華爲擬以5G技術引領自動駕駛汽車

Huawei Technologies is designing the communications architecture for a new generation of “autonomous” cars which will be connected to the high-speed internet, according to Eric Xu, the company’s chief executive.

華爲(Huawei Technologies)輪值CEO徐直軍(Eric Xu)稱，公司正在爲新一代自動駕駛汽車設計與高速互聯網連接的通信架構。

The Chinese telecoms equipment maker hopes to have a series of technologies based on fifth-generation mobile networks commercially viable by 2020.

這家中國電信設備製造商希望，到2020年使一系列基於第五代移動網絡的技術具備商業可行性。

The company, which rivals western telecoms equipment manufacturers led by Ericsson and Alcatel-Lucent, is allocating $600m in research and development spending for 5G networks.

與愛立信(Ericsson)、阿爾卡特-朗訊(Alcatel-Lucent)等西方電信設備製造商競爭的華爲，將投入6億美元研發5G技術。

Huawei is one of several technology companies, led by Google, pioneering the development of autonomous, or self-driving, cars alongside established carmakers such as Mercedes-Benz. “We are in close partnerships with car manufacturers to find their requirements for 5G,” said Mr Xu.

由谷歌(Google)領軍的多家技術公司正在與奔馳(Mercedes-Benz)等老牌汽車生產商合作，率先開發自動或自主駕駛汽車，華爲也是其中之一。“我們正在與汽車製造商緊密合作，找到他們對5G網絡的需求，”徐直軍稱。

He added that Huawei has no plans to manufacture cars, but that it would design communications modules that will connect cars to networks – and eventually enable vehicles to be driven, at least partly, by remote control.

他補充稱，華爲現在還沒有製造汽車的計劃，不過它將研發通訊模塊，使汽車接入網絡，最終實現通過遙控來（至少在一定程度上）駕駛汽車。

The company is already by some measures the world’s leading manufacturer of the digital world’s architecture – mobile and fixed-line networks.

按照某些衡量標準，華爲已經是全球領先的數字世界架構（含移動網絡和固網）製造商。

Mr Xu, who shares the post of chief executive with two other men on a six-month rotation, said he was confident Huawei will be a leader in 5G networks.

徐直軍與另外兩人輪留擔任華爲CEO，每次任期爲6個月。他稱，他對華爲領跑5G網絡有信心。

The company announced last week that the first big test of its 5G mobile technology would come at the football World Cup in 2018, due to be held in Russia. The first commercial deployment is scheduled for 2020.

該公司上週宣佈，其5G移動技術將在2018年世界盃（在俄羅斯舉辦）迎來第一場大考驗。首個商業部署計劃定於2020年展開。

Mr Xu said a crucial requirement for self-driving cars was low “latency” – a reference to the time it takes for data to travel to a third-party server and back – as this would reduce delays when making video calls, for example.

徐直軍稱，自主駕駛車輛的關鍵要求是低“時延”——數據輸送至第三方服務器並傳回的時間——打個比方，這會縮短視頻電話的時延。

He added that 5G networks would ideally have a latency of one millisecond, compared with 40 to 80 milliseconds on 4G, to avoid collisions between cars.

他補充稱，爲避免汽車相撞，5G網絡在理想狀態下的時延爲1毫秒（千分之一秒），相比之下，4G網絡的時延爲40-80毫秒。

“Having said that, I’m not sure we can deliver one millisecond in the end. Maybe five milliseconds. Maybe three milliseconds,” said Mr Xu.

“話雖如此，我不確定我們最終能否達到1毫秒時延的水平。也許是5毫秒，或者是3毫秒，”徐直軍表示。