人類是谷歌無人駕駛汽車的天敵

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — Google, a leader in efforts to create driverless cars, has run into an odd safety conundrum: humans.

加利福尼亞州山景城——作爲無人駕駛汽車研發領域的領頭羊，谷歌(Google)遇到了一個奇怪的安全難題：人類。

Last month, as one of Google’s self-driving cars approached a crosswalk, it did what it was supposed to do when it slowed to allow a pedestrian to cross, prompting its “safety driver” to apply the brakes. The pedestrian was fine, but not so much Google’s car, which was hit from behind by a human-driven sedan.

上月，當谷歌的一輛自動駕駛汽車來到人行橫道前時，它像設想的那樣放慢速度讓一名行人先行，促使“安全駕駛員”啓動剎車。那個行人沒事，但谷歌那輛車卻沒那麼幸運。它被後面的一輛由人駕駛的轎車追尾了。

Google’s fleet of autonomous test cars is programmed to follow the letter of the law. But it can be tough to get around if you are a stickler for the rules. One Google car, in a test in 2009, couldn’t get through a four-way stop because its sensors kept waiting for other (human) drivers to stop completely and let it go. The human drivers kept inching forward, looking for the advantage — paralyzing Google’s robot.

按照設計，谷歌的自動測試車會嚴格遵守法律條文。但如果拘泥於規則，上路可能都會變得困難。在2009年的一次測試中，谷歌的車沒能通過一個十字路口，因爲它的傳感器一直在等着其他（人類）司機徹底停下來，讓它過去。但其他司機一直在向前蹭，尋找有利時機。這種情況讓谷歌的機器人陷入了癱瘓。

It is not just a Google issue. Researchers in the fledgling field of autonomous vehicles say that one of the biggest challenges facing automated cars is blending them into a world in which humans don’t behave by the book. “The real problem is that the car is too safe,” said Donald Norman, director of the Design Lab at the University of California, San Diego, who studies autonomous vehicles.

這不僅僅是谷歌面臨的問題。自動化車輛這一新興領域的研究人員稱，自動車面臨的最大挑戰之一是讓它們融入一個人類不照章行事的世界。“真正的問題是，這些車太追求安全了，”研究自動車輛的加州大學聖迭戈分校設計實驗室(Design Lab at the University of California, San Diego)主任唐納德·諾曼(Donald Norman)說。

“They have to learn to be aggressive in the right amount, and the right amount depends on the culture.”

“它們得學會適度強硬，而什麼叫做適度則取決於不同的文化。”

Traffic wrecks and deaths could well plummet in a world without any drivers, as some researchers predict. But wide use of self-driving cars is still many years away, and testers are still sorting out hypothetical risks — like hackers — and real world challenges, like what happens when an autonomous car breaks down on the highway.

正如一些研究人員預言的那樣，世界上如果沒有駕駛員，交通事故造成的傷亡會大大減少。然而，廣泛使用自動駕駛汽車仍是多年後的事，測試人員仍在應對像黑客這種假設的風險和現實世界裏的挑戰，比如自動駕駛車輛在公路上出故障了應該怎麼辦。

For now, there is the nearer-term problem of blending robots and humans. Already, cars from several automakers have technology that can warn or even take over for a driver, whether through advanced cruise control or brakes that apply themselves. Uber is working on the self-driving car technology, and Google expanded its tests in July to Austin, Tex.

目前，讓機器人和人類同時上路這個問題更緊迫。多家汽車生產商的車輛已經掌握了警告或是代替駕駛員的技術，不管是通過先進的巡航控制，還是可以自行啓動的剎車。Uber正在研發自動駕駛汽車技術，谷歌也於今年7月把測試擴展到了德克薩斯州的奧斯汀。

Google cars regularly take quick, evasive maneuvers or exercise caution in ways that are at once the most cautious approach, but also out of step with the other vehicles on the road.

谷歌汽車通常會迅速採取迴避操作，或是謹慎行事。後者立即會變成最謹慎的應對方式，但同時也將導致與路上其他車輛格格不入。

“It’s always going to follow the rules, I mean, almost to a point where human drivers who get in the car and are like ‘Why is the car doing that?’” said Tom Supple, a Google safety driver during a recent test drive on the streets near Google’s Silicon Valley headquarters.

