你的下一辆车可以自动驾驶吗?

Will Your Next Car Drive Itself? 你的下一辆车可以自动驾驶吗?

You know how much your telephone has changed over the past 10 years? Your car will change even more than that in the next 10 years.

One of the big changes is that cars will drive themselves. Some day you may not need to drive a car. You will just tell the car where you want to go and it will drive itself.

“We definitely have the technology for it now,” says Andrew Poliak of automotive technology supplier QNX. “We expect self-driving cars to be a mainstream² thing between 2020 and 2025.” 

Google

The American company Google has been working on a self-driving automobile³ for years. These cars are already on the roads in the United States, mainly in California.

Google cars are truly self-driving. These cars have no steering⁵ wheels or pedals⁷.

Last week, police ordered one of Google’s cars to stop for driving too slowly on a public road. The car was not violating⁸ any law, so no one was punished. But police did speak with the operators of the vehicle.

According to Google, its self-driving cars have been driven nearly 2 million kilometers. That is equal to the distance the average person drives in 90 years.

So far, no Google self-driving car has gotten a traffic ticket. Some of them have been in accidents when other cars hit them.

Tesla

Another American company, Tesla, added an “Autopilot” feature to its cars last month. Tesla put the feature, a computer software program, in cars that were built after September 2014.

With the Autopilot turned on, the vehicle drives itself. The car will speed up, slow down, brake and steer⁴ by itself.

You can take over driving any time by turning the steering wheel or touching⁹ a pedal⁶.

Your car will slow down if the vehicle in front of you gets closer. It will turn at bends and change lanes if you use the turn signal.

The car uses sensors¹⁰ to know when lane changing is safe and whether it should speed up or slow down.

Tesla Autopilot takes over driving at speeds over 29 kilometers per hour when you press a button twice.

Autopilot is made for cross-country driving. It keeps you in the lane and helps you avoid hitting other cars.

Autopilot does not work as well on local roads. It will not stop at a red light or stop sign or turn at intersections¹².

Reporter Carolyn Nicander Mohr tried the Autopilot feature of a Tesla earlier this month. She had a hard time trusting the car to do what it should do.

She thought about disabling¹³ the Autopilot feature many times during her trip. She wanted to take control at every bend in the road and hit the brake when the car in front of her slowed down.

Yet the car drove perfectly¹⁴.

Other Self-Driving Cars, Trucks and Buses

Other companies are working on self-driving cars. Mercedes-Benz, Audi, BMW, Volvo and Toyota all have plans for such vehicles.

A company called BestMile plans to operate self-driving buses in Switzerland next spring. The buses will hold up to nine people and will be tested for two years.

Mercedes-Benz is developing large self-driving trucks for long trips. These trucks use drivers to control them.

A company called Royal will have self-driving trucks at construction sites in Florida by the end of this year. No drivers are needed in these vehicles.

Advantages of Self-Driving Cars

Safety

According to The Auto¹ Insurance Center, 81% of car crashes result from human error. Many lives could be saved if cars drove more safely without human drivers.

With fewer accidents, insurance costs may be lower for self-driving cars than other vehicles.

Efficiency

In a self-driving car, you would not have to be worried about talking on the phone or sending a text message. You could do other things while getting to where you need to go.

Traffic may be reduced. Cars could flow more smoothly¹⁵, with fewer cars on the road during busy times.

Fewer accidents mean improving traffic conditions, and reducing delays, repairs and injuries.

Speed limits could rise with more people using self-driving cars. When self-driving cars prove they can operate at higher speed limits, speed limits could be raised.

Self-driving cars could drive people who are unable to drive themselves. They could travel without depending on others.

Businesses could use self-driving cars to bring goods to your home. Order food and have a self-driving car transport it. Send the store your shopping list and wait for the store's self-driving car to bring your order to you.

Car Ownership

You may not need to own a car. A self-driving car could come to your home when you order it.

You could sign up for a service that permit you a set number of kilometers, hours, or trips per month and have a car show up when and where you needed it. You could order small cars for single-rider short trips and larger cars for family trips.

Criticism of Self-Driving Cars

Cost

Self-driving cars may cost a lot more than other cars. The self-driving feature may first be offered on the most costly¹⁶ cars.

Lower priced vehicles may take longer to offer the feature.

But the cost of technology usually drops over time. Expect that self-driving cars could become less costly in the future.

Acceptance

For self-driving cars to become the norm¹⁷, people have to trust them. Drivers have to become familiar with these cars and what they can do.

Laws

Many laws need to be changed to permit use of self-driving cars.

Who is responsible when a self-driving car has an accident? Lawmakers will need to consider who is responsible when a self-driving car has an accident.

According to Forbes, Volvo has said it will accept responsibility when its self-driving cars have an accident.

