubai on ten at an all is the

world's busiest airport for

international passengers. Nearly 90

million people went through it in

the last year in the next couple it

plans to expand annual capacity by

one third again.

This airport has

two runways, it has three terminal

buildings and for major concourses,

but we have room for no more. So

whatever growth takes place, it has

to do within the existing

infrastructure.

So it has decided if

you can't get bigger you have the

get smarter. I was invited for a

peek inside its brand-new airport

command and control centre, just

before it becomes fully operational.

This airport has been kitted out

with the latest camera equipment to

help staff predict the flow of

passenger traffic.

The technology is

cool. It uses 3D cameras on the

ceiling and looks for the outline of

humans on the floor, moving around,

and track them through the whole

process.

Airport staff can get this

information on smartphones and

tablets, which helps them to direct

the crowd, open new gates and even

tell passengers where there that it

is. While all this data helps keep

the airport moving, the amount being

collect it is also causing some

issues.

Already there are 7 billion

datapoints and we've yet to connect

it up to everything, so we've got

baggage and passenger data but we've

yet to put in things like energy

consumption and water consumption.

As we bring back together we can

really optimise the airport and make

it more efficient and drive for even

more passengers.

So, what do you do

when you need a data centre in a

hurry? Well, ill thing one inside

shipping containers is definitely

one solution. -- ill thing. As Dubai

prepares to play host to a massive

world Expo in 2020, the airport had

to do some thinking to be able to

handle the extra 10 million

passengers a month.

Dissolution

could just over 12 months to build.

A traditional date centre would

normally take about 2-3 years.

Next

on the list of high-tech upgrade is

face recognition, to clear

immigration quickly, AI to project

seasonal fluctuation and demand and

assistant to tell passengers when

their baggage will hit the carousel.

All great news if you are passing

through the airport, there is a

solid if this case for these

upgrades too.

The more passengers we

can put through this site, the more

profitable this airport will become,

so it's better for the city and the

economy. We are working hard to make

sure we maximise the use of the

divide international site. -- Dubai.

With aviation set to contribute

nearly 40% of the wealth in Dubai in

the next few years, this airport

will continue to be a vital part of

the economy.

Flying high isn't fun for everyone.

Agoraphobia of the of heights is one

of the most common phobias, but

these virtual reality system hopes

to help. This man can confidently

fly a plane, but when it comes to

heights in general it's a different

story.

I've got to move! Grbac, are

back. I can't do it. Comeback. I

can't move while I'm up there. I

couldn't go up a ladder. Just

couldn't go up a lot. I couldn't go

behind bridges. If I went to Wales I

would go the long way. But I can

jump on an aeroplane fine. That's a

completely different environment, in

my head.

Welcome back.

God! Stack.

How are you feeling?

Anxious,

sweetie. Nervous.

Even though you've

been through the process before? You

feel the same level of anxiety?

Or

has it reduced? I've got way more

confidence than I did the first

time. On holiday with friends they

were going on the rollercoasters and

I talked about this VR thing we were

doing and they said I should be able

to go on the road. So I watched my

family and friends go round a couple

more times and then thought, I can

do this.

If you look to your left

you will see a basket of lightbulbs.

What I need you to do is throw them

down.

I think VR can treat pretty

much any type of view of OBR. It

might be a fear of a cat or spider

or dogs. What VR can do is relearn

that you are actually safe in those

situations. The beauty of it isn't

the disconnect, when you are there

you know you really in that

environment and that enables you to

do things you wouldn't normally do

in the real world. But all the

science shows that learning you make

in VR transfers to the real world.

In this programme you are going to

try a series of tasks.

Earlier this

month it was announced the UK's

national health service has invested

this idea of using virtual reality

therapy to battle severe mental

health issues are by putting

sufferers in a virtual environment

they would struggle within the real

world. This innovative approach,

plus the availability of virtual

therapists, could more readily

provide more therapy to more people

at a lower cost.

At the heart of a

lot of health problems are

difficulties with interactive with

the world and with VR we can put

people back in situations that

troubled them and coach them. We've

got to test it and make sure things

work.

The potential is enormous.

Hello and welcome to the week in

Tech. It was the week police in

China donned special glasses to

catch criminals using facial

recognition tech. Facebook, Google

and Twitter went to Washington to

talk tech. And customers were banned

from buying a Bitcoin with their

credit cards. The currency had

another fall this week, falling to

as low as $1000 before recovering.

It was also the week that a SpaceX

rocket blasted into space. Elon Musk

sold it off with his -- sent it off

with his old cherry red sports club,

at ease the roadster, and the David

Bowie soundtrack on repeat. -- a

Tesla roadster. It says it is

addressing production issues with

its model T car and finally, a

14-year-old has created an app to

help people with Alzheimer's

disease. It uses facial recognition

technology to help people remember.

They can scroll through photos of

friends and family and the app lets

them know who the person is and how

they are related to them. You can

also take a picture of someone you

don't recognise and the Apple try to

identify them. Now, if you are a

film fan, you know that it is awards

season and over the next few weeks,

will be chatting to some of the real

heroes behind the movies nominated

for the best visual effects Oscar.

