Millions of UK homes scanned for energy leaks to help reach net zero

UK city-dwellers may have spotted a strangely shaped car cruising around their neighbourhood earlier this year. It looks just like a Google Street View vehicle, with a camera rig emerging from the back end to scan its environment – and like the Google cars, it, too, is scanning and photographing city streets. But these modified Teslas aren't just taking photos. They are kitted out with state-of-the-art sensors and scanners that enable them to report back on the exact dimensions, heat loss, materials, age and state of dilapidation of every building they drive past. Armed with this so-called built environment scanning system (BESS), the cars have been on the hunt to find out how leaky and run-down the UK's building stock really is.