無人駕駛汽車在廣州上路測試

China’s southern city of Guangzhou has opened roads in some districts to driverless cars as long-awaited government-approved tests on public streets begin in the country.

中國廣州市的某些區(qū)已向無人駕駛汽車開放道路。人們早就期待中國政府批準(zhǔn)在公共道路上測試無人駕駛汽車，此番終于成行。

Two Chinese start-ups, Jingchi and Pony.ai, were offering rides to the public last week for the first time in what appeared to be part publicity stunt, part effort to address a widening gap in test miles with US competitors.

中國的兩家初創(chuàng)企業(yè)小馬智行(Pony.ai)和景馳科技(Jingchi)上周首次面向公眾提供試乘。此舉似乎一方面是種宣傳噱頭，另一方面是旨在拉近與美國競爭對手在測試?yán)锍谭矫嫒找鏀U(kuò)大的差距。

The start of legal road testing in China — albeit on a limited scale — is an important step for the country’s autonomous auto industry, which so far has done all testing in California.

無人駕駛汽車開始在中國展開合法的道路測試(盡管規(guī)模有限)，是該國自動(dòng)駕駛汽車行業(yè)邁出的重要一步。此前，中國自動(dòng)駕駛汽車企業(yè)都是在美國加州進(jìn)行路測。

The industry faces stiff competition from US companies such as Waymo, Google’s autonomous driving arm, which in November passed 4m test miles in four states since 2009. Racking up test miles is one of the key metrics in training artificial intelligence software to drive.

中國自動(dòng)駕駛汽車行業(yè)面臨Waymo等美國企業(yè)的激烈競爭。Waymo是谷歌(Google)旗下的自動(dòng)駕駛汽車公司，去年11月在美國4個(gè)州跨越了400萬英里測試?yán)锍剃P(guān)口。在訓(xùn)練人工智能軟件駕駛汽車方面，累計(jì)測試?yán)锍淌顷P(guān)鍵指標(biāo)之一。

While a human brain needs just a few dozen hours to get a driver’s licence, scientists say computers may need hundreds of millions of test miles to learn to navigate traffic safely.

科學(xué)家表示，人腦只需要幾十個(gè)小時(shí)的訓(xùn)練就能拿到駕照，而電腦可能需要數(shù)以億計(jì)的測試?yán)锍滩拍軐W(xué)會(huì)在車流中安全地駕駛。

Beijing’s city government opened applications for legal tests in the outskirts of the city on December 15, starting tests shortly afterwards.

北京市政府去年12月15日開始接受無人駕駛汽車在京郊合法上路測試的申請，并在不久后啟動(dòng)了路測。

Baidu, reckoned to be the country’s leader in driverless technology, previously tested vehicles near its Beijing headquarters without explicit government permission, exploiting a legal grey area. It also tests in California.

被認(rèn)為是中國無人駕駛技術(shù)領(lǐng)跑者的百度(Baidu)，此前曾在未獲得政府明確許可的情況下，利用法律上的灰色地帶，在其北京總部附近測試無人駕駛汽車。該公司也在加州進(jìn)行路測。

Pony.ai, which has Chinese founders but is based in California, said it began testing in Nansha, a district of Guangzhou, last Tuesday. 小馬智行由中國人創(chuàng)建，但公司總部位于加州。該公司表示，它上周二開始在廣州市南沙區(qū)展開上路測試。

The same day, Jingchi said it launched a similar pilot project. It said it would hold a three-month, public test ride programme for highly autonomous vehicles in China in a different part of Guangzhou, known as Biotech Island.

景馳科技上周二也宣布啟動(dòng)了類似的試點(diǎn)項(xiàng)目。該公司表示，將在廣州市生物島展開為期三個(gè)月的公共試乘計(jì)劃。

Both Jingchi and Pony.ai have licences to test self-driving cars on roads in California.

景馳科技和小馬智行都在美國加州拿到了無人駕駛汽車上路測試牌照。

Pony.ai said that its Nansha test “marks the first time a self-driving car company has made the service available to members of the general public in China”. A video released by the company showed a car navigating traffic with the diver’s hands conspicuously in his lap and not on the steering wheel.

小馬智行表示，在南沙區(qū)的上路測試標(biāo)志著國內(nèi)無人駕駛公司面向普通市民的首秀。在該公司發(fā)布的一段視頻中，一輛汽車行駛在車流中，而駕駛員的雙手明顯放在自己的大腿、而不是方向盤上。

Baidu previously offered test rides on a much more limited scale during the World Internet Conference in Wuzhen in November 2016, but those were not part of its public pilot.

百度曾于2016年11月烏鎮(zhèn)世界互聯(lián)網(wǎng)大會(huì)(World Internet Conference)期間提供了規(guī)模極為有限的試乘，但那些試乘并不屬于其公共試點(diǎn)項(xiàng)目。

Jingchi said in a statement carried by Chinese media on Thursday that its pilot testing programme was “the first operating fleet of dozens of driverless vehicles in China. . . the public can line up through public channels to make bookings”.

上周四，景馳科技在中國媒體上發(fā)表聲明稱，其試點(diǎn)測試項(xiàng)目是首個(gè)在國內(nèi)運(yùn)營由數(shù)十輛無人駕駛汽車組成的車隊(duì)、公眾可以通過公共渠道進(jìn)行排隊(duì)預(yù)約的項(xiàng)目。

Neither Jingchi nor Pony.ai responded to requests for further comment.

景馳科技和小馬智行都未回應(yīng)進(jìn)一步置評的請求。

Regulation and permission for autonomous driving technology are handled on a city-by-city basis in China, much like the US where some states have given special permission to some companies to test driverless-car software.

在中國，自主駕駛技術(shù)的監(jiān)管與許可由各個(gè)城市自行處理，這一點(diǎn)與美國很像。在美國，一些州已向一些公司授予測試無人駕駛汽車軟件的特別許可。

Both Pony.ai and Jingchi are led by teams who left Baidu’s self-driving car programme. Baidu said in December that it was suing Jingchi and its founder — a former Baidu executive — in a Beijing court, alleging theft of intellectual property.

小馬智行和景馳科技的領(lǐng)導(dǎo)團(tuán)隊(duì)都是從百度自動(dòng)駕駛汽車項(xiàng)目離職出來的。去年12月百度表示正向北京一家法院起訴景馳科技及其創(chuàng)始人(曾任百度高管)，稱其竊取了知識產(chǎn)權(quán)。