Sailing into stormy seas
Tech Life
BBC
4.4 • 221 Ratings
🗓️ 9 September 2025
⏱️ 27 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
A fleet of small robotic sailboats, packed with sensors, are ready to sail into the path of storms, to gather data on developing hurricanes. We find out how they'll do it. The data will help experts predict where a hurricane might reach land, giving people time to prepare and evacuate.
Also on Tech Life this week: we're at Europe's biggest tech show to find out what the next big thing might be. We speak to a Tech Life listener in Zambia who is teaching children about robotics and coding. And rented batteries, charged with solar energy, could offer a clean energy alternative in Africa.
Presenter: Shiona McCallum Producer: Tom Quinn
(Image: A photo of a small robotic C-Star sailboat developed by British company Oshen. Credit: Oshen)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You're dead to me. |
| 0:05.0 | No, no, that's the name of our podcast. Sorry. |
| 0:08.7 | And we're back for a brand new series. |
| 0:11.1 | Not only is it British history, it was the quill drop. |
| 0:15.1 | With more fun and facts from history without taking it too seriously. |
| 0:19.8 | Empress Matilda, what is she going to do now? |
| 0:21.7 | She decides to take back some of the jewels with her. I'm taking these as well. I'm going to come back |
| 0:27.3 | for Tuscany one day as well. You're dead to me. Again, not you. Name of the show. Listen first on |
| 0:33.7 | BBC Sounds. Hello and welcome to TechLife, the programme about technology |
| 0:38.9 | and how it's changing all our lives. |
| 0:41.5 | I'm Shona McCallum. |
| 0:42.9 | This week we find out |
| 0:44.2 | how little unmanned sailboats |
| 0:46.1 | packed with tech |
| 0:47.2 | are helping forecasters |
| 0:48.8 | to predict when and where |
| 0:50.1 | the next hurricane will strike land. |
| 0:52.7 | That's in a moment. |
| 0:53.8 | Also today, Alistair Kean sees a clean |
| 0:56.2 | future in Berlin. They can whizz around the rooms when you go to bed. The AI will know that |
| 1:02.1 | you probably are asleep at that point and send the humours out to do the cleaning. And in Africa, |
| 1:06.2 | where many people don't have a reliable electricity supply. A company is offering a solar-charged alternative |
... |
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