蘋果公司的無人駕駛汽車計劃可能已問世

Apple's supposed self-driving electric car efforts may be real -- and far enough along for testing, according to a new report from the Guardian.

根據《衛報》的最新報道，蘋果公司設想的無人駕駛電動汽車計劃很可能已成爲現實——起碼也已進入了測試階段。

The publication, citing documents it obtained under a public records act request, said Apple has met with officials from the GoMentum Station, a large former Navy weapons station near San Francisco that is being changed into a high-security testing area for self-driving cars. GoMentum says its 5,000-acre facility, which features 20 miles of paved roadway, "is the largest secure test facility in the world and will become the center" of connected vehicle applications and autonomous vehicles technologies -- something that could appeal to a secretive company like Apple. Honda uses the facility to test automated driving technologies.

該報稱，其在符合公共記錄法案的前提下獲得了一份文件，根據文件顯示，蘋果公司已經和GoMentum基地的官員有過接觸，GoMentum基地是舊金山附近一個大型的前海軍武器基地，現在正逐漸被改造成爲一個安全係數很高的無人駕駛汽車測試基地。GoMentum方面稱，這裏有5000英畝的場地，其中有20英里的鋪砌道路，是全世界最大的安全測試基地，將成爲相關聯的車輛應用程序和無人駕駛汽車技術的中心，而這無疑吸引到了像蘋果這樣希望進行祕密測試的公司。本田汽車公司也使用這個場地測試無人駕駛汽車技術。

Frank Fearon, an Apple engineer, wrote to GoMentum that "We would... like to get an understanding of timing and availability for the space, and how we would need to coordinate around other parties who would be using [it]," according to the publication. In another email from a GoMentum official to Fearon, the official delayed a tour of the facility but said, "We would still like to meet in order to keep everything moving and to meet your testing schedule."

該報還稱，蘋果公司的一位工程師Frank Fearon曾致信GoMentum：“我們希望明確瞭解此基地的時間安排和可使用性，以及我們如何與其它正在使用它的機構進行協調。”而在另外一封GoMentum官員寫給Fearon的郵件中，GoMentum官員將基地的一個參觀活動延期，並表示：“我們更加希望碰面（達成合作）以保證一切（測試活動）順利進行並且滿足你們的測試日程安排。”

Apple declined to comment.

蘋果公司並未對此新聞做出迴應。

The Guardian didn't publish the documents cited in the report, and it's unclear whether Apple directly said it's building a self-driving electric car. The company could be interested in the facility for other purposes, such as testing out car technologies in a more real-to-life environment instead of in a lab. And there's no guarantee that Apple will release an electric self-driving car even if it's currently researching the technology.

《衛報》並未刊登報道中被引用的那份文件，因此無法確定蘋果公司是否確實曾說過其在研製無人駕駛電動汽車。它也可能是爲其它的目的而對此基地感興趣，譬如爲了在一個更加符合真實生活的環境裏測試汽車技術，而不是一直在實驗室裏。並且，即使蘋果現在能夠達到那樣的技術水平，也不能保證它會真正發佈無人駕駛電動汽車。

Autonomous car technology has become a big focus for companies such as Google and Uber, and speculation about Apple's self-driving car plans have been swirling for months. The program is believed to be codenamed "Titan" and involve hundreds of engineers. The company has hired people from the automotive industry, including battery experts. In February, A123 Systems, an electric-car battery maker, sued Apple for poaching its employees, saying the company lured away workers to develop "a large-scale battery division to compete in the very same field as A123." The two companies reached a settlement in May.

無人駕駛汽車技術已經成爲了谷歌、Uber等很多公司關注的焦點，而關於蘋果無人駕駛汽車計劃的猜測已發酵數月。據說這個項目的代號是"泰坦（Titan）"，並且彙集了上百名工程師。蘋果僱傭了很多來自汽車製造行業的人，其中包括電池方面的專家。二月份，A123 Systems——一個電動汽車電池製造商——控告蘋果挖走它的員工，引誘其員工發展“一個大規模電池部門去與A123在同一領域競爭”。兩家公司已於五月份達成處理協議。

Apple has tasked employees in "an anonymous office building" in Sunnyvale, Calif., about four miles from the company's Cupertino headquarters, with developing automotive technologies, the Guardian said. The company leased the building in 2014, the Guardian said, citing documents, and modified the facility to include labs and workshop spaces, as well as tighter security features.

據《衛報》所說，蘋果已將該項目的員工分派到了加利福尼亞州森尼維爾市“一個無名的辦公建築裏”，距離位於庫比蒂諾的蘋果總部大約有四英里，在這裏，無人駕駛汽車技術正在研製中。《衛報》稱，根據那份文件顯示的內容，蘋果公司在2014年租下這幢建築，並逐漸在內部安設了實驗室、研討室和更嚴密的安全設施。

Apple, the second-biggest smartphone maker in the world, has worked to expand its technologies to many different sectors and become the center of peoples' lives. That already has included cars, even if the company hasn't created a full-blown automobile. An update to its iOS mobile software in March 2014 incorporated CarPlay -- a way for the iPhone to power a touch screen on a new car's dashboard. And Jeff Williams, Apple's head of operations, in May called the car "the ultimate mobile device."

蘋果作爲世界第二大手機制造商，已經致力於將它的技術擴展到許多不同的領域並佔據人們生活的中心。這些領域中就包括汽車行業——儘管蘋果公司還未製造出一臺完全成熟的汽車。2014年3月iOS移動軟件的一項更新包含了CarPlay—— 一種用iPhone去操控新車儀表盤上的接觸式屏幕的方式。蘋果運營總監Jeff Williams曾在五月份稱汽車是“終極的可移動設備”。

Marc Newsom, a designer who has worked with Apple in the past, told The Wall Street Journal earlier this week that his design pet-peeve is the automotive industry. "There were moments when cars somehow encapsulated everything that was good about progress," he said. "But right now we're at the bottom of a trough."

Marc Newsom是一位曾在蘋果工作多年的設計師，就在這周他告訴華爾街日報的記者他在設計中最不能忍受的就是汽車製造行業，他說，“曾經有一段時間汽車包含了人類進步中產生的一切好的事物，但現在正處在低谷期。”