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Science and technology
科学技术
Driverless automobiles
无人驾驶
The car that parks itself
自动泊车
Autonomous vehicles are arriving piecemeal, as more and more driving tasks are taken out of human hands
汽车驾驶中的手动操作不断减少，自动驾驶的汽车正循序渐进地融入我们的生活
CARS that need no driver are just around the corner according to Google, which has been testing vehicles bristling with aerials and cameras on public roads in America.
谷歌称无人驾驶的汽车即将面世，它近日正忙着在美国的公路上测试布满天线和摄像机的汽车。
But Google does not make cars, so it will be up to firms that do to bring the technology to market.
不过谷歌不汽车生产，因此这项技术的面纱还有待汽车生产商来揭开。
And carmakers are a conservative bunch. Still, slowly and steadily the autonomous car will arrive, with the help of an increasing number of automated driving aids.
虽然汽车制造商拖拖拉拉，但是在越来越多的自动驾驶助手的帮助下，自动汽车将一步步缓缓到来。
Volvo recently demonstrated one such feature: a car that really does park itself.
最近沃尔沃就展示了其中的一项功能：真正具备自动停车功能的汽车。
Some cars already have systems that assist with parking, but these are not completely autonomous.
有的汽车也装有停车助手，但它们并不是全自动汽车。
They can identify an empty parallel-parking space and steer into it while the driver uses the brake.
这样的汽车仅能识别空车位并在驾驶员刹车时停入。
The Volvo system, however, lets the driver get out and use a smartphone application to instruct the vehicle to park.
但是沃尔沃的系统可以让驾驶员置身车外，通过手机应用来指挥停车。
The car then trundles off, manoeuvres into a parking place and sends a message to the driver to inform him where it is.
随后车轮转动，汽车驶入停车位并发送短信告知驾驶员停车地点。
The driver can collect the car in person or use his phone to call it back to where he dropped it off.
驾驶员可以自行取车，也可以用手机将车调回自己下车的地点。
Autonomous parking could thus be provided at places like shopping centres and airports, which are controlled areas in which automated vehicles can be managed more easily than on open highways.
因此自动停车适用于购物中心和机场等地，相对于开阔的高速公路，这类地点有人管理，自动停车更易操作。
In the past, designs for doing this have relied on car parks being fitted with buried guide wires that a vehicle can follow to an empty bay.
以前自动停车往往依赖于停车场内埋于地下的导线，从而引导汽车驶入空车位。
That, though, creates a chicken-and-egg problem:
不过这就带来了先有鸡还是先有蛋的难题。
car-park operators will not invest in such infrastructure until there is a sufficient number of suitably equipped cars on the road.
路上装有自动停车系统的车辆足够多时停车场管理者才肯投资安装电线。
Drivers, conversely, will not want to buy self-parking cars if there is nowhere to use them.
与之相反，司机们如果觉得无用武之地也不会购买自动泊车的汽车。
This means, as Mikael Thor, a Volvo safety engineer working on the project, observes, that for autonomous parking to work most of the technology will have to be in the car itself.
如此一来，正如负责此项工程的沃尔沃安全工程师Mikael Thor观察的那样，想让自动停车顺利运行，大部分技术依赖于汽车本身。
The Volvo test car, which looks like a normal car, therefore uses on-board GPS mapping, cameras with image-recognition software, and radar sensors to find its own way around a car park and avoid pedestrians and non-autonomous vehicles.
沃尔沃测试车的外形与普通轿车无异，装有车载GPS地图、配备图像识别软件的摄像机以及雷达感应器，用于在停车场识别道路并躲避行人和非自动车辆。
Mr Thor says the system is five to ten years from commercial deployment.
Mikael Thor称这一系统还需5至10年才能投入商业应用。
If it proves a success then infrastructure might adapt to it, for instance by packing cars into tighter spaces, but would not need to anticipate it.
如果使用成功，停车场的基础设施也会与之适应，比如把车排得更加紧密，而且不用提前占位。
Look, no hands
瞧啊，无人驾驶
Driverless cars would also need to communicate with one another, to enhance safety. That, too, is coming.
无人驾驶的汽车需要彼此互动来提高安全性，这一设想在不远的未来也将成为现实。
A number of carmakers are developing wireless networking systems through which vehicles can exchange data, such as their speed, their steering angle and even their weight, to forewarn anti-collision systems and safety devices if an accident looks likely.
很多汽车制造商正在开发无线网络系统，促使车辆交换速度、行驶方向乃至车重等数据，从而在事故到来之际为防撞车系统和安全设施提供预警。
Ford, for example, recently tested a brake light that can provide an early warning to other motorists.
