you're watching bbc news. coming up in around 10 minutes�* time, we'll have newswatch. but first, here's click. welcome back to the consumer electronics show in las vegas. we have cars for you this week. lots of them. one of the biggest draws of the show had been motorhomes. are you ready to get your driving shoes on? i am revved up and ready. on your marks, get set, go! every year, ces is full of concept cars. often outlandish ideas as to how we're going to be travelling on roads in future. maybe that'll be having a chat to your vehicle... do you like it? yes. sounds good. ..or turning the back into a really impractical and uncomfortable living room. this year, though, there was at least one idea with a somewhat more convincing purpose. what i'm filming here is a concept that hopes to be able to create unquestionable cars. —— uncrashable cars. i am getting in this vehicle which is embedded with lidar sensors, which should stop it from hitting the luckily pretend child at the end of this track. this is a tesla, which is already fitted with a system that is in most new cars which uses cameras and radar to hopefully prevent it from hitting something if an accident is likely to happen. but what are its limitations? this feels horrible. you just want it to stop. i think we are close. and it has quite a jolt, obviously, that we have not hit the child. whereas the tesla... that was quite something. this technology has already been built into cars right now as a safety function, and in the future, could be used in autonomous vehicles too. this tesla and other cars with current collision avoidance systems have their limits as to what they can prevent. accidents still happen but lidar has the potential to raise the bar. even in low light. there is a general assumption right now that automatic emergency braking or collision avoidance systems solve problems. because of the reality is the opposite, people still get into accidents all the time, despite substantial majority of new vehicles being produced with assisted driving capabilities, the reality is that you would think it would be easy to build system that willjust prevent you from hitting the thing right in front of you, but that's simply not the case with these existing camera and radar systems. luminar�*s laser sensing technology measures how far away objects are, perception software interpreting that data, feeding what it finds into the control software that tells the car how and where to stop. and because it's using lidar, should also workjust as well in low light. you take a look at most of the autonomous vehicle companies that have been out there. they have generally been stuck in this r&d mode, you have these giant roof racks full of sensing systems and a supercomputer in the trunk that's there to run the thing. the objective is to try to replace the driver altogether and take a passenger from point a to point b in a right hailing taxi environment. but the thing is what we're doing is not about that, it's about making the drivers better, giving them almost superhuman capabilities to be able to actually save lives and have something that has an opportunity to do this today as opposed to decades from now. and another thing many drivers might like right now is an electric car with better range. well, mercedes unveiled the vision eqxx, a concept car capable of up to 648 miles on a single charge. that could take you from berlin to paris. it says that it's made possible due to a higher density battery, lower weight, 117 solar panels on the roof and better aerodynamics. it took a bit of work then! of course, it will be up to others to certify the range estimate independently and those extra miles mean there are some compromises. with a top speed of only around 87mph. not that you should be driving any faster anyway! this particular model won't be going on sale, but mercedes say that many of the features are going to be added to theirfuture evs from 2024 or 2025. meanwhile, here's something that caused its fair share of attention. this bmw changes colour! it's a colour—changing car! and to do so, it uses e—ink, the same as an e—reader. we have here is the world's first real colour—changing car. the technology e—ink is amazing. we know it from the e—readers and kindles, it's very low energy, it's sunlight readable and it'sjust colour change, there's no light or led backlight or overlaid, it is just colour change. so you just need a little bit of energy to change, and absolutely no energy to hold it. so it is stable and, as an engineer, that is a wonderful property to have. the driver can manually choose to change colour or you can do it via the sensors that are embedded in the vehicle so you can have a temperature sensor, but when it is hot, the car will be white, when it is cold, it will be black, or you can have a light sensor which changes colour at night time. why would anyone want to colour change they car? our final car is one that wants to use its power to post on social media. this is the indi one, and it is keen to show off its supercomputer. it's capable of high—quality mobile gaming and even has vr connectivity, not that that is much use to the driver while driving. its power also means it can be very productive for work on the go. this car isn'tjust about the supercomputer, though. it is also covered in cameras. on the outside, there is one up front and back. internally, there are three as well. and if you're so inclined, you could post your journey on social media. yes, if getting from a to b is an interruption to your constant posting, or the thing you actually want to share is yourjourney, then this car has the solution? from the social media side, it's interesting because so much of our life is shaped by instant media, whether it is news or social—related and with our product, you know, when you talk influences are for they get really excited because of the first time, they can real—time at any time in their day or movements through the city in their vehicle, they can basically treat their vehicle as an extension of their mobile phone or their home pc. but also, the idea of archiving type of information and for those of us, you know, thinking about using the same type of hardware for our families, being able to document those moments in the car with the kids when they are learning to sing their first songs or the family singalongs or even discussions with the teenagers in the car. i'm sure they'd love that! but for looking at a baby in the back, well, this camera probably does beat the usual mirror. so, whilst every feature on every car, clearly, won't be for everyone, at least there are plenty of new ideas out there to make our roads safer and smoother. and to get us noticed if we want to be. now, having been to vegas every year since the beginning of time, i thought i had seen everything here. but it turns out there is something new this year. you know area 