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A little-noticed agreement, signed on the sidelines of October’s Sino-German “joint cabinet” summit could help determine the shape of internet connectivity and autonomous driving – where vehicles do some of the thinking – in the world’s largest car market.
今年10月在中德“联合内阁”峰会间隙签署的一份不为人注意的协议，可能会帮助确定全球最大汽车市场车联网与无人驾驶的形态——在这种新形态中，部分思考工作将由汽车来承担。
Deutsche Telekom, which agreed to build a car network with state-owned China Mobile, also hopes the deal will open a backdoor on to a previously closed market, illustrating the potential opportunities stemming from advances in connected cars.
德国电信(Deutsche Telekom)同意与中国国企中国移动(China Mobile)合建一个汽车网络。德国电信还希望，该协议能为一个此前封闭的市场开一扇后门，展现出车联网技术进步带来的潜在机遇。
The two companies will marry China Mobile’s nationwide 4G network to an operating system Deutsche Telekom currently uses for 2m German vehicles. China Mobile, the world’s largest cellular company, will have built the world’s biggest 4G network, with 500,000 base stations and 50m subscribers, by the end of this year.
这两家公司将把中国移动覆盖全国的4G网络与200万辆德国汽车目前所用的德国电信操作系统结合起来。作为全球最大的移动电话公司，中国移动到今年底将建成全球最大的4G网络，届时将拥有50万座基站和5000万用户。
Liu Xin, head of China Mobile’s data division, says Deutsche Telekom’s technology has been tested in the field, while his company is “confident that sometime early next year we’re going to reach 1m [4G base stations]”.
中国移动数据部总经理刘昕表示，德国电信在该领域的技术已得到验证，而他的公司“有信心在明年早些时候建成100万座（4G基站）”。
Internet connectivity in cars is becoming more common globally. Deutsche Telekom and China Mobile hope their 50-50 joint venture will become a platform, like Apple’s iOS or Google’s Android operating systems, which third-party application developers can build on.
车联网在全球变得越来越普及。德国电信和中国移动希望，它们对半出资组建的合资企业，能发展为一个像苹果(Apple) iOS或谷歌(Google) Android操作系统那样的平台——第三方应用开发者可以该平台为基础搞进一步的开发。
“Based on our infrastructure you can build entertainment, TV, insurance and repair services,” says Horst Leonberger, senior vice-president of the German company’s T-Systems division, responsible for in-car connectivity. While the system would allow other companies to develop apps, the two partners would hope to take a proportion of any transaction costs made over their network.
德国电信旗下T-Systems负责车联网的高级副总裁霍斯特•莱昂贝格尔(Horst Leonberger)表示：“以我们的基础设施为基础，你可以开发娱乐、电视、保险和维修服务。”尽管该系统将允许其他公司开发应用，但德国电信和中国移动肯定希望从在它们网络上实现的销售收入中得到分成。
They also want cars to talk to other cars through their operating system. Mr Leonberger says that if enough vehicles, were “meshed” together Chinese drivers could avoid jams in the country’s notoriously congested cities. He reckons that 10 per cent of cars need to join, “because then you can really use algorithms to predict traffic flows”.
这两家公司还希望汽车与汽车之间能够通过它们的操作系统实现“对话”。莱昂贝格尔表示，如果有足够多的汽车实现互联，中国的驾车者就能避免在该国出了名拥堵的城市中堵车。据他估计，需要有10%的汽车实现互联，“因为届时你就可以用算法来预测交通流量”。
There are currently about 180m passenger vehicles on China’s roads with about 20m being added every year.
中国目前的乘用车约有1.8亿辆，而且每年还会增加约2000万辆。
“If you are driving a Volkswagen and I am driving a Mercedes, I would like to know when you are braking,” Mr Leonberger says. “Either the industry must standardise the exchange of data, which would take a lot of time, or we establish an open system that can. That is the role we would like to establish with this joint venture.”
莱昂贝格尔表示：“如果你开着一辆大众(Volkswagen)、我开着一辆梅赛德斯(Mercedes)，我希望知道你何时会刹车。要么汽车业必须实现数据交换的标准化——那将需要大量时间——要么我们建立起一个能做到这一点的开放系统。我们组建这家合资企业就是希望建立起这样的系统。”
A more distant prize is the ultimate creation of a network that will allow cars to drive themselves, one that is also being pursued by Google.
