Steve Shladover outlines the benefits to be gained from vehicles that could drive themselves and discusses how this could be achieved.
斯蒂夫·施多弗闡述了能自動運行的車輛的諸多裨益，并詳細論述了如何將其變為現實。

Intelligent Vehicles

Steve Shladover

1 Even when cars were still young, futurists began thinking about vehicles that could drive themselves, without human help. Perhaps the best known of these conjectures was the General Motors Futurama, the hit of the 1939 New York World's Fair. Now, at the start of the new century, it's worth taking a fresh look at this concept and asking how automation might change transportation and the quality of our lives.

智能車輛

斯蒂夫·施多弗

還在汽車問世之初，未來學家就開始設想無需人來操縱便能自動運行的車輛將是什么樣兒的。這類設想最出名的或許是1939年紐約世界博覽會上轟動一時的由通用汽車公司推出的“未來城市風光”。今天，在世紀之初，以新的目光去審視這樣的設想，去探討自動化將如何改變交通以及我們的生活質量，是頗具價值的。
　
2 Consider some of the implications of cars that could drive themselves.

● We might eliminate the more than ninety percent of traffic crashes that are caused by human errors such as misjudgments and inattention.
● We might reduce antisocial driving behavior such as road rage, thereby significantly reducing the stress of driving.
● The entire population, including the young, the old, and the infirm, might enjoy a higher level of mobility without requiring advanced driving skills.
● The luxury of being chauffeured to your destination might be enjoyed by all, not just the wealthiest individuals.
● Fuel consumption and pollution might be reduced by smoothing traffic flow and running vehicles close enough to each other to benefit from aerodynamic drafting.
● Traffic-management decisions might be based on firm knowledge of vehicle responses to instructions, rather than on guesses about the choices that drivers might make.
● The capacity of a freeway lane might be doubled or tripled, making it possible to accommodate growing demands for travel without major new construction, or, equivalently, today's level of congestion might be reduced, enabling travelers to save time.
且來看一看能自動運行的汽車意味著什么。

● 我們或許能消除90%以上由于判斷失誤以及疏忽等人為因素造成的交通事故。
● 我們或許能減少野蠻開車這類有害公眾利益的開車行為，從而大大減輕行車壓力。
● 社會全體成員，包括老老少少與體弱者，也許都不需習得嫻熟的駕車技巧就能較為自由地奔馳了。
● 被開車接送也許會成為世人共同的享受，而不僅僅是最富裕階層的一種奢侈。
● 車流通暢，相互緊隨行駛的車輛能利用前車產生的較小的空氣阻力，這些都可能減少油耗和污染。
● 交通管理將會建立在充分了解車輛對指令的應變能力的基礎上，而非基于對車輛駕駛者可能采取的行動的粗略估測。
● 高速公路的車容量會增加一倍或二倍，使其不必大興土木就能適應不斷增長的行車需求；或者，同樣重要地，目前交通擁堵的程度能得到緩解，以使行車者節省時間。

Is it feasible?

3 This is now a realistic prospect. With advances in technology we can readily visualize your trip on an automated highway system.
是否可行？

目前這已成為一個可以實現的希望。隨著技術的進步，我們不難設想自動化公路系統上的行車過程。

4 Imagine leaving work at the end of the day and needing to drive only as far as the nearest on-ramp to the local automated highway. At the on-ramp, you press a button on your dashboard to select the off-ramp closest to your home and then relax as your car's electronic systems, in cooperation with roadside electronics and similar systems on other cars, guide your car smoothly, safely, and effortlessly toward your destination. En route you save time by maintaining full speed even at rush-hour traffic volumes. At the end of the off-ramp you resume normal control and drive the remaining distance to your home, better rested and less stressed than if you had driven the entire way.
且來設想，工作一天下班后，只需開車至最近的一個自動公路入口匝道。到了入口匝道，在儀表板上按一下按鈕選擇離家最近的出口匝道，隨后就休息放松，由車上的電子系統與路旁的電子裝置以及其他車輛上類似的系統合作，把車平穩、安全、順暢地開往目的地。即使是在車流量最大的高峰時段，也能一路全速行駛，從而節省時間。下了出口匝道，再照平常那樣駕駛，開過余下的路程回家，那要比自己全程駕駛省力輕松許多。

5 Although many different technical developments are necessary to turn this image into reality, none requires exotic technologies, and all can be based on systems and components that are already being actively developed in the international motor vehicle industry. These could be viewed as replacements for the diverse functions that drivers perform every day: observing the road, observing the preceding vehicles, steering, accelerating, braking, and deciding when and where to change course. 要把這一景象變成現實固然需要各種不同的技術發展，但也無需什么匪夷所思的技術，所有的技術都能以國際車輛制造業正在積極開發研制的各種系統和部件作為基礎。這些技術可以被看作是車輛駕駛者日常開車所起各種作用的替代：觀察路況，留意前行車輛，掌握方向，加速，剎車，變道。

Observing the road

6 Researchers have developed a road-reference and sensing system that makes it possible to determine accurately a vehicle's position and orientation relative to the lane's center. Cheap permanent magnets are buried at four-foot intervals along the lane centerline and detected by magnetometers mounted under the vehicle's bumpers. . These meters provide the information used by the vehicle's control computer to determine its exact position of the vehicle.
觀察路況

研究人員開發了一種路況參考及傳感系統，這些能準確判斷車輛的方位及所在車道中心的相應定位。價格低廉的永磁體以4英尺的間隔埋設在車道中心線上，車輛保險桿下安裝著的磁強計能夠測知。這些磁強計向車上的計算機控制臺提供信息，以斷定車輛的確切方位。