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Driverless cars 無人駕駛汽車
Where's the driver?!
I passed my driving test at the fourth attempt. You might think that means I'm not as safe as someone who passed first time. But would you feel safer with no driver at all? Maybe not, and it's for this reason that automotive firms have included driver-assist functions in their prototype driverless cars. This allows the human driver to take over if there is a problem.
Google is one manufacturer that has prototype driverless cars. These have been retrofitted with steering1 wheels and conventional controls to allow normal driving. But this is just a stage - the vision is to have fully2 automated3 cars very soon. The director of Google's self-drive project, Chris Urmson, hopes his 11-year-old son will never have to take a driving test. To achieve that, the cars need to be on the roads in five years. He says driverless cars will drastically reduce accidents and traffic jams.
According to Chris "Some 1.2 million people are killed on the roads around the world each year. That number is equivalent to a jet falling out of the sky every day."
He thinks gradual changes to existing car designs are not enough to deal with the problem. "If we are really going to make changes to our cities, get rid of parking lots, we need self-drive cars," he says.
Google's prototypes have racked up over a million kilometres on the road. They have also had to deal with unexpected situations, such as a child driving a toy car in the road, and a woman in an electric wheelchair chasing a duck. In each case, the car reacted safely.
Some are not convinced. Sven Beiker of Stanford University thinks driverless cars will still need human input4 in extreme circumstances. He also worries that people may forget how to operate their vehicles if they do not do it regularly. I guess I shouldn't throw away my driver's licence just yet.
Glossary 詞匯表
automotive汽車
driver-assist司機助手
prototype全真模型
manufacturer生廠商
retrofitted重裝
conventional傳統(tǒng)的
vision愿景，目標
drastically徹底地，大大地
equivalent相當，等同
racked up積累起來
extreme circumstances極端條件（環(huán)境）
operate運作，操作
點擊收聽單詞發(fā)音收聽單詞發(fā)音
1 steering 3hRzbi
n.操舵裝置
參考例句：
He beat his hands on the steering wheel in frustration. 他沮喪地用手打了幾下方向盤。
Steering according to the wind, he also framed his words more amicably. 他真會看風使舵，口吻也馬上變得溫和了。
2 fully Gfuzd
adv.完全地，全部地，徹底地；充分地
參考例句：
The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.醫(yī)生讓我先吸氣，然后全部呼出。
They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他們很快就完全融入了當?shù)厝说娜ψ印?BR> 3 automated fybzf9
a.自動化的
參考例句：
The entire manufacturing process has been automated. 整個生產(chǎn)過程已自動化。
Automated Highway System (AHS) is recently regarded as one subsystem of Intelligent Transport System (ITS). 近年來自動公路系統(tǒng)(Automated Highway System,AHS)，作為智能運輸系統(tǒng)的子系統(tǒng)之一越來越受到重視。
4 input X6lxm
n.輸入(物)；投入；vt.把(數(shù)據(jù)等)輸入計算機
參考例句：
I will forever be grateful for his considerable input.我將永遠感激他的大量投入。
All this information had to be input onto the computer.所有這些信息都必須輸入計算機。
Driverless cars 無人駕駛汽車
Where's the driver?!
I passed my driving test at the fourth attempt. You might think that means I'm not as safe as someone who passed first time. But would you feel safer with no driver at all? Maybe not, and it's for this reason that automotive firms have included driver-assist functions in their prototype driverless cars. This allows the human driver to take over if there is a problem.
Google is one manufacturer that has prototype driverless cars. These have been retrofitted with steering1 wheels and conventional controls to allow normal driving. But this is just a stage - the vision is to have fully2 automated3 cars very soon. The director of Google's self-drive project, Chris Urmson, hopes his 11-year-old son will never have to take a driving test. To achieve that, the cars need to be on the roads in five years. He says driverless cars will drastically reduce accidents and traffic jams.
According to Chris "Some 1.2 million people are killed on the roads around the world each year. That number is equivalent to a jet falling out of the sky every day."
He thinks gradual changes to existing car designs are not enough to deal with the problem. "If we are really going to make changes to our cities, get rid of parking lots, we need self-drive cars," he says.
Google's prototypes have racked up over a million kilometres on the road. They have also had to deal with unexpected situations, such as a child driving a toy car in the road, and a woman in an electric wheelchair chasing a duck. In each case, the car reacted safely.
Some are not convinced. Sven Beiker of Stanford University thinks driverless cars will still need human input4 in extreme circumstances. He also worries that people may forget how to operate their vehicles if they do not do it regularly. I guess I shouldn't throw away my driver's licence just yet.
Glossary 詞匯表
automotive汽車
driver-assist司機助手
prototype全真模型
manufacturer生廠商
retrofitted重裝
conventional傳統(tǒng)的
vision愿景，目標
drastically徹底地，大大地
equivalent相當，等同
racked up積累起來
extreme circumstances極端條件（環(huán)境）
operate運作，操作
點擊收聽單詞發(fā)音收聽單詞發(fā)音
1 steering 3hRzbi
n.操舵裝置
參考例句：
He beat his hands on the steering wheel in frustration. 他沮喪地用手打了幾下方向盤。
Steering according to the wind, he also framed his words more amicably. 他真會看風使舵，口吻也馬上變得溫和了。
2 fully Gfuzd
adv.完全地，全部地，徹底地；充分地
參考例句：
The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.醫(yī)生讓我先吸氣，然后全部呼出。
They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他們很快就完全融入了當?shù)厝说娜ψ印?BR> 3 automated fybzf9
a.自動化的
參考例句：
The entire manufacturing process has been automated. 整個生產(chǎn)過程已自動化。
Automated Highway System (AHS) is recently regarded as one subsystem of Intelligent Transport System (ITS). 近年來自動公路系統(tǒng)(Automated Highway System,AHS)，作為智能運輸系統(tǒng)的子系統(tǒng)之一越來越受到重視。
4 input X6lxm
n.輸入(物)；投入；vt.把(數(shù)據(jù)等)輸入計算機
參考例句：
I will forever be grateful for his considerable input.我將永遠感激他的大量投入。
All this information had to be input onto the computer.所有這些信息都必須輸入計算機。