谷歌自動駕駛汽車會比人類司機更安全

On Wednesday morning, during Google’s annual meeting, a shareholder named John M. Simpson stood up to question the company’s top executives about its self-driving car program. They were not friendly questions.

週三早上，谷歌(Google)舉行年會時，一位名叫約翰·M·辛普森(John M. Simpson)的股東站起來，向公司的高管提問關於自動駕駛汽車項目的問題。這些問題可並不友好。

Simpson, 67, works for a nonprofit called Consumer Watchdog, where he directs its Privacy Project. In recent years, he has focused largely on Google, which, he told me, he hopes to prod into “being more respectful of people’s privacy when they do business.” Owning Google stock allows him to ask questions at the annual meeting.

67歲的辛普森供職於一家名爲消費者監督(Consumer Watchdog)的非營利機構，是該機構隱私項目(Privacy Project)的主管。近幾年來，他基本上都在關注谷歌，他告訴我，他希望督促這家公司“在經營業務時更尊重人們的隱私”。由於持有谷歌的股份，他可以在一年一度的會議上提問。

In the run-up to this week’s meeting, Simpson issued a string of press releases critical of Google’s self-driving vehicles. He feared that Google would collect data from car owners, stripping away even more of people’s privacy. He noted that Google’s “autonomous cars,” as they’re called, have been involved in 11 accidents (two recent fender-benders brings it up to 13). He listed what he said were the technology’s flaws: for instance, that it can’t make out hand signals from a driver in another car.

在本週的會議召開之前，辛普森發表了一系列新聞稿批評谷歌的自動駕駛汽車。他擔心，谷歌會收集車主的數據，盤剝人們更多的隱私。他注意到，已經有11宗事故（算上最近的兩次剮蹭，共有13宗）都涉及谷歌的所謂“自動汽車”。他提到了一些在他看來屬於技術缺陷的問題，例如，不能理解另一輛車中司機做出的手勢。

Finally, Simpson noted that Google — and Google alone — envisions cars that have no steering wheels or brakes, cars where everyone is a passenger. Simpson views this as Google’s hubris, pointing out that other car companies view self-driving technology as a complement, not replacement, for the driver. “We think there always needs to be the ability of a human to take over if need be,” he told me. Having looked into it more closely, I’ve come to the opposite conclusion.

最後，辛普森提到，谷歌——只有谷歌——構想的是一種沒有方向盤、沒有剎車的汽車，所有人都是乘客。辛普森認爲，這是谷歌的傲慢。他指出，其他汽車公司認爲，自動駕駛技術對司機是一種補充，而不是替代。“我們認爲，讓人類在必要時控制車輛，這一點總是需要的，”他告訴我。在更仔細地研究過這一問題之後，我得出了相反的結論。

Google’s effort to build a self-driving car is part of the division called Google X, led by a scientist with the too perfect name of Astro Teller. The goal of Google X is to attempt “moonshots” — efforts that require a radical solution that, if they succeed, would solve a huge problem (while making a nice return for Google, of course). The big problem self-driving cars could help solve, said Teller in a recent speech, is the “1.2 million people who die every year in car accidents.”

谷歌製造自動駕駛汽車的項目，是一個稱作Google X的部門開展的。領導這個部門的科學家有一個再合適不過的名字，叫做阿斯特羅·泰勒（Astro Teller，意爲“星際揭祕者”——譯註）。Google X的目標是嘗試“瞄準月亮開炮”——這樣志存高遠的項目需要激進的解決方案，如果成功的話可以解決重大問題（當然也可以爲谷歌帶來豐厚的回報）。泰勒在最近的一次演講中說道，自動駕駛汽車可以解決的重大問題是，“每年在行車事故中有120萬人喪生”。

During the six years Google has been working on self-driving technology, its cars have been taught to understand how to traverse the roads. With their combination of robotics, sensors and computing power, they know how to stop at a stop sign, look for oncoming pedestrians, change lanes, get on the freeway and anticipate all the various problems that drivers face.

在谷歌研究自動駕駛技術的六年時間裏，研究人員已經讓谷歌汽車學會了在馬路上如何通行。通過綜合運用機器人技術、傳感器和計算能力，這些汽車懂得怎樣在停車標牌前停車、注意走來的行人、變道、駛入高速路，併爲司機遇到的各種問題預先做好準備。

Using retrofitted Lexuses, Google has driven a million miles autonomously. More recently, it has built several dozen small cars without steering wheels and brakes and is ready to test them in the streets of Mountain View, Calif. (though the State of California is insisting that Google add a steering wheel and brakes to the cars it sends out for this experiment).

