VOA慢速英语2020 冠状病毒改变了自动驾驶领域（在线收听）

Coronavirus Crisis Changes the World of Autonomous Vehicles

The coronavirus crisis is changing the world of autonomous, or self-driving cars.More companies are now thinking about using the vehicles to deliver goods instead of people.

冠状病毒正在改变自动驾驶汽车，或者叫无人驾驶汽车领域。越来越多的公司正在考虑用这些工具取代人来运送商品。

John Krafcik is the head of Waymo, a self-driving technology company owned by Googles parent, Alphabet.

约翰·科拉菲克是威摩公司的负责人，威摩是谷歌母公司阿尔法特旗下的自动驾驶科技公司。 

Earlier this month, Krafcik told the Reuters news agency,"The reality right now is that goods delivery is a bigger market than moving people."

本月早些时候，科拉菲克告诉路透社记者，“现实情况是商品无人派送市场大于人工配送。” 

Waymo started out working on autonomous taxis, but has also been developing self-driving trucks and delivery vehicles.The company recently raised $750 million from investors.It has signed deals with shipping company UPS and major retailer Walmart to test the delivery of goods.

威摩公司已经开始着手研究自动驾驶出租车，同时也发展无人驾驶卡车和送货交通工具。该公司最近从投资者那里募集了7.5亿美元资金。它已经和航运公司UPS（美国联合包裹运送服务公司）以及重要的零售商沃尔玛公司签订了协议来测试商品运送情况。

But Waymo is not the only company raising new financing.

但是沃尔玛不是唯一筹集新融资的公司。 

Over the past seven months,investors have put at least $6 billion into more than 20 companies working on autonomous delivery of goods and food.These include autonomous flying vehicles and heavy trucks, a recent Reuters study found.

在过去的七个月里，投资商至少投资60亿美元给20多个自动配送商品和食物的公司。路透社最近的一项研究发现，这些运输工具包括自动飞行器和重型卡车。

Most of that investment – at least $4 billion since January – went to big companies like Waymo and Didi Chuxing, Chinas biggest ride-sharing company.Both companies are attempting to create separate autonomous vehicle services to carry goods and people.

这项投资的大部分——自一月份以来至少有40亿美元-流向了大型公司，比如威摩公司和滴滴出行，滴滴出行是中国最大的汽车共享公司。这两个公司都在尝试研发独立的无人驾驶车辆来运载商品和人。

While delivery robots built to operate on sidewalks have received much media attention, they have drawn little recent investment.Still, an increasing number of cities and companies are trying them out.

尽管为了在人行道上工作而研发的运货机器人受到了极大的关注，他们最近吸引的投资却很少。就算是这样，还是有更多的城市和公司在尝试使用机器人。

Christopher Bruno is head of the Fairfax, Virginia, economic development office.He worked to get Starship sidewalk robots on the streets as soon as the coronavirus crisis shut down the area."I think without a crisis, there would have been some skepticism as to whether this would have been used or not," Bruno said.Skepticism refers to a kind of doubt.

克里斯托弗·布鲁诺是弗吉尼亚州费尔法克斯经济发展办公室的负责人。在因为冠状病毒封城时，他立即让星际飞船公司的人行道机器人在街上工作。“我认为没有这场危机，肯定会有人对于是否使用机器人持怀疑态度，”布鲁诺说道。Skepticism指的是一种怀疑态度。

Bruno said even though the approval process for new businesses usually takes 6 to 10 months,"we did it in a week and a half."Currently, 20 robots are delivering food and other products in Fairfax.

布鲁诺称尽管新业务的批准流程要6到10个月，“我们却在1周半内完成了。”现在，费尔法克斯有20个机器人正在运送食物和其他产品。

Some investors warn that recent media coverage has increased hopes too much about autonomous delivery services,which still face technical and legal difficulties.

一些投资商提醒说近期媒体报道大大提升了人们对自动运送服务的期待，但是这一服务还是面临着技术和法律难题。

Quin Garcia is the managing director of Autotech Ventures.He noted there is a certain amount of hype - talk that makes people excited - around autonomous delivery.

奎恩·加西亚是汽车技术投资有限公司的总经理。他指出关于自动运送有一定程度的炒作——就是让人们兴奋的言论。

"While theres increased hype around automated delivery right now due to coronavirus,"he said, "this health crisis will be mostly resolved in a few years from now before automated on-road delivery is ready for mass adoption."

“虽然由于新冠肺炎，现在对自动运送服务的炒作日益增长，”他说，“这场健康危机大概率将会在几年后被解决，而在这之前自动上路运送服务还没做好准备大范围推广。”

Still, autonomous startups are seeking to take advantage of virus-driven publicity for human-free delivery services.

自动驾驶创业公司仍然想要利用病毒相关的宣传为无人运送服务造势。 

These include Michigan-based autonomous delivery startup Refraction AI,sidewalk robot maker Kiwibot in California and self-driving technology company Optimus Ride in Boston.Ireland-based Manna Drone is also seeking to enter the market.

这些企业包括密歇根自动配送创业公司Refraction AI，加利福尼亚的人行道机器人创造公司Kiwibot和波士顿无人驾驶科技公司Optimus Ride。爱尔兰的Manna Drone公司也在尝试进入这一市场。

All the companies are involved in money raising as demand for their delivery services has increased.

因为配送服务需求的增加，所有这些公司都进行了融资。 

Phantom Auto, which makes software to control delivery robots, has also seen rising demand and expects to raise more money this year.

作为一家为送货机器人制造控制软件的公司，Phantom Auto也遇到了需求增长的情况，它今年准备筹集更多的资金。

James Peng is the founder and CEO of Pony.ai.The company recently carried out tests of its vehicles for food deliveries in California during the pandemic.

詹姆斯·彭（彭军）是小马智行的创始人和总裁。该公司最近在疫情期间测试了他们在加利福尼亚州运送食物的交通工具。

Peng noted that the virus crisis has created a "need to provide some much needed food and package delivery services."

彭军指出病毒危机导致了“派送一些急需食物和包裹的需求的产生。” 

Im John Russell.

约翰·罗塞尔为您报道。