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Driverless cars
无人驾驶汽车
In the self-driving seat
坐在无人驾驶汽车的座位上
Google is miles ahead of its rivals in the race for autonomous motoring
谷歌在无人驾驶领域研发的竞争中已甩开对手几条街
Not quite as glamorous as “Knight Rider”
不如“霹雳游侠”有魅力
TO GOOGLE is now in broad usage as a verb for retrieving information from the internet. If the tech giant has its way, “I Googled” will become a standard reply to the question, “How did you get here?” On May 28th Google said it would build 100 prototype driverless cars devoid of pedals, steering wheel or controls save an on/off switch. It is the next stage in its apparent quest to be as ubiquitous on the road as on computer screens.
如今，“谷歌”常被广泛用于互联网信息检索，因而“谷歌”常被用作动词。如果这一科技巨头独行其道，对于“你是怎么过来的？”这种问题，它的标准答案将会是“我谷歌来的”。5月28日，谷歌表示，其将制造100辆无人驾驶原型车，它们没有踏板，没有方向盘，也没有其他各类控制表盘，只留下一个开关键。谷歌希望在无人车的市场能够做到与搜索市场一样，给人们提供生活中必不可少的服务，这显然是下一阶段追求。
People have dreamed about driverless motoring since at least the 1930s, but only in recent years have carmakers such as Mercedes-Benz and Volvo given the matter more thought, kitting out test cars with the sensors and sophisticated software required to negotiate busy roads. Google has roared ahead by designing a driverless car from the ground up.
至少从19世纪30年代起，人们就已经开始设想无人驾驶汽车，但只有一些汽车制造商，如奔驰、沃尔沃，在近些年尝试把这一想法付诸实践。一辆装备着传感器和复杂软件的测试车需要在繁忙的道路上权衡最佳行车方案。谷歌公司从零起步，设计无人驾驶汽车，已经鹤立鸡群。
But bringing autonomous motoring to the world is proving harder than Google had envisaged. It once promised it by 2017. Now it does not see production models coming out before 2020. The technology is far advanced, but needs shrinking in size and cost—Google's current test cars, retrofittedToyotaand Lexus models, are said to be packed with $80,000-worth of equipment.
但是现实证明，无人驾驶汽车的面世比谷歌预想的要难。它曾承诺到2017年就能面世。而今预计产品模型不会在2020年前被制造出来。这项技术十分超前，但需要缩减产品尺寸及成本，谷歌现阶段的测试车改装自丰田和雷克萨斯的车型，据说测试车里塞满了价值8万美元的设备。
Google's latest efforts may have as much to do with convincing the public and lawmakers as refining the technology. The firm stresses the safety advantages of computers being more likely than humans to avoid accidents. The cars will have a top speed of just 25mph and a front end made of soft foam to cushion unwary pedestrians. The benefits could indeed be huge. Driving time could be given over to working, snoozing or browsing the web. Rather than suffer all the costs of owning a car, some people may prefer to summon a rented one on their smartphones whenever they need it. However, the issue of liability in the event of a driverless car crashing has yet to be resolved.
谷歌最近不仅要努力的完善这项技术，还要同样努力的说服公众及立法者。谷歌强调此产品的优势是安全性，在避免车祸方面，电脑比人类表现更佳。无人驾驶汽车最高车速仅为25英里每小时，其前端由软泡沫材料制造而成，可缓冲粗心的行人。这样确有很大好处。开车的时间可以用于工作，打盹或上网冲浪。比起自己承担拥有一辆车的开销，一些人可能更喜欢在需要车的时候，用他们的智能手机叫辆出租车。然而，无人驾驶汽车发生车祸时的责任认定问题还有待解决。
Turning cars into commodities may not be good news for traditional carmakers. But reinventing motoring as a service fits neatly with Google's plans to become as big in hardware as in software. And unlike car firms, which talk vaguely of becoming “mobility providers”, Google has pots of cash to make that a reality and no worries about disrupting its current business. Google admits it still has “lots of work to do”. But one day Googling to the shops may be a common activity.
对传统汽车制造商来说，把无人驾驶汽车转化成为商品，也许不是什么好消息。但是把汽车彻底转变成一种服务，正好契合了谷歌想在硬件领域发展的和在软件领域一样强大的计划。普通汽车公司模糊的表达着成为“移动供应商”的想法，和这些汽车公司不同，谷歌拥有大量资金来实现无人驾驶的设想，并不担心这一项目会扰乱目前公司业务。谷歌承认这一项目还有很多工作要做。但是，有一天，乘坐谷歌无人驾驶汽车去商店购物，也许会变成寻常事。