First up, they'd run at 2049 and

spoiler alert, if you have not seen

the film, you might want to go and

make a cup of tea for the next four

minutes or so. -- Blade Runner.

Still here? Well, good. If you have

seen it, you will know that the

character from the original movie

makes a surprise appearance, looking

exactly like she did in 1982. We

found out how.

I had your job once. I was good at

it.

Things were simpler than.

A lot

of the works we do in visual effects

is kind of very broad and very

strong, think about the monsters

screaming towards camera. This was

the complete opposite, it was very

subtle stuff. It is all in like the

micro details of the face.

So the

biggest challenge is the emotional

performance and in this case, she

was talking, so she was delivering

lines. We did three shots from the

original movie, that was kind of

like a proof of concept that we did.

We thought it was good enough and we

showed it to the Director and the

studio, and they could not really

tell the difference, and then, or

you know, they had to struggle to

see if one was digital. That is kind

when we knew we had it in the bad

and that it was good enough to go up

on the big screen. We had her onset

in Budapest, we did scan her and get

a photographic reference of her as

well. What that allowed us to do was

to fit a digital skull inside the

digital model we had of her. When

you age, obviously your soft tissue

drops down with gravity and you get

wrinkles and so on, be as skull as

not change, so your skull is pretty

much the same. And what that allowed

us to do was that we had a digital

skull and we can build our

23-year-old character from 1982

around that skull, so the chip runs,

the forehead, the chin and nose, so

on, we could kind of fitted around

the digital skull, which was a

valuable reference for us. In that

kind of ensured that we had a

physically correct model to her real

skull. We also captured the

performance, so it is her body that

is used in shops. -- a body double.

We waited around a computer, from

all angles. When it could not do an

actual performance, it was all hand

animated because basically, the

director, he wanted to basically

direct a normal performance, like

you would do onset with a regular

actor. -- he would do. We can make a

still image look very, very photo

real but getting that believable

animation, that is still the biggest

challenge.

I know you are here.

A

great film and next week, we'll be

talking to the Oscar-nominated

visual effects supervisor of

Marvel's space epic, guardians of

the Galaxy volume two. All I can say

is, I am gripped.

Back in Jabbar, I'm really starting

to see how determined this young

country is to lead the world in

everything smart. I have already

seen it a high-tech police force in

action, met the Robocop is, and join

unit that will watch over everything

from the sky. Now, I am meeting the

world's First Minister for

artificial intelligence, and his

ambitious about what comes next. One

of my favourite sayings from the

tech industry is Larry page of

Google said almost every time we do

something crazy, we make progress.

Do you find the same thing?

Many of

the ideas, many of the top tech

companies from around the world,

whether it is from the UK or China,

the common denominator is that they

do not fear something that is

seemingly impossible. They come up

with an idea that might seem crazy

at first. So with that mentality and

with that idea, the brightest ideas

from around the world come.

How do

you make sure that you bring all of

the people of the UAE along on that

journey for digital change and

innovation?

UAE is very unique. We

have very young population, that

population can be retrained and

repurposed in positions that are

being created in the future. We

understand the opportunity for us to

lead the future. We are teaching 1

million people how to code. It is

the language of the future. We think

making these people coding experts

is going to be difficult challenge,

but training someone who does not

have any understanding when it comes

to that language. So think about

what Apple has done for the iPhone

and what Google has done for search,

that is what the UAE is going to do

for horrid.

The buyer is a place not

scared to adopt new ideas or fail

trying, so it is throwing all of its

might behind leading edge

innovations, concepts that may look

outlandish elsewhere are all welcome

here. And the Dubai future

accelerators programme is what the

government hopes will take these

ideas from page to stage. The

government can drive the vision of

where Dubai goes next, I guess more

like a company than a country. After

all, monarchy needs little in the

way democratic input.

A majority

this can fail, the moment -- the

moment you create one success story,

as long as you have that kind of

mindset, a ton of this will be a

write-off, but once you have that

success, the whole world will talk

about it and we will become a

platform. We believe regulation or

amending regulations in favour of

innovation is a must. Or they will

struggle a lot to show their new

technologies and whatever they work

on, and to have those

decision-making individuals and the

government working with them to

disrupt makes life and the growth

process much, much faster.

So Dubai

may just have the recipe to pull it

off, and accommodating leadership

and a lot of cash. This may be the

perfect place to fail and come back

smiling, especially as the

government is committing to make

Dubai the happiest city in the

world, alongside the smartest.

Visiting the Dubai smart office, I

was suitably welcomed by Farah.

Your

host is waiting for you.

They took

me to meet one of the leading

technology champions in the country

and despite the reputation the

country has on the outside, it may

be very happy to discover she is a

woman.

Technology is not the end of

our journey, it is only means will

take us to improve people's lives

and make them more happier. By

having artificial intelligence

agents embedded in our government

services, by having robots like owl

receptionist, this is the future,

but yet we keep challenging

ourselves. What is next?

Whether all

this works or not, you can see Dubai

is dreaming big, this is a dynamic,

modern city, built from the desert

up. Maybe its motto should be if you

don't try it, you don't succeed.

That was Kate in Dubai and that is

it from us for this week. Don't

forget we live on Twitter and we are

also on Facebook too. Thank you so

much for watching and we will see

you soon.