以福特为例，最近它测试了一款可以为其他驾驶员提供预警的刹车灯。
If the brakes are applied hard in an emergency, a signal is broadcast.
如果在紧急情况下突然刹车，该系统就会发出信号。
This illuminates a warning light in the dashboard of suitably equipped following vehicles, even if they are out of sight around a bend or not immediately behind the vehicle doing the braking.
如果后面的汽车装备得当，该信号将点亮仪表盘上的预警灯，即使转弯处看不到或者紧跟某辆急刹车的汽车也不用担心。
Ford has been testing this system as part of a collaborative research project with several European carmakers.
福特与几家欧洲汽车制造商共同调研这个项目，上面的测试正是该项目的一部分。
They have put a fleet of 150 experimental vehicles on the roads.
它们已将包含150辆测试车的车队驶向马路。
When it tested a group of these, Ford found the technology let drivers brake much earlier, helping avoid collisions.
对其中部分车辆进行测试后，福特发现该项技术能使刹车变得简单，还能防止撞车。
A driverless car would be able to react even faster.
无人驾驶车的反应速度会更快。
Another member of the research group, BMW, has been testing driverless cars on roads around Munich—including belting down some of Germany's high-speed autobahns.
调研组的另一个成员—宝马正忙着在慕尼黑周边的道路上测试无人驾驶车，包括在德国的一些高速公路上急速飞奔。
The ordinary-looking BMW 5-series models use a variety of self-contained guidance systems.
其貌不扬的宝马5系列装有各种各样完备的制导系统，
These include cameras mounted on the upper windscreen, which can identify road markings, signs and various obstacles likely to be encountered on roads.
包括架在上挡风玻璃上的摄像头，它将用于识别道路标志、符号以及道路上有可能碰到的各种障碍。
The BMWs also use a radar, to gauge how far the vehicle is from other cars and potential obstacles, and a lidar, which works like a radar but at optical frequencies.
宝马的无人驾驶车还装有雷达，用于测量车辆彼此间以及与潜在障碍之间的距离。
The lidar employs laser beams to scan the road ahead and builds up from the reflections a three-dimensional image of what this looks like.
该装置实为激光雷达，与雷达作用相同，但通过光频段工作。
The image is processed by a computer in the vehicle, which also collects and compares data from a high-accuracy GPS unit.
激光雷达采用激光束扫描前方的道路，并据此绘制三维图像，预测此为何物。
A series of ultrasonic sonars similar to those used in vehicles to provide parking assistance are placed around the car to add to the virtual picture. And just to make sure, a set of accelerometers provide an inertial navigation system that double-checks the vehicle's position on the road.
车辆上的电脑会对图像进行处理，同时通过高精度GPS装置收集与比较数据。与车辆装载的停车助手类似，宝马在无人驾驶车四周安装了一系列超声波定位仪，用于增加虚拟图像。为确保这一目标顺利实现，加速装置带有惯性导航系统，从而为车辆的道路定位提供了双重保险。
Although these cars can be switched to an autonomous driving mode, like Google's vehicles they are still required to have someone in the driving seat who can take over in the event of any difficulty.
虽然这些车都可以调成自动驾驶模式，但与谷歌的测试车类似，必须有人坐在驾驶座上应对突发难题。
The BMWs can steer themselves, slow down, brake and accelerate, even changing lanes to overtake slower vehicles.
宝马的自动驾驶车能够自动转向、减速、刹车或加速，还能变道超越前方车速较慢的汽车。
BMW, though, does not yet talk of when it might offer fully autonomous cars to customers; rather it says that it expects to see highly automated driving functions available in its models from around 2020.
但是，宝马从未说明何时能为消费者提供全自动汽车，仅仅称它希望在2020前后开发出具备高度自动化驾驶功能的模型车。
Policymakers want to see more development before fully autonomous cars are sold to the public.
在全自动汽车上市之前，政府也期待它的的进一步发展。
California and a number of other American states have licensed experimental self-driving cars, provided they have someone on board who can take control if needed.
加利福尼亚州和美国多个州许可自动驾车实验，前提是车内有人应对突发情况。
For the time being, this is about all that is likely to be allowed. America's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said recently that it believes self-driving cars could bring great safety and other benefits,
目前为止，这已经是最高程度的许可了。近日美国公路交通安全管理局称其认为自动驾驶汽车能提高安全系数，好处多多，
but at this stage it does not think completely autonomous vehicles should be permitted on public roads, other than for testing. Self-parking cars may be one way drivers and regulators gain confidence in the technology.
但现阶段除道路测试之外，全自动汽车上路的时机还不成熟。不过自动泊车为驾驶员和政府带来了信心，全自动汽车的到来指日可待。