Words in This Story

definitely - adv. without question; in a way that is sure or clear

mainstream – n. the thoughts, beliefs, and choices that are accepted by the largest number of people

pedal – n. a flat piece of metal, rubber, etc., that you push with your foot to make a machine move, work, or stop

autopilot – n. a device that directs a ship, aircraft, or spacecraft in place of a person

feature – n. an interesting or important part, quality or ability

lane – n. a part of road that is marked by painted lines and that is for a single line of vehicles

intersection¹¹ – n. the place or point where two or more things come together, especially the place where two or more streets meet or cross each other

brake – n. a device for slowing or stopping something (such as a wheel or vehicle)

construction site – n. a place where a building is being build or repaired 

error – n. something that is not correct; a wrong action or mistake 

norm - n. short for normal

infographic – n. an image that is used to represent information

1 auto   

n.(=automobile)(口语)汽车

参考例句：

• Don't park your auto here.别把你的汽车停在这儿。
• The auto industry has brought many people to Detroit.汽车工业把许多人吸引到了底特律。

2 mainstream   

n.（思想或行为的）主流；adj.主流的

参考例句：

• Their views lie outside the mainstream of current medical opinion.他们的观点不属于当今医学界观点的主流。
• Polls are still largely reflects the mainstream sentiment.民调还在很大程度上反映了社会主流情绪。

3 automobile   

n.汽车，机动车

参考例句：

• He is repairing the brake lever of an automobile.他正在修理汽车的刹车杆。
• The automobile slowed down to go around the curves in the road.汽车在路上转弯时放慢了速度。

4 steer   

vt.驾驶，为…操舵；引导；vi.驾驶

参考例句：

• If you push the car, I'll steer it.如果你来推车，我就来驾车。
• It's no use trying to steer the boy into a course of action that suits you.想说服这孩子按你的方式行事是徒劳的。

5 steering   

n.操舵装置

参考例句：

• He beat his hands on the steering wheel in frustration. 他沮丧地用手打了几下方向盘。
• Steering according to the wind, he also framed his words more amicably. 他真会看风使舵，口吻也马上变得温和了。

6 pedal   

n.踏板；adj.脚的，踏脚的；v.用脚踏动，踩踏板

参考例句：

• He pressed down the accelerator pedal of his car.他踩下汽车的加速器踏板。
• I saw him pedal to school every morning.我看到他每天早晨骑自行车上学。

7 pedals   

n.（自行车或其他机器的）踏板( pedal的名词复数 )；脚蹬子；（钢琴、风琴等的）踏板；踏瓣

参考例句：

• I couldn't reach the pedals on her bike. 我骑她的车够不到脚蹬子。
• The pedals of a cycle are attached to a crank. 自行车的踏板与曲柄相连。 来自辞典例句

8 violating   

亵渎( violate的现在分词 )； 违反； 侵犯； 强奸

参考例句：

• Ignorance of a law does not excuse a man for violating it. 一个人不懂法律不构成犯法的理由。
• It was sued by the U.S. federal government for violating antitrust law. 它被美国联邦政府指控违反了反托拉斯法。

9 touching   

adj.动人的，使人感伤的

参考例句：

• It was a touching sight.这是一幅动人的景象。
• His letter was touching.他的信很感人。

10 sensors   

n.传感器，灵敏元件( sensor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• There were more than 2000 sensors here. 这里装有两千多个灵敏元件。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Significant changes have been noted where sensors were exposed to trichloride. 当传感器暴露在三氯化物中时，有很大变化。 来自辞典例句

11 intersection   

n.交集，十字路口，交叉点；[计算机] 交集

参考例句：

• There is a stop sign at an intersection.在交叉路口处有停车标志。
• Bridges are used to avoid the intersection of a railway and a highway.桥用来避免铁路和公路直接交叉。

12 intersections   

n.横断( intersection的名词复数 )；交叉；交叉点；交集

参考例句：

• Traffic lights have been placed at all major intersections. 所有重要的交叉路口都安装了交通信号灯。
• Intersections are of the greatest importance in highway design. 在道路设计中，交叉口占有最重要的地位。 来自辞典例句

13 disabling   

使无能力( disable的现在分词 )； 使残废； 使伤残； 使无效

参考例句：

• Rheumatoid arthritis is perhaps the most severe and disabling type of the disease. 类风湿性关节炎可能是其中最严重，最能致残的一种类型。
• There was an error disabling the Inbox Assistant rules. 禁用收件箱助理程序规则时出错。

14 perfectly   

adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
• Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。

15 smoothly   

adv.平滑地，顺利地，流利地，流畅地

参考例句：

• The workmen are very cooperative,so the work goes on smoothly.工人们十分合作，所以工作进展顺利。
• Just change one or two words and the sentence will read smoothly.这句话只要动一两个字就顺了。

16 costly   

adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的

参考例句：

• It must be very costly to keep up a house like this.维修这么一幢房子一定很昂贵。
• This dictionary is very useful,only it is a bit costly.这本词典很有用，左不过贵了些。

17 norm   

n.标准，规范，平均数

参考例句：

• Of his age,the child is above the norm in arithmetic.在他那个年龄，这个孩子的算术能力是超过标准的。
• These events were aberrations from the norm.这些事件不合常规。