首款真正的無人駕駛汽車上路行駛

The first truly autonomous cars — vehicles that cruise the streets with no one behind the wheel — have finally arrived.

第一款真正的無人駕駛汽車——在街上行駛時(shí)完全沒有司機(jī)掌控——終于到來了。

Waymo, which began life as Google’s self-driving car project, disclosed yesterday that it had let its driverless cars loose in parts of Phoenix, Arizona, with nobody in the front seats to take over in case of emergency.

源自谷歌(Google)自動(dòng)駕駛汽車項(xiàng)目的Waymo昨日披露，他們已讓其無人駕駛汽車在亞利桑那州鳳凰城的部分地區(qū)自由行駛，前排座椅上完全沒有人準(zhǔn)備應(yīng)對突發(fā)情況。

Members of the public taking part in a Waymo trial in the desert city in the US south-west will be able to summon the vehicles through a ride-hailing app “in the next few months”, the group said.

Waymo方面表示，“在接下來的幾個(gè)月”，公眾可以通過一個(gè)叫車軟件在美國西南部的這座沙漠之城召喚這些無人駕駛汽車，參與該集團(tuán)的試驗(yàn)。

Potentially one of the most disruptive new technologies, as well as one of the most hyped, driverless cars have been at the centre of a race between big automakers and technology companies. But while a number of groups are testing the technology on the streets with back-up drivers behind the wheel, most believe the advent of full autonomy is at least two years away.

無人駕駛技術(shù)可能是最具顛覆性且炒作最多的新技術(shù)之一，無人駕駛汽車是大型汽車制造商與科技企業(yè)之間一場競賽的核心。但是，雖然好幾家集團(tuán)正在路上測試這項(xiàng)技術(shù)，同時(shí)備有司機(jī)在方向盤后以防萬一，但大多數(shù)人仍認(rèn)為，完全自動(dòng)駕駛的到來至少還要兩年時(shí)間。

The test, while limited to an unspecified area, is “not a one-time ride or a demo” but the start of “a new phase for Waymo and the history of this technology”, according to John Krafcik, head of Waymo, who announced the milestone at a tech conference in Lisbon yesterday. The company plans to expand it to the entire Phoenix region, he added, without giving a timeframe.

Waymo的負(fù)責(zé)人約翰•克拉富西克(John Krafcik)表示，此次試驗(yàn)雖然被限定在一個(gè)未公開的區(qū)域，卻“并不是一次性的駕駛或演示”，而是“Waymo和這項(xiàng)技術(shù)的一個(gè)新階段”的開端。他昨日在里斯本召開的一個(gè)技術(shù)會(huì)議上宣布了這一里程碑式的事件?？死晃骺搜a(bǔ)充道，該公司計(jì)劃將這一測試擴(kuò)展到整個(gè)鳳凰城，但并未給出時(shí)間表。

Google shocked the auto industry when it first disclosed a rudimentary version of its driverless technology seven years ago this week, and it subsequently invested more than $1bn in autonomous vehicle research.

七年前的這個(gè)星期，谷歌首次披露了其無人駕駛技術(shù)的雛形，震驚了汽車行業(yè)，隨后谷歌向自動(dòng)駕駛汽車的研究投入逾10億美元。

Rivals concede it still has a technology lead, though sceptics question whether the artificial intelligence is good enough to respond to the many unforeseen events that could occur on the road.

競爭對手們承認(rèn)，谷歌在技術(shù)上仍然領(lǐng)先，盡管懷疑者質(zhì)疑，人工智能技術(shù)是否已完善到足以應(yīng)對道路上可能發(fā)生的許多無法預(yù)見的情況。

“I’m concerned they’re following the traditional Silicon Valley mode of: let’s put something out in beta and fix it as we go along,” said John Simpson of Consumer Watchdog, a US advocacy group.

“我擔(dān)心他們正在遵循傳統(tǒng)的硅谷模式：先出個(gè)測試版，然后在使用中進(jìn)行修補(bǔ)，”美國消費(fèi)者維權(quán)組織Consumer Watchdog的約翰•辛普森(John Simpson)說。

Waymo believes it is the first company to reach a standard known in the driverless car world as level 4, meaning its cars can drive under full autonomy in preset areas that have been carefully mapped and tested.

Waymo相信，該公司率先達(dá)到了在無人駕駛汽車領(lǐng)域被稱為4級(level 4)的標(biāo)準(zhǔn)，這意味著其汽車能在預(yù)先設(shè)定的區(qū)域?qū)崿F(xiàn)完全自動(dòng)駕駛，這些區(qū)域都經(jīng)過了仔細(xì)的地圖繪制與測試。

Uber, General Motors, Delphi, BMW and others have been conducting testing to reach level 4, but all of them still keep a human in the driver’s seat.

為達(dá)到4級，優(yōu)步(Uber)、通用汽車(General Motors)、德爾福(Delphi)、寶馬(BMW)及其他公司也一直在進(jìn)行測試，但這些公司測試車輛的駕駛位上仍然有一位真人司機(jī)。

Additional reporting by Leslie Hook

何麗(Leslie Hook)舊金山補(bǔ)充報(bào)道

in San Francisco

譯者/何黎