更长远的目标是，最终建立起一个支撑无人驾驶的网络——这也是谷歌正在致力做的事情。
Competition to build a network that could one day enable cars to drive themselves in the world’s largest car market will be intense. “It’s a wide-open market,” says Mr Liu. “A lot of companies are attracted to the connected car business and all have their own view of how it is going to develop.”
有关各方将展开激烈的竞争，以求在全球最大汽车市场建立起一个有朝一日能支撑无人驾驶的网络。刘昕表示：“这是一个完全开放的市场。很多公司都对车联网业务感兴趣，它们对该业务将如何发展都有自己的看法。”
“The main competitor is Google,” says Mr Leonberger. “That’s the real threat – if they can get access to enough cars. If the car manufacturers don’t do anything or don’t co-operate, then Google will win. They have already the Android platform and the biggest cloud-sourcing community out there.”
莱昂贝格尔表示：“主要竞争对手是谷歌。这是真正的威胁，如果他们能够接入足够多汽车的话。假如汽车制造商什么也不做、或者不进行合作，那么谷歌就会成为赢家。在这方面，他们已经拥有了Android平台和最大的云包(cloud-sourcing)社区。”
However, Google faces big obstacles in China. In 2010, the company abandoned the country’s internet search market after deciding its famous “do no evil” ethos was incompatible with Beijing’s censorship regime.
然而，谷歌在中国面临巨大障碍。2010年，谷歌放弃了中国内地的互联网搜索市场，原因是该公司认定其著名的“不作恶”(do no evil)原则与中国政府的审查制度不相容。
China-based internet users are redirected to Google’s Hong Kong search engine, which is routinely blocked by Chinese censors, as are the California company’s Gmail services. Both can only be accessed via virtual private network (VPN) tools.
中国内地互联网用户被重定向至谷歌在香港的搜索引擎，该网站经常被中国审查机关屏蔽，就像这家加州公司的Gmail服务一样。目前，中国内地互联网用户只有借助虚拟专用网(VPN)工具才能使用这两项服务。
The Chinese authorities would certainly prefer a joint venture involving the country’s largest mobile operator to pioneer future car-to-car networks and autonomous driving.
中国政府肯定更希望由中国最大的移动通信运营商来组建一家合资企业，率先发展属于未来的车联网和无人驾驶技术。
“We have to obey government laws and regulations,” says Mr Liu, a US-educated former IBM executive, when he is asked if the joint venture’s operating system will offer VPN services so bored teenagers in the back can access YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and other sites routinely blocked by government censors.
在被问及该合资企业的操作系统是否将提供VPN服务（这样，坐在汽车后座无事可干的青少年就可访问YouTube、Facebook、Twitter等常被中国政府审查机关屏蔽的网站）时，在美国受过教育、曾任IBM高管的刘昕表示：“我们必须遵守政府法律法规。
“By doing that, I don’t think we’re going to reduce our ability to compete.”
“我不认为这么做会削弱我们的竞争力。”
It is no accident that China Mobile has decided to partner with Deutsche Telekom rather than, say, a US company such as AT&T.
中国移动决定与德国电信合作，而不是与AT&T等美国企业合作，这绝非偶然。
Germany is China’s closest western partner and both countries share a common disgust with the extensive US surveillance activities unveiled by Edward Snowden, the fugitive former US intelligence contractor.
德国是中国最亲密的西方合作伙伴，两国都对美国的大规模监听活动感到厌恶。这些监听活动是由目前仍亡命天涯的前美国情报机构承包商爱德华•斯诺登(Edward Snowden)曝光的。
The joint venture also gives Deutsche Telekom unique entry to a telecoms market – the world’s biggest – where foreign investors are effectively barred from offering fixed-line and mobile services, while being limited to 50 per cent stakes in companies providing value-added services.
该合资公司还将让德国电信获得一个特别通道，来进入这个全球最大的电信市场——在中国电信市场，外国投资者实际上不准提供固话和移动电话服务，而提供增值服务的企业，外资持股比例也被限定为不得超过50%。
It was always unlikely that such an opportunity would be extended to a US or UK telecoms operator.
这种机会似乎永远不太可能提供给美国或英国电信运营商。
