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Tens of thousands of Tesla owners will get their first taste of autonomous driving technology this week when the electric carmaker pushes out its “Autopilot” software update.
当电动汽车制造商特斯拉(Tesla)本周推送其“Autopilot”软件更新时，数万名特斯拉车主将可首次体验自动驾驶技术。
Up to 60,000 Tesla Model S vehicles already have the hardware required to run the software, which will allow the car to automatically steer within highway lane markers, change lanes and parallel park.
已有多达6万辆特斯拉S型(Tesla Model S)汽车拥有运行上述软件所需的硬件，该软件将让汽车能够在高速公路车道内自动驾驶，而且能让汽车自动变道和侧方位停车。
A year ago, Tesla began building a dozen sensors, radar, forward-facing image-recognition cameras and advanced GPS navigation into its Model S. For customers with those vehicles, enabling Autopilot costs an extra $2,500, after installing a software update available in the US from Thursday. Regulatory approval is still pending in Europe and Asia.
一年前，特斯拉开始在其S型汽车中安装十几个传感器、雷达、前视图像识别摄像头和高级全球定位系统(GPS)导航。对拥有这些汽车的客户而言，安装软件更新后要启用Autopilot功能需额外付费2500美元。在美国，从周四开始即可获得该软件更新。欧洲和亚洲的监管机构尚未批准特斯拉推送该软件更新。
Elon Musk, Tesla co-founder and chief executive, told reporters at an event in Palo Alto on Wednesday that his ultimate objective was to create a car that behaved like a “really good chauffeur”.
特斯拉创始人、首席执行官埃隆•马斯克(Elon Musk)周三在帕洛阿尔托(Palo Alto)的一次活动中告诉记者，他的最终目标是生产一款运转起来像一位“真正出色的专职司机”那样的汽车。
Tesla is racing Silicon Valley rivals such as Google and Apple, as well as traditional automakers including Audi and BMW, towards a future of completely autonomous cars, which Mr Musk now predicts will be technically possible — if not necessarily legal — by 2018.
特斯拉正与谷歌(Google)和苹果(Apple)等硅谷竞争对手以及奥迪(Audi)和宝马(BMW)等传统汽车制造商展开竞争，希望将来能够生产出完全意义上的自动驾驶汽车。马斯克现在预计，到2018年时生产出完全自动驾驶汽车在技术上是可能的，尽管未必符合法规要求。
“I’m quite confident within three years the car will be able to take you from point to point — from your driveway to work without you touching anything,” he said. “You could be asleep the whole time and do so completely safely.”
“我很有把握的一点是，用不了三年汽车就能把你从一个地方带到另一个地方，从你家门口的车道带到你工作的地方，而不需要你触碰任何东西。”他表示，“你可以全程睡觉，而且绝对安全。”
However, he said regulatory approval for this could take “several years” depending on the local authorities.
然而，他表示，监管机构对此的审批可能会耗时“多年”，具体取决于当地政府。
For now, Tesla is warning drivers as they install the version 7.0 software update that they still must concentrate on the road at all times.
就目前而言，特斯拉在车主安装7.0版更新软件时会警告他们仍须时刻关注路面情况。
“We are advising drivers to keep their hands on the wheel, just in case,” Mr Musk said. “It’s very important that people exercise caution because the software is very new.”
“我们建议车主始终手握方向盘，以防万一。”马斯克表示，“人们保持谨慎是很重要的，因为这是一款全新的软件。”
In any accident, the driver remains liable, he added.
他补充称，如果发生什么事故，担责的仍是车主。
Mr Musk said that Tesla’s ability to collect and share detailed navigation data between cars, via their wireless connection to its central database, gives it a unique advantage in creating a reliable experience.
马斯克表示，特斯拉能通过汽车与中央数据库的无线连接来收集和在车辆间共享详细行驶数据，这令其在打造可靠体验方面具备了一个独特优势。
“The big differentiator here is that the whole Tesla fleet operates as a network,” Mr Musk said. “When one car learns something, the whole fleet learns it . . . It should get better with each passing day.”
“这方面的一个重要独到之处在于，特斯拉的所有汽车是作为一个网络在运行。”马斯克表示，“当一辆车明白什么时，所有的车也就都明白了……它应该会一天比一天出色。”
Autopilot is enabled by tapping twice on a button to the left side of the steering wheel. To change lanes, the driver flips the indicator and the car navigates between adjacent vehicles.
按两次位于方向盘左侧的按钮就可启动Autopilot。要想变道，车主可拨动转向杆，汽车会在临近的车辆中找出道路空间变道。
A new dashboard display, also part of the software update, shows the car’s position relative to other traffic on the road, flashing yellow when a nearby obstacle is detected.
软件更新包含一个新的仪表面板，它会显示出汽车相对于路上其他车辆的位置，在探测出附近有障碍物时会闪烁黄光。
“It’s a real boon in high-traffic situations,” Mr Musk said. “In slow moving gridlocked traffic you can turn on Autopilot and it works super well — almost to the point where you can take your hands off. Some people may — we don’t advise that.”
“这在车流大时很有帮助，”马斯克表示，“在拥堵的车流中缓慢行驶时，你可以启动Autopilot，效果非常棒，几乎到了双手可以离开方向盘的地步。一些人可能会这么做，但我们建议别。”
