无人驾驶技术将会缓解交通拥堵还是加剧?

　　Residents of Greenwich Peninsula on the Thames in east London are used to encountering a four-wheeled Pod shaped like a space capsule on riverside roads. The cart moves slowly among people who run, walk, cycle and lead dogs. At a maximum speed of 10mph, the car beeps as it moves regularly between the InterContinental Hotel in the west of the Peninsula and apartment blocks in the east.

　　在伦敦东部泰晤士河畔的格林威治(Greenwich)半岛，居民们已经习惯于在滨江的道路上遇到一种形似太空舱的四轮Pod车。这种小车缓慢地穿行在跑步、行走、骑车和牵狗的人们之间。以每小时10英里的最大速度，这种车在格林威治半岛西部的洲际酒店(InterContinental Hotel)和东部的公寓区之间规律地运行，一路发出嘟嘟声。

　　The biggest surprise about the vehicle is not its futuristic appearance but how it is controlled. While current safety rules require a human to monitor the vehicle’s performance and step in to avoid crashes, the pod largely drives itself. It is one of several experiments worldwide aimed at exploring how autonomous vehicles might mesh with city transport systems. All are looking at how a technology being developed mainly for US highways can work in the more confined, chaotic space of city streets.

　　这种车最让人惊讶的地方不在于其未来主义的外观，而在于其操控方式。尽管当前的安全法规要求由人来监控无人驾驶汽车的运行、在必要时出手干预以避免事故，这辆车基本是自动驾驶的。在世界各地，为探索自动驾驶车辆如何融入城市交通系统，人们在进行多项试验，这是其中之一。所有人都在关注：一项主要为美国公路研发的技术，如何能应用于更狭窄、更混乱的城市街道。

　　At the heart of these efforts is an attempt to work out whether driverless vehicles will ease or worsen the impact that private car travel has had on many cities following the highway-building craze of the mid-20th century.

　　这些努力的核心是为了确认一件事情：在20世纪中叶的公路建设潮之后，私家车出行对许多城市造成了影响，无人驾驶车辆是会缓解还是会加重这种影响。

　　Some fear the technology could prompt more journeys by private motor vehicles rather than more space-efficient public transport. If the technology provides comfortable, stress-free, private journeys, it might also prompt people to commute daily from further afield, generating yet more traffic.

　　一些人担心，无人驾驶技术将会带来更多私家机动车出行，而不是促进更节省道路空间的公共交通。如果这项技术提供了一种舒适、无压力的非公共交通方式，它也可能促使人们增加每日通勤距离，从而产生更多的车流量。

　　Experts concerned about such impacts on behaviour argue it is vital that the rollout of autonomous vehicle technology goes hand-in-hand with a rethink of how it is used.

　　专家们担忧无人驾驶技术会对行为产生影响，他们主张，关键的一点是，推广自动驾驶车辆技术应该与重新思考这种技术的运用方式同步进行。

　　David Begg, a former chairman of the UK’s Commission for Integrated Transport, accepts that autonomous vehicles will use road space more efficiently but says the problem remains that cars take up too much space for the people they carry. On average, most vehicles contain little more than one person — the driver.

　　英国综合交通委员会(Commission for Integrated Transport)前主席戴维?贝格(David Begg)承认，自动驾驶车辆能够更高效地利用道路空间，但他表示，一个问题依然存在，就是汽车占用道路空间相对其运载的人数还是太多。平均而言，大多数车辆所载人数几乎只有一人，就是司机。

　　“There’s no doubt [autonomous vehicles] can allow us to squeeze more vehicles [into] a given amount of capacity because they’re bumper-to-bumper and side-by-side,” Prof Begg says. “[But] unless we can increase vehicle occupancy up from 1.1, we’re moving too much fresh air and not enough people.”

　　“毫无疑问(自动驾驶车)能够让我们在既定的道路承载量上挤进更多的车辆，因为这些车辆行驶时可以首尾相接，左右紧挨，”贝格教授说，“(但)除非我们能够将车辆搭载人数从1.1提高到更多，否则我们就是移动了太多的空气，却没有移动足够多的人。”

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