VOA常速英语2019--自动驾驶汽车的上路问题有望得到解决

The promise of autonomous¹ vehicles is profound: less traffic, less pollution, fewer deadly accidents, but autonomous vehicles still have a lot to learn, so researchers and engineers are building huge test tracks, like this one in Sweden, to teach autonomous vehicles how to be safe. They are all about the self-driving vehicles, so we have four test environments, one city, rural road or countryside road, the very flexible open high speed area, and then there’re a few searches of highway as well. And those are the typical situations that you want to master. When going towards self-driving, this is unique. But there’s also the pedestrian problem.

People on the streets can sometimes act more quickly than an autonomous car is able to react to. So testing these days involves people or at least crash test dummies², and this vehicles programming routinely puts in situations with virtual pedestrians³ that force the car to react quickly, and bit by bit, these automakers say they are solving the problems that are keeping autonomous vehicles off public roads. We solved three problems. We solved the traffic jam problem. We solved the commute⁴ problem and we solved the parking problem .We believe that those three are the pain points for you know normal driving or or customers today. And solving these problems is opening the way for a world in which all kinds of driving from taxi services to trucking is unmanned. We will also see, I guess, autonomously⁵ driven vehicles, like the Nevada car going the long haul, from the point to point, between the logistic hubs you could say. So that is also a thing we see a great future.

Another safety protocol⁶ is insuring humans can take control when necessary. This truck, for instance, is being driven from a station hundreds of miles away from this test track. In 10 to 15 years, I think we will see a slight increase of things that are connected over the 5G cellular⁷ networks. It can be vehicles. It could be persons or vulnerable road users like pedestrians and bicycles. It could also be in the logistic chain. We’re delivering packages, let’s say the last mile to your home or the last mile to delivery point you called. New 5G networks will allow humans to take the wheel when the vehicles run into unusual or tricky⁸ obstacles. Consumer forecasts predict there may be as many as 5 million autonomous vehicles on the road by 2022.

无人驾驶汽车的前景无限光明：交通拥堵舒缓、污染缓解、致命车祸减少。不过，无人驾驶汽车还有许多可改进提升的地方。鉴于此，一些科学家和工程师正在打造大型的试车跑道，比如瑞典的这条跑道。这样做的目的是让无人驾驶汽车学会如何安全驾驶。这些都是为了无人驾驶汽车准备的，具体来说，我们有4种测试环境，即一条城市环境道路、一条乡村道路、一条灵活开放的高速公路，以及一些高速公路环境。这是人们希望掌控的几种典型环境。在无人驾驶方面，这是独创一格了，不过还有行人道路的问题。

道路上的行人有时候动作比无人驾驶汽车反应的要快。所以，当前的测试包括人以及碰撞试验（至少是模拟的）。这个汽车编程程序基本操作是设定情境，将虚拟行人放入其中，促使无人驾驶汽车做出迅速反应。这些汽车制造商表示，他们正在慢慢解决自动驾驶汽车无法进入公共道路的问题。我们解决了3个问题：交通拥堵问题、通勤问题、泊车问题。我们认为这3个问题是正常驾驶者或者顾客关注的痛点所在。而解决这些问题为世界打开了一道大门，让各种无人驾驶成为可能，这其中包括但不限于出租车驾驶、卡车驾驶。我认为，我们还将可以看到自动驾驶汽车，比如从内华达州来的汽车长途跋涉从一个地方到另一个地方，在各个物流枢纽间穿梭。这也是我们眼中未来的一个前景。

另外一个关于安全的设想是确保人类在必要的时候能够掌控行车。比如，这辆卡车是从距离该测试跑道数百英里外的站点出发的。未来10-15年，我认为我们将可以见证5G蜂窝网络可连接的终端种类有所增加：汽车；人，或者说弱势的道路使用者，比如行人或者骑自行车的人；物流行业——比如我们运输包裹，在还差一英里到家或者还差一英里到交货地点的时候，可以用自动驾驶。新的5G网络将允许人类掌控行车，前提是车辆遇到不常见或者不好走的障碍物。根据一些消费者预测结果，在2022年之前，将有多达500万自动驾驶汽车上路。

1 autonomous   

adj.自治的；独立的

参考例句：

• They proudly declared themselves part of a new autonomous province.他们自豪地宣布成为新自治省的一部分。
• This is a matter that comes within the jurisdiction of the autonomous region.这件事是属于自治区权限以内的事务。

2 dummies   

n.仿制品( dummy的名词复数 )；橡皮奶头；笨蛋；假传球

参考例句：

• If he dummies up, just try a little persuasion. 如果他不说话，稍微劝劝他就是了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• All the articles in the window are dummies. 橱窗里的全部物品都是仿制品。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 pedestrians   

n.步行者( pedestrian的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Several pedestrians had come to grief on the icy pavement. 几个行人在结冰的人行道上滑倒了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Pedestrians keep to the sidewalk [footpath]! 行人走便道。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

4 commute   

vi.乘车上下班；vt.减(刑)；折合；n.上下班交通

参考例句：

• I spend much less time on my commute to work now.我现在工作的往返时间要节省好多。
• Most office workers commute from the suburbs.很多公司的职员都是从郊外来上班的。

5 autonomously   

adv. 自律地，自治地

参考例句：

• To learn autonomously in the network environment is totally new to students. 基于网络环境下的自主学习对学生来说，是一种全新的学习方式。
• The QC-RS can operate autonomously or by remote control. QC-RS能实现自动操作或通过遥控来操作。

6 protocol   

n.议定书，草约，会谈记录，外交礼节

参考例句：

• We must observe the correct protocol.我们必须遵守应有的礼仪。
• The statesmen signed a protocol.那些政治家签了议定书。

7 cellular   

adj.移动的；细胞的，由细胞组成的

参考例句：

• She has a cellular telephone in her car.她的汽车里有一部无线通讯电话机。
• Many people use cellular materials as sensitive elements in hygrometers.很多人用蜂窝状的材料作为测量温度的传感元件。

8 tricky   

adj.狡猾的，奸诈的；(工作等)棘手的，微妙的

参考例句：

• I'm in a rather tricky position.Can you help me out?我的处境很棘手，你能帮我吗？
• He avoided this tricky question and talked in generalities.他回避了这个非常微妙的问题，只做了个笼统的表述。