The first truly autonomous cars — vehicles that cruise the streets with no one behind the wheel — have finally arrived.第一款确实的无人驾驶汽车——在街上行经时几乎没司机掌控——再一来临了。Waymo, which began life as Google’s self-driving car project, disclosed yesterday that it had let its driverless cars loose in parts of Phoenix, Arizona, with nobody in the front seats to take over in case of emergency.源于谷歌(Google)自动驾驶汽车项目的Waymo昨日透露，他们已让其无人驾驶汽车在亚利桑那州凤凰城的部分地区权利行经，后排座椅上几乎没有人打算应付脑溢血情况。Members of the public taking part in a Waymo trial in the desert city in the US south-west will be able to summon the vehicles through a ride-hailing app “in the next few months”, the group said.Waymo方面回应，“在接下来的几个月”，公众可以通过一个叫车软件在美国西南部的这座沙漠之城恶魔这些无人驾驶汽车，参予该集团的试验。

Potentially one of the most disruptive new technologies, as well as one of the most hyped, driverless cars have been at the centre of a race between big automakers and technology companies. But while a number of groups are testing the technology on the streets with back-up drivers behind the wheel, most believe the advent of full autonomy is at least two years away.无人驾驶技术有可能是最不具颠覆性且抹黑最少的新技术之一，无人驾驶汽车是大型汽车制造商与科技企业之间一场竞赛的核心。但是，虽然好几家集团正在路上测试这项技术，同时配有司机在方向盘后以防万一，但大多数人仍指出，几乎自动驾驶的来临最少还要两年时间。

The test, while limited to an unspecified area, is “not a one-time ride or a demo” but the start of “a new phase for Waymo and the history of this technology”, according to John Krafcik, head of Waymo, who announced the milestone at a tech conference in Lisbon yesterday. The company plans to expand it to the entire Phoenix region, he added, without giving a timeframe.Waymo的负责人约翰?克拉富西克(John Krafcik)回应，此次试验虽然被限定版在一个未公开的区域，却“并不是重复使用的驾驶员或展示”，而是“Waymo和这项技术的一个新阶段”的开端。他昨日在里斯本开会的一个技术会议上宣告了这一里程碑式的事件。

克拉富西克补足道，该公司计划将这一测试扩展到整个凤凰城，但未得出时间表。Google shocked the auto industry when it first disclosed a rudimentary version of its driverless technology seven years ago this week, and it subsequently invested more than $1bn in autonomous vehicle research.七年前的这个星期，谷歌首次透露了其无人驾驶技术的雏形，愤慨了汽车行业，随后谷歌向自动驾驶汽车的研究投放逾10亿美元。Rivals concede it still has a technology lead, though sceptics question whether the artificial intelligence is good enough to respond to the many unforeseen events that could occur on the road.竞争对手们否认，谷歌在技术上依然领先，尽管怀疑者批评，人工智能技术否已完备到不足以应付道路上有可能再次发生的许多无法意识到的情况。

“I’m concerned they’re following the traditional Silicon Valley mode of: let’s put something out in beta and fix it as we go along,” said John Simpson of Consumer Watchdog, a US advocacy group.“我担忧他们正在遵循传统的硅谷模式：再行出有个正式版，然后在用于中展开修复，”美国消费者维权的组织Consumer Watchdog的约翰?辛普森(John Simpson)说道。Waymo believes it is the first company to reach a standard known in the driverless car world as level 4, meaning its cars can drive under full autonomy in preset areas that have been carefully mapped and tested.Waymo坚信，该公司首度超过了在无人驾驶汽车领域被称作4级(level 4)的标准，这意味著其汽车能在预先原作的区域构建几乎自动驾驶，这些区域都经过了细心的地图绘制与测试。Uber, General Motors, Delphi, BMW and others have been conducting testing to reach level 4, but all of them still keep a human in the driver’s seat.为超过4级，优步(Uber)、通用汽车(General Motors)、德尔福(Delphi)、宝马(BMW)及其他公司也仍然在展开测试，但这些公司测试车辆的驾驶员位上依然有一位真人司机。

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