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——在街上行駛時完全沒有司機掌控——終於到來了。

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)自動駕駛汽車項目的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自由行駛，前排座椅上完全沒有人準備應對突發情況。

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，“在接下來的幾個月”，公衆可以通過一個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，參與該集團的試驗。

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.

無人駕駛技術可能是最具顛覆性且炒作最多的新技術之一，無人駕駛汽車是大型汽車製造商與科技企業之間一場競賽的核心。但是，雖然好幾家集團正在路上測試這項技術，同時備有司機在方向盤後以防萬一，但大多數人仍認爲，完全自動駕駛的到來至少還要兩年時間。

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的負責人約翰?克拉富西克(John Krafcik)表示，此次試驗雖然被限定在一個未公開的區域，卻“並不是一次性的駕駛或演示”，而是“Waymo和這項技術的一個新階段”的開端。他昨日在里斯本召開的一個技術會議上宣佈了這一里程碑式的事件。克拉富西克補充道，該公司計劃將這一測試擴展到整個鳳凰城，但並未給出時間表。

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.

七年前的這個星期，谷歌首次披露了其無人駕駛技術的雛形，震驚了汽車行業，隨後谷歌向自動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，谷歌在技術上仍然領先，儘管懷疑者質疑，人工智能技術是否已完善到足以應對道路上可能發生的許多無法預見的情況。

“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.

“我擔心他們正在遵循傳統的硅谷模式：先出個測試版，然後在使用中進行修補，”美國消費者維權組織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，該公司率先達到了在無人駕駛汽車領域被稱爲4級(level 4)的標準，這意味着其汽車能在預先設定的區域實現完全自動駕駛，這些區域都經過了仔細的地圖繪製與測試。

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.

爲達到4級，優步(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。