無人駕駛汽車如何融入城市交通

On the path along the waterfront of the Greenwich peninsula, on the river Thames in east London, residents have become used to encountering a four-wheeled pod trundling among the runners, walkers, cyclists and dogs. The vehicle runs regularly — at a maximum speed of 10mph, beeping continuously — between the InterContinental Hotel on the west of the peninsula and blocks of flats to the east.

在倫敦東部泰晤士河畔的格林威治(Greenwich)半島，居民們已經習慣於在濱江的道路上遇到一種形似太空艙的四輪Pod車。這種小車緩慢地穿行在跑步、行走、騎車和牽狗的人們之間。以每小時10英里的最大速度，這種車在格林威治半島西部的洲際酒店(InterContinental Hotel)和東部的公寓區之間規律地運行，一路發出嘟嘟聲。

The biggest surprise about the vehicle is not its futuristic appearance but how it is controlled. While current safety rules require a human to monitor the vehicle’s performance and step in to avoid crashes, the pod largely drives itself. It is one of several experiments worldwide aimed at exploring how autonomous vehicles might mesh with city transport systems. All are looking at how a technology being developed mainly for US highways can work in the more confined, chaotic space of city streets.

這種車最讓人驚訝的地方不在於其未來主義的外觀，而在於其操控方式。儘管當前的安全法規要求由人來監控無人駕駛汽車的運行、在必要時出手干預以避免事故，這輛車基本是自動駕駛的。在世界各地，爲探索自動駕駛車輛如何融入城市交通系統，人們在進行多項試驗，這是其中之一。所有人都在關注：一項主要爲美國公路研發的技術，如何能應用於更狹窄、更混亂的城市街道。

At the heart of these efforts is an attempt to work out whether driverless vehicles will ease or worsen the impact that private car travel has had on many cities following the highway-building craze of the mid-20th century.

這些努力的核心是爲了確認一件事情：在20世紀中葉的公路建設潮之後，私家車出行對許多城市造成了影響，無人駕駛車輛是會緩解還是會加重這種影響。

Some fear the technology could prompt more journeys by private motor vehicles rather than more space-efficient public transport. If the technology provides comfortable, stress-free, private journeys, it might also prompt people to commute daily from further afield, generating yet more traffic.

一些人擔心，無人駕駛技術將會帶來更多私家機動車出行，而不是促進更節省道路空間的公共交通。如果這項技術提供了一種舒適、無壓力的非公共交通方式，它也可能促使人們增加每日通勤距離，從而產生更多的車流量。

Experts concerned about such impacts on behaviour argue it is vital that the rollout of autonomous vehicle technology goes hand-in-hand with a rethink of how it is used.

專家們擔憂無人駕駛技術會對行爲產生影響，他們主張，關鍵的一點是，推廣自動駕駛車輛技術應該與重新思考這種技術的運用方式同步進行。

David Begg, a former chairman of the UK’s Commission for Integrated Transport, accepts that autonomous vehicles will use road space more efficiently but says the problem remains that cars take up too much space for the people they carry. On average, most vehicles contain little more than one person — the driver.

英國綜合交通委員會(Commission for Integrated Transport)前主席戴維?貝格(David Begg)承認，自動駕駛車輛能夠更高效地利用道路空間，但他表示，一個問題依然存在，就是汽車佔用道路空間相對其運載的人數還是太多。平均而言，大多數車輛所載人數幾乎只有一人，就是司機。

“There’s no doubt [autonomous vehicles] can allow us to squeeze more vehicles [into] a given amount of capacity because they’re bumper-to-bumper and side-by-side,” Prof Begg says. “[But] unless we can increase vehicle occupancy up from 1.1, we’re moving too much fresh air and not enough people.”

“毫無疑問（自動駕駛車）能夠讓我們在既定的道路承載量上擠進更多的車輛，因爲這些車輛行駛時可以首尾相接，左右緊挨，”貝格教授說，“（但）除非我們能夠將車輛搭載人數從1.1提高到更多，否則我們就是移動了太多的空氣，卻沒有移動足夠多的人。”

Dieter Helm, professor of energy policy at Oxford university, dismisses many of the concerns about driverless technology. He says likely improvements in how close together autonomous vehicles can drive should reduce congestion problems. Because it will be easier for people to share use of autonomous vehicles, they will also quickly start carrying more passengers per trip, Prof Helm adds.

