自動駕駛出租車在新加坡上路
Singapore has claimed a head-start in the global race to deploy self-driving cars with the launch on Thursday of the world’s first public trial of a robo-taxi service.
新加坡在這場部署自動駕駛汽車的全球競賽中搶得了先機。週四，該國啓動了世界上第一次自動出租車服務公開測試。
The trial allows selected members of the public to use a smartphone app to hail a free ride in autonomous cars operated by nuTonomy, a US start-up that has been conducting trials of self-driving vehicles in Singapore since April.
這次測試允許被選中的公衆成員使用一款智能手機app呼叫自動駕駛出租車，體驗一次免費乘坐。這些車輛是由美國創業企業nuTonomy運營的。自今年4月以來，該公司一直在新加坡進行自動駕駛車輛試驗。
The passengers, travelling either in a specially configured Renault Zoe or Mitsubishi i-MiEV electric vehicle, will be accompanied by one of the company’s engineers, who can take control of the vehicle if necessary.
在出行時，被選中的乘客會進入一輛經過特殊配置的雷諾Zoe或三菱i-MiEV 電動車。nuTonomy公司將派一名工程師陪同乘客，在必要時，工程師可以接管汽車。
The trial steals a march on Uber, which is expected to begin testing an autonomous taxi fleet with customers in the US city of Pittsburgh within weeks.
這次試驗搶在了優步(Uber)前面。預計在幾周內，優步將開始跟客戶在美國的匹茲堡市測試一批自動駕駛出租車。
Uber and pioneers of the autonomous car industry including Google, Tesla and Volvo are already road-testing self-driving vehicles with varying success, but nuTonomy says it is the first to offer rides to members of the public in a real-world setting.
優步以及谷歌(Google)、特斯拉(Tesla)和沃爾沃(Volvo)等自動汽車行業先行者已開始進行車輛路面測試，並取得了不同程度的成功。但nuTonomy表示，它是第一家在真實世界裏向公衆成員提供自動駕駛體驗的公司。
The trial, involving a fleet of six cars, will be conducted in normal traffic and includes both light and heavy traffic routes.
這次試驗共出動6輛汽車，試驗將在正常交通狀況下完成，幷包括順暢和繁忙兩種路線。
The pilot is being used to gather data on the performance of nuTonomy’s self-driving software, routing efficiency and the vehicle booking process ahead of the launch of a commercial robo-taxi service in Singapore, scheduled for 2018.
這次試驗的目的是收集有關nuTonomy自動駕駛軟件的表現、路線選擇效率和車輛預定程序的數據。nuTonomy計劃於2018年在新加坡推出一項商業化的自動駕駛出租車服務。