51 is near here, and is kind of weird. yeah. well, there is now area 15, which is also all kinds of strange. and we sent chris fox to check it out. i've popped out to do a big shot at the most talked about supermarket in las vegas. i've heard the prices here are to die for. but at this supermarket, nothing is quite as it seems. omega mart looks just like a regular supermarket. they've got food and drink you can actually buy, but everything's been infused with a secret additive, and the ceo hasn't been seen for a while. it makes you think there could be a mystery lying just. . . beneath the surface. stepping through one of the shop's portals takes you to another dimension, where more of the mystery unfolds. but what you do there is up to you. there's a story to immerse yourself in using one of the store's loyalty cards to track your progress, or you can simply treat it as a very instagramable multisensory playground. more than 300 artists have worked on creating the experience, with more than a0 projectors providing some of the visuals. in the parallel dimension, i met drew, and i asked him whether this was more art or escape room. i think it's both of those things and more. it's really whatever you make it. we're not going to tell you how to experience omega mart, what to do, it's like an open—world vide ogame, and we're going to reward your explanation and play. there is a lot of opportunity to take a good instagram photo, how much of the design was making something like this instagramable? social media is massive for us. obviously, there is all of the posts that are user generated content that people provide. we're full of just jaw—dropping art. throughout the 52,000 square feet of this exhibition, but really, that is just scratching the surface. as you start to wander and explore these different areas, you'll start to discover there's a story, there's a few different narratives that are happening. there's mysteries to solve. and if you dive even deeper down the rabbit hole, you can go through some rfid progressive digital gameplay that will take you a couple of hours to hack and unlock secrets throughout the entire exhibition. drew, what inspired the omega mart? it's something that started as a small backyard art project that evolved eventually into this huge project that took three years to create. it took 325 artists from concept to opening, and, you know, we have everything from digital creators, sculptors, painters, experiential artists, all working together to create this narrative and build it out. so, a really giant process that took a long time. while the traditional high street has struggled in the internet age, the omega mart is thriving, and the company is already planning an expansion to this immersive experience, and opening some others. so, the next time you're out shopping, do be on the lookout for any suspicious looking wormholes to another dimension. that was chris fox. that looked right up your street. absolutely, it is so weird and wonderful and brilliant, give me a weird supermarket and i am all over it. do you want to go now? sure. you can find us on youtube, instagram, facebook and twitter. thanks for watching. we will see you soon. hello. join me and my international panel of guests as we examine the top news stories of the day. we will talk about what is happening here in the uk, united states and the rest of the world from and the rest of the world from a range of different perspectives. that is context, monday to thursday on the bbc news channel. hello, and welcome to newswatch. has the bbc plasma coverage of those downing street party allegations been a witch—hunt that has played on the audience's emotions. —— has the audience's emotions. —— has the bbc�*s coverage. and we delve into the archive to look at some opening titles from news bulletins in years gone by. the latest in a string of allegations of lockdown parties at downing street has led to a febrile atmosphere in westminster over the past few days and one can imagine, do a bit ofa days and one can imagine, do a bit of a frenzy and newsrooms around the country too. although this week's revelations have made many news which he was angry, others have accused bbc news of getting over excited by the story. shortly thereafter far more important news items that the bbc should be focusing on lake the panic stories of omicron issues, housing the afghan refugees and even what vladimir putin is doing rather than whether or not there was a socially distanced get—together in the garden for those who are working extremely hard together in 2020 at a very stressful time and were invited to use a beautiful space to chat with each other and support each other. i'm sure that nurses and doctors also met in staff rooms that were not nearly as luxurious as the number ten garden to unwind and unload but none of this is being covered by the press who are holding onto this story and making it much bigger than it needs to be. please can the bbc stop this witch—hunt and report on the stories that are relevant and will impact us now. some of the coverage _ and will impact us now. some of the coverage took— and will impact us now. some of the coverage took us _ and will impact us now. some of the coverage took us away - and will impact us now. some of the coverage took us away from | the coverage took us away from westminster to hear from families of those bereaved by covid-19. care families of those bereaved by covid—19. care is mark easton on tuesday's news at six. the da of on tuesday's news at six. the day of the _ on tuesday's news at six. the day of the downing _ on tuesday's news at six. tue: day of the downing street on tuesday's news at six. tte: day of the downing street party family attended the funeral of 75—year—old rita. lockdown met her daughter was never able to say goodbye. we her daughter was never able to say goodbye-— her daughter was never able to say goodbye. we weren't there, there was _ say goodbye. we weren't there, there was just — say goodbye. we weren't there, there wasjust a _ say goodbye. we weren't there, there wasjust a fin. _ say goodbye. we weren't there, there wasjust a fin. so - say goodbye. we weren't there, there wasjust a fin. so how- say goodbye. we weren't there, there wasjust a fin. so how do | there was 'ust a fin. so how do ou feel there wasjust a fin. so how do you feel about _ there wasjust a fin. so how do you feel about the _ there wasjust a fin. so how do you feel about the prime - you feel about the prime minister having a party? t you feel about the prime minister having a party? i hate him, i'm minister having a party? i hate him. i'm sorry _ minister having a party? i hate him, i'm sorry to _ minister having a party? i hate him, i'm sorry to say- minister having a party? i hate him, i'm sorry to say that - him, i'm sorry to say that because my mum wouldn't want me to say that but he is just a disgrace.