牛津大學(University of Oxford)能源政策教授迪特爾?赫爾姆(Dieter Helm)認爲，許多對無人駕駛技術的擔憂都是沒有必要的。他表示，自動駕駛車輛在行駛中的間距有可能縮小，這應該能夠緩解道路堵塞問題。赫爾姆還說，因爲人們能夠更容易地共享自動駕駛車輛，自動駕駛車輛將很快能夠在每一次行程中搭載更多的乘客。

“We have this distinction between public and private transport,” he says. “You either have you in your car or lots of people in a train. An interesting question about autonomous vehicles is: what would be their capacity use [per] car?”

“我們對公共交通和私人出行存在這樣的區分，”他說：“要麼是自己坐在自己的車裏，要麼是很多人同時乘坐一趟列車。有關自動駕駛車輛，一個有趣的問題是：（每輛）車的運力使用率將是多少？”

The Greenwich experiment, which is being run in conjunction with Heathrow airport and TRL, a transport research company, is exploring a fundamental question about how autonomous vehicles will fit into city streets. Oxbotica, the Oxford company that developed the vehicle’s software, is trying to improve the pods’ ability to track people, cyclists and other non-vehicular objects.

正在格林威治半島進行的這個實驗，是與希斯羅機場(Heathrow airport)和交通研究公司TRL合作開展的。這項實驗探索的是一個根本性問題——自動駕駛車輛能否適應城市街道？位於牛津的Oxbotica研發了該車軟件，該公司正努力提高自動駕駛車輛追蹤行走和騎車的人以及其他非車輛主體的能力。

While autonomous cars on larger urban highways should be able to move closer together by communicating with each other, performance on city streets will depend on how well they can navigate around non-mechanised obstacles.

儘管在更寬闊的城市公路上，自動駕駛車輛能夠通過相互溝通在行駛時貼得更近，它們在城市街道上的表現將取決於它們能否很好地避開非機械化障礙物。

Nick Reed, who is in charge of the Greenwich experiment for TRL, hopes it will be more pleasant for passengers to share space with autonomous vehicles than human-driven cars. Unlike people, they behave predictably and will be programmed to travel as safely as possible. “That could be a transformational change,” he says.

TRL負責格林威治項目的尼克?裏德(Nick Reed)希望，對乘客而言，共享自動駕駛車輛將比共享人類駕駛的車輛更舒服。和人類司機不同，自動駕駛車輛的行爲是可以預測的，而且會被設定爲儘可能安全地駕駛。“這可能會是一個徹底的改變，”他說。

Nevertheless, dense cities will still need high-capacity, fast public transport networks such as metros. The most significant autonomous technology development in Greenwich in recent years has arguably been new signalling on the Jubilee Tube line that allows trains to run faster and closer together, largely without drivers’ intervention.

無論如何，更稠密的城市依然需要大運力的高速公共交通系統，比如地鐵。倫敦地鐵Jubilee線的新信號系統可以說是近年來格林威治最重大的自動技術開發項目，該系統能讓列車行駛速度更快、運行間距更小，而且基本不需要司機介入。

It is no coincidence that the Greenwich pod stops at several public transport hubs, including the Jubilee Line’s North Greenwich station. The hope is that such automated systems may in time provide more efficient, cost-effective links to public transport networks than are possible at present.

格林威治的自動駕駛小車在Jubilee地鐵線的北格林威治(North Greenwich)站等幾個公共交通樞紐停靠，是有意爲之。人們希望，假以時日，這樣的自動化系統能夠擴寬現有的可能性，以更高效、更節約成本的方式連接起各公共交通網絡。

Chris Joyce, head of surface access for Heathrow, which uses autonomous shuttles to link a car park to Terminal 5, says that such uses of technology can help to shift transport in developed countries away from dependence on private cars.

希斯羅機場地面交通接駁事務主管克里斯?喬伊斯(Chris Joyce)表示，使用這種技術有助於減輕發達國家交通中對私家車的依賴。希斯羅利用自動駕駛擺渡車在停車場和5號航站樓之間接送乘客。

But the shift has to be made on the basis of “right vehicle for the right journey”. Some trips will remain too inconvenient to be shifted to even the most efficient public transport. “Just moving everybody on to public transport isn’t the solution, just as moving everybody on to autonomous vehicles isn’t the solution,” he says.

但這種轉變必須建立在“根據行程選擇合適車輛”的基礎上。有一些行程，即使是改爲採用最高效的公共交通，也依然會太不方便。“一股腦把所有人轉到公共交通上不是解決之道，就像把所有人都轉到自動駕駛車輛上不是解決之道一樣，”他說。