谷歌使用經過改裝的雷克薩斯(Lexus)汽車，已經自動駕駛了100萬英里。最近，谷歌還製造了數十輛沒有方向盤和剎車的小轎車，而且已經準備好在加利福尼亞州山景市(Mountain View)的街道上進行試駕。（不過加州參議院堅持要求谷歌在開上街頭試駕的車輛中，增加方向盤和剎車。）

It’s true that Google is alone in envisioning a world of completely driverless cars, while other car companies see self-driving technology as merely an extra feature that can be turned off. Google’s conclusion is not the result of hubris, however. Unlike its new cars, the retrofitted Lexuses also allow for human driving.

的確，只有谷歌在構想一個汽車完全無人駕駛的世界，而其他汽車廠商認爲，自動駕駛技術只是一個可以關閉的額外功能。但是谷歌得出這樣的論斷並不是因爲傲慢。不像谷歌新制造的汽車那樣，改裝的雷克薩斯也允許人類駕駛。

Google realized that when people had the ability to drive autonomously, they paid less attention to what they were doing. “People don’t even pay attention to driving when they are driving,” said Teller. The cars, which have 360-degree vision and can “see” much further ahead than humans, were at their safest when people didn’t have the option of taking the controls.

谷歌發現，儘管人類有自主駕駛汽車的能力，但他們對自己正在做的事情付出的注意力更少。“人們在開車的時候，甚至都不去注意與開車相關的事情，”泰勒說。這些汽車有着360度的視野，可以“看到”的距離遠比人類遠，不提供讓人類控制的選項，反而是最安全的。

Alain Kornhauser, a self-driving car expert at Princeton University, pointed out to me that when the auto companies install autonomous features to aid drivers, it won’t be the humans who escape accidents by taking over from the technology — which is what Simpson assumes. Rather, the technology will step in to override human error.

普林斯頓大學(Princeton University)的自動駕駛汽車專家艾倫·科恩豪澤(Alain Kornhauser)指出，汽車廠商爲了輔助駕駛員而安裝了自動駕駛技術，但這不是像辛普森所設想的那樣，讓人類從科技手中奪過駕駛權，進而從事故中脫身，而是讓技術介入，糾正人類的錯誤。

Google notes that in every accident its cars have been involved in, all of them minor, the self-driving cars have never been at fault — except on the one occasion when a Google driver took the controls. And all the “flaws” Simpson notes are things that Google has either solved or is in the process of solving.

谷歌提到，涉及該公司汽車的事故都是小事故，而且任何一起事故中，自動駕駛汽車都沒有責任——只有一起除外，而那次事故中谷歌的駕駛員掌握了方向盤。而且辛普森提到的所有“缺陷”，谷歌不是已經解決，就是正在解決過程中。

At the annual meeting, Simpson asked Google if it would pledge not to use any customer data it gathers from driverless cars for marketing purposes. David Drummond, the company’s general counsel, ducked the question, saying it was too early to make any such pledge. Simpson also asked Google to release the accident reports. In truth, Google has released plenty of information about the accidents, and on Friday began issuing monthly reports that include descriptions of accidents.

在年會上，辛普森詢問谷歌，是否願意承諾，不將無人駕駛汽車中搜集的顧客數據用於營銷目的。谷歌首席法務官戴維·德拉蒙德(David Drummond)迴避了這個問題，稱現在做出任何此類承諾都爲時過早。辛普森還要求谷歌公佈相關的事故報告。實際上，谷歌發佈了很多關於事故的信息，而且開始在週五發佈月度報告，其中包括對事故的描述。

Simpson and other consumer advocates are right to press Google — and all the big tech companies — on privacy issues. The profligate use of our data has become a big concern for many Americans. But on the question of whether Google should be promoting completely autonomous cars, he couldn’t be more wrong. The sooner they are a reality, the safer we’ll all be.☐

辛普森和其他消費者權益倡導人士就隱私議題向谷歌（以及所有大型科技企業）施壓是正確的。對我們的數據的恣意使用，已經成了許多美國人擔心的大問題。至於谷歌是不是應該推廣完全自動駕駛的汽車，他真是大錯特錯。它們越早成爲現實，我們大家就越安全。