阿里巴巴嘗試無人機送貨

Alibaba is experimenting with a drone delivery service as the Chinese ecommerce group seeks ever faster ways to put its goods in eager consumers’ hands.

阿里巴巴(Alibaba)正在測試無人機送貨服務，這家中國電子商務集團尋求以更加快速的方式，將商品送到急切的消費者手中。

The service — using propeller-driven drones in three major Chinese cities — appears more a publicity stunt than a serious business model, but raises the question of whether using drones for short-hop logistics is viable on the mainland, where airspace is tightly controlled.

這項在中國三大城市測試的、使用螺旋槳驅動無人機送貨的服務，似乎更像是一個宣傳噱頭，而不是一種正式的商業模式，但它提出了一個問題：在中國大陸使用無人機進行短途送貨是否可行？中國存在嚴格的航空管制。

Alibaba “aren’t hinting that drone-delivery service is ripe for commercialisation in [mainland China]”, the company said.

阿里巴巴表示，該公司並不是在暗示無人機送貨服務（在中國大陸）的商業化時機已經成熟。

It said the quadcopter drones were deployed in a “one-off test”, to last three days, launched in areas of Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou to whisk boxes of ginger tea to customers.

阿里巴巴稱，將在北京、上海、廣州三地展開爲期三天的“一次性測試”，測試中將使用四軸飛行器把盒裝薑茶快遞給客戶。

The drones would not be flown right to customers’ doors, but to central logistics sites where the “last-mile” delivery will be handled by human couriers, said Alibaba, whose online marketplaces account for about 75-80 per cent of the ecommerce in China.

該公司表示，這些無人機不會直接飛到客戶門前，而是會飛到物流站點，“最後一公里”的送貨將由快遞員負責。阿里巴巴的在線集市佔據了中國電商市場約75%到80%的份額。

The drones were deployed by logistics company YTO Express, a partner of Alibaba.

阿里巴巴的合作伙伴、物流公司圓通速遞(YTO Express)執行了這次無人機送貨服務。

Companies the world over have begun to experiment with unmanned aerial vehicles as part of efforts to more easily and quickly reach more remote delivery addresses.

全球各地的企業已開始測試無人機送貨，以求更快捷地將貨物送到較偏遠的送貨地址。

But regulations in China are so onerous that few believe airspace will be freed up any time soon to widespread use of whirring and buzzing quadcopter drones.

但中國的法規非常繁瑣，以至於沒什麼人相信其領空不久之後就能開放給嗡嗡作響的四軸飛行器廣泛使用。

Last June, US video artist Trey Ratcliff was detained and had his GoPro camera-equipped drone confiscated by police after he flew it over the Forbidden City in Beijing without permission.

去年6月，美國影像藝術家特里•拉特克利夫(Trey Ratcliff)在未經許可的情況下，操控裝有GoPro攝像頭的無人機從北京故宮上空飛過。拉特克利夫隨後被逮捕，無人機也被警方沒收。

“Deciding to fly a drone over China is kind of like Luke Skywalker deciding to ride his landspeeder on the Death Star,” he wrote in a blog post about the incident. “Note to self: don’t mess with these guys.”

拉特克利夫在一篇博客中對此事描述道：“決定操控無人機飛過中國上空，有點像盧克•天行者(Luke Skywalker)決定在死星(Death Star)上駕駛他的陸上飛艇(landspeeder)。自我提醒：別碰這些傢伙。”

In 2013, a Shanghai bakery scrapped plans to deliver cakes within 30 minutes, using drone couriers, blaming airspace regulations.

2013年，上海一家麪包店放棄了用無人機在30分鐘內將糕點送到顧客手中的計劃，並將原因歸於航空管制。

Even in the relatively liberal US, Amazon has had to navigate regulatory issues as it tries to set up drone delivery services. The company, which has drone R&D testing centres in both the US and the UK, said last year that it was creating Amazon Prime Air, which aims to use pilotless flying vehicles to deliver packages to millions of customers within half an hour of orders being placed.

即使在管制相對寬鬆的美國，亞馬遜(Amazon)在嘗試建立無人機送貨服務時，也必須小心應付監管問題。亞馬遜在美國和英國都有無人機測試中心。去年該公司表示，正在創建Amazon Prime Air服務，其目標是利用無人飛行器將包裹送到數百萬顧客手中，顧客下單後最多等半小時包裹即可送到。

However, founder Jeff Bezos has said the service could be delayed by red tape as US authorities have yet to approve proposals for commercial drone use. Tech commentators have dismissed the project as a marketing gimmick.

然而，亞馬遜創始人傑夫•貝索斯(Jeff Bezos)已表示，這項服務有可能因繁瑣的審批手續而延遲推出，因爲美國監管部門尚未批准使用商業無人機的方案。科技評論人士認爲該計劃是一個營銷噱頭、不必理睬。

Racing against Amazon to get drones into regular commercial use, Google has opted for test runs in Australia, as aviation authorities have yet to allow any more than limited use in the US.

在讓無人機進入正規商用方面，谷歌(Google)正與亞馬遜展開競賽。谷歌選擇在澳大利亞進行測試，當地航空管理部門對無人機使用的限制並不比美國寬鬆。