Automatic Auto: a Car That Drives Itself 无人驾驶汽车
1.In September a driverless Audi TTS will speed to the top of Colorado's Pikes Peak at just under 100 kilometers per hour—that's right, no driver. It is an early step toward a robo-car that can drive itself, perhaps better than you can.
翻译:9月份,一辆无人驾驶的奥迪TTS汽车将以略低于每小时100公里的速度驶向科罗拉多州的派克峰顶部——对!没有驾驶者!这是朝着能自动驾驶的机器人汽车迈出的较早的一步,它或许比人操作得还好一些。
2.The Pikes Peak run is a joint project of the Stanford University Dynamic Design Laboratory, the Electronics Research Lab (ERL) for the Volkswagen Group (which owns Audi), and software-maker Oracle Corp. The rough, part-gravel road to the top of Pikes Peak is the route of the annual International Hill Climb rally, an annual auto and motorcycle race. The TTS run will demonstrate whether the car can take curves as fast as a human driver—without driving off a cliff.
翻译:“派克峰试驾”是斯坦福大学动态设计实验室、大众集团(奥迪品牌 拥有者)电子研究实验室,以及软件开发商甲骨文公司的联合项目。这条通往派克峰顶峰的艰险的半沙砾公路也是每年一度的国际汽车及摩托车登山拉力赛的路线。这款TTS汽车的驾驶将证明它是否具备同人工驾驶相媲美的跑弯路的能力——尽量快而不会掉入悬崖。
3.The car's sporty hatchback houses two computers in its trunk, both using Oracle's Java Real-Time System to run algorithms that keep the car on the road and at the limits of its handling ability on the varying surfaces and conditions.
翻译:这款汽车跑车型的舱盖式后背中嵌有两台计算机,都使用了Oracle的Java实时系统通过算法来保证在不断变化的路况下汽车在道路上行驶并且在其操纵能力的范围之内。
4.The car will be guided by a differential GPS system that corrects errors arising in global positioning satellite signals as they travel through the ionosphere and troposphere. It is exact enough to keep the car within 1.5 centimeters of its course. A similar technology is in the pilot stage for national deployment by the U. S. Department of Transportation's Federal Highway Administration, although the crew is using an off-the-shelf radio transmitter to broadcast exact location data to be used for the corrections.
翻译:这款汽车将由一个特异的GPS系统来导航,该系统能够纠正全球定位卫星信号在穿越电离层和对流层时出现的错误。它精确到足以保持汽车在其路线1.5厘米的误差范围内行驶。工作人员己在使用现成的无线电发射器来传输精确的位置数据用于更正路线,但是,类似的技术目前还处于由美国交通部下属的联邦公路管理局部署的全国试点阶段,(并未允许实际上路)。
5.There are several components to what the auto industry calls autonomous driving. First, the car must be able to distinguish things in its environment, such as roads, buildings, intersections and other cars. Second, it needs to be able to avoid collisions. Beyond these basics, an intelligent vehicle would obey the rules of the road while getting to the destination as quickly and safely as possible. The Pikes Peak run will test the Audi's ability to meet this goal.
翻译:汽车行业所谓的自动驾驶包括几个部分。首先,汽车必须能够区分它周围环境的物体,例如道路、建筑物、十字路口和其他车辆。其次,它要能避免碰撞。除了这些基本要求外,智能汽车必须尽可能快且安全地前往目的地的过程中遵守交通规则。“派克峰试驾”将测试奥迪车是否有能力实现这一目标。
6.Some of these capabilities have already hit the street, and others have been demonstrated in tests. For example, in Europe Volkswagen Passats can park themselves, and collision warning is available in high-end models from most major manufacturers, including Toyota, Mercedes and Volvo.
翻译:其中一部分功能已经在街道上实现,其他的功能也已经在测试中得到 证实。例如,欧洲的大众帕萨特能够自己泊车;而且主要汽车制造商,包括丰田、奔驰和沃尔沃等,他们生产的高端车型也已经能实现碰撞警告。
7.The University of Oxford is working on an autonomous navigation system that takes in information from onboard sensors, radar, cameras, lasers and Internet servers. Further, GM envisions a system called the Mobility Internet that connects intelligent cars to each other and to remote servers in a vast, moving peer-to-peer network that would let them travel efficiently and in sync. Someday, autonomous driving could offer the ultimate in comfort, letting the driver chat on the phone, email or watch TV on the way to work. How much control you want to turn over to the car may depend on your age and where you are going, according to Marcial Hernandez, senior engineer at ERL. "On vacation with the family the driver may want to turn around and talk to the kids. People in their 30s may want to drive to San Francisco, stop in front of the bar, and tell the car to go park itself."
翻译:英国牛津大学正在开发一种能从车载传感器、雷达、摄像头、激光束 和互联网服务器中获取信息的自主导航系统。而且通用汽车设想了一个称为移动互联网的系统,该系统将智能汽车彼此连接起来,并连接到一个庞大的、 移动的、点对点网络的远程服务器上,这样可以使汽车同步有效地行驶。在未来的某一天,自动驾驶可以提供极致的舒适感,驾驶者可以在上班途中在电话里聊天、发送邮件或者看电视。ERL的髙级工程师马歇尔•赫尔南德斯表示,你想把多少控制权交给汽车取决于你的年龄和要去的地点。“在与家人 度假时,驾驶者可能想转过头来和孩子说说话。30多岁的人可能想开车去旧金山,把车停在酒吧前并让汽车自己去停车场。”
8.Says Hernandez, "Taking the fun out of the driving is not our main goal—we'd like to help people enjoy driving. But they should make the decision if they want to drive or press the autopilot button. "
翻译:赫尔南德斯说:“感受脱离驾驶的乐趣并不是我们的主要目的一一我们想帮助人们享受驾驶。但是他们需要做个决定:是自己驾驶还是按下自动驾驶仪的按钮。
2017年中石油职称英语新版选读文章系列(7).doc