“它永遠都會遵守規則，我是說，幾乎到了坐在車裏的人類駕駛員會想‘這車幹嘛那麼做？’的地步，”湯姆·蘇普萊(Tom Supple)說。最近，谷歌在其位於硅谷的總部附近的街道上進行了一次試駕，而蘇普萊正是當時的安全駕駛員。

Since 2009, Google cars have been in 16 crashes, mostly fender-benders, and in every single case, the company says, a human was at fault. This includes the rear-ender crash on Aug. 20, and reported this morning by Google. The Google car slowed for a pedestrian, then the Google employee manually applied the brakes. The car was hit from behind, sending the employee to the emergency room for mild whiplash.

自2009年以來，谷歌汽車發生了16次撞車事故，大部分是輕微碰撞。谷歌稱，每次碰撞都是人的錯，包括公司今天上午通報的發生在8月20日的那起追尾。當時，谷歌的車因爲行人放慢了速度，安全駕駛員隨後手動剎車。接下來，車子被追尾，導致此人因頸椎輕微受傷而進了急診室。

Google’s report on the incident adds another twist: While the safety driver did the right thing by applying the brakes, if the autonomous car had been left alone, it might have braked less hard and traveled closer to the crosswalk, giving the car behind a little more room to stop. Would that have prevented the collision? Google says it’s impossible to say.

谷歌有關這起事故的報告揭示了另一個問題：儘管安全駕駛員啓動剎車的行爲是正確的，但如果讓自動汽車獨自行駛，它的剎車力度可能不會那麼強，因此會行駛到離人行橫道更近的地方，給後車留出稍微多一點的剎車空間。這樣能避免撞車嗎？谷歌表示無從得知。

There was a single case in which Google says the company was responsible for a crash. It happened in August 2011, when one of its Google cars collided with another moving vehicle. But, remarkably, the Google car was being piloted at the time by an employee. Another human at fault.

谷歌稱，只有一次撞車事故責任在自己身上。那是2011年8月，谷歌的一輛車與另一輛正在行駛中的車相撞。但需要注意的是，當時谷歌的車是由一名工作人員操控的。所以，錯還是在人。

On a recent outing with New York Times journalists, the Google driverless car took two evasive maneuvers that simultaneously displayed how the car errs on the cautious side, but also how jarring that experience can be. In one maneuver, it swerved sharply in a residential neighborhood to avoid a car that was poorly parked, so much so that the Google sensors couldn’t tell if it might pull into traffic.

前不久載着《紐約時報》的記者出行時，谷歌的無人駕駛車採取的兩次避讓操作，既顯示出了它因過於謹慎而出錯的情形，也表明了那種經歷會令人多麼惱火。一個操作是，它爲了避開一輛車而在一個住宅區急轉彎。那輛車停得很糟糕，以致於谷歌的傳感器無法識別它會不會開到車道上來。

More jarring for human passengers was a maneuver that the Google car took as it approached a red light in moderate traffic. The laser system mounted on top of the driverless car sensed that a vehicle coming the other direction was approaching the red light at higher-than-safe speeds. The Google car immediately jerked to the right in case it had to avoid a collision. In the end, the oncoming car was just doing what human drivers so often do: not approach a red light cautiously enough, though the driver did stop well in time.

對車裏的乘客來說，車子行駛到一處紅燈前時採取的操作更是令人氣惱。當時，車流量屬中等。安裝在那輛無人駕駛車頂部的激光系統檢測到，反方向的一輛車正在以高於安全水平的車速朝着紅燈開來。於是，谷歌的車猛地右拐，以防撞車。但其實，那輛車的行爲不過是人類駕駛員通常會做的：遇到紅燈時不夠小心，但司機還是很及時地停了下來。

Courtney Hohne, a spokeswoman for the Google project, said current testing was devoted to “smoothing out” the relationship between the car’s software and humans. For instance, at four-way stops, the program lets the car inch forward, as the rest of us might, asserting its turn while looking for signs that it is being allowed to go.

谷歌無人駕駛車項目的發言人考特妮·霍恩(Courtney Hohne)說，當前的測試是爲了“理順”車的軟件和人之間的關係。比如，在十字路口，程序允許車像我們其他人可能會做的那樣，慢慢向前蹭，在尋找其他車讓自己過的跡象時果斷轉彎。

The way humans often deal with these situations is that “they make eye contact. On the fly, they make agreements about who has the right of way,” said John Lee, a professor of industrial and systems engineering and expert in driver safety and automation at the University of Wisconsin.

威斯康星大學(University of Wisconsin)的工業與系統工程教授、駕駛員安全與自動化問題專家約翰·李(John Lee)說，遇到這種情況時，人類通常會“進行眼神交流。在行進中，他們會對誰有先行權達成協議”。

“Where are the eyes in an autonomous vehicle?” he added.

“那麼自動車輛的眼睛在哪裏呢？”他接下來問道。