Electric jetpacks and hypercapacitors power the future at the 2021 Goodwood Festival of Speed

Speaker 1: We're here at the 2021 Goodwood festival of speed. And behind me is the future lab inside companies are showing up some of the most exciting technologies that are going to be powering the vehicles of tomorrow. It's 2021. Where is my jet pack? Well, it's right here. In fact, gravity industries have been making them for quite some time. And if you have the pockets, you've been able to buy one and fly around your estate for a few years. But at the future lab this year, gravity industries is showing off the next generation of that technology [00:00:30] and electrically powered jet pack. We saw a quick demo over outside, and while it still has a way to go before it can meet the power and crazy flight path of, of the fuel powered jet pack. The electric jet pack shows that it has some potential as battery densities improve and there's more power available from those battery packs. Speaker 1: We could see an electric version of these jet packs flying through the skies. In the next few years, we've seen this kind of concept before kind of rolling [00:01:00] living room on the road, a level four level five autonomous EV car that can be your fully relaxation transportation around city centers where this, the arrow differs slightly is that it's not just content with not contributing to pollutants in the air of congested city centers. It's actually making an effort to clean it up there, HEPA filters inside this car that not only filter the air coming into the passengers, but actually draw in air and expel it back into the [00:01:30] city cleaned of all those dirty particles that are coming from not just burning fuel, but from brake pad and tires, the kind that make the actual roads and city centers, horrible places to breathe. A full fleet of cars fitted with these filters, either these kind of autonomous cars or fitted to buses and like could together contribute to a huge amount of cleaning up the air in city centers. Speaker 1: It's a very, very exciting thing. That would be a nice stop gap while we're still transitioning into a world of zero emissions fully [00:02:00] autonomous EVs don't necessarily have to living room shaped or indeed size. This here is the motive and shows a kind of single person pod variation on that theme. Imagine having a few pints at the pub and this thing pulling up for you to get in and it will drive you home. What particularly tickles me about this design is that little logo down on the number of plates. This has been designed by Gordon Murray. His automotive company is responsible for some of the most incredible super cars in history. Most [00:02:30] recently, the T 50. And this is very much on the other end of the scale of cars that Gordon Murray's associated with, but he is very much a fan of small quirky cars. And this fits in with it idea, certainly like the idea of being picked up after the pub, by something designed by Gordon and Murray mobility as a service is a term that's been used to describe things like scooters around city centers, where you might want to temporarily borrow a form of transport, but kind of want to leave it wherever you Speaker 2: Drop it off, rather [00:03:00] than like a rental car, which you have to return to where you came from a vehicle like this, the tree go might be able to bridge that gap between small scooters, where it's easy to gather those up at the end of the day. Imagine driving this vehicle, which is actually a two seaters, there's a room for another person back here from wherever you find yourself out into the suburbs. Only for this thing in the evening to close its door and drive itself back into the city center to a hub where it's needed most this kind of drive [00:03:30] it when you want to. But ability to be autonomously driven is somewhat the stop gap between where we are now and a future where maybe we don't drive anything ourselves actually sitting in this. I kind of see where the appeal would be from driving yourself. Speaker 2: There's something like an attack helicopter cockpit feel to this thing is very, very cool need. And this steering yo really adds to that experience. This feels like it would be quite fun to ride now, but does design of [00:04:00] this has a bit of a party feature. The wheels on this configuration are incredibly narrow, two at the front and two at the back in this configuration that's designed for lower speed driving where you can lane split like a motorcycle, maneuver your way through congested streets and get to your destination that much quicker. When you want to go up to a higher speed, those front wheels extend out to give you access to the top speed of this vehicle and full array of turning circle, which is also improved by an articulated chassis at the back. So [00:04:30] this thing will be incredibly maneuverable, able to squeeze through tiny gaps. And at the end of the day, it can drive itself back to where it needs to be all while feeling like you're driving and attack helicopter. If Trigo makes it to the UK anytime soon and there's trials happening in Milton Keens right now, I think this would be something I'd wanna try out. Speaker 1: Now, our technologies as a company, specializing in energy storage and here at the future lab, they're showing off this, the now a eraser. Now we've [00:05:00] seen electric mode to cycles before, but where this is radically different is in how it deploys its power. Doesn't just have a lithium ion battery up here is what's called an ultra capacitor. Now, if you know anything about energy deployment, a super capacitor is able to deploy its energy, both in and out much faster. And this ultra capacitor uses carbon nano troop tech technology to increase the speed of that many fold. The idea of this bike is that it's able to deploy its power much quicker. It's able to charge [00:05:30] much quicker. The weight is reduced. The range is extended and it can recoup up to 80% of its breaking power. This will be a far more effectively of being able to deploy battery power vehicle. Speaker 1: Now this is being shown off in a motorcycle, but the technology itself is applicable to anything that uses a battery to move forward. Using this technology in existing hybrid electric cars could reduce their weight significantly. Now the technology that powers, this is a few years [00:06:00] off being ready for market, but using this kind of ultra capacitor could really change the way electric cars and hybrids are built in the future. Autonomous transportation. Isn't just for people. It's for goods as well. And I ride this year showing off a demo of its autonomously driven freight vehicles. In fact, this station here is monitoring a freight vehicle driving right now, live on a track in Sweden being controlled over 5g. Now, while it can operate autonomously, [00:06:30] they're also demonstrating here how a user can take control over the vehicle. And with minimal latency actually operate vehicle from as far away as here at Goodwood in the south of England, I just had to go myself and I was able to accelerate and break the car with the kind of responsiveness you'd expect from a video game. Speaker 1: It didn't feel like I was controlling something thousands of miles away. The idea being that a single user could monitor several of these trucks driving in various different places only really gets involved. If the AI encounters [00:07:00] anything, it isn't a hundred percent sure of this. All of this is underpinned by 5g technology. That network speed facilitating these kinds of applications. There, you have it. The future lab at the 2021 Goodwood festival speed. Autonomy does seem to be the name of the game, but between electric more cycles and jet packs, there's still plenty there for those of us who still like to control vehicles ourselves. Goodwood festival speed is running this entire weekend. If you have a chance to come down, I can wholeheartedly recommend [00:07:30] it.