An American company is preparing to launch a series of driverless trucks to transport goods on a major public highway.
一家美国公司正准备推出一系列无人驾驶卡车，在一条主要公共高速公路上运输货物。
Aurora Innovation says it plans to begin the service later this year in Texas with 20 tractor-trailers. The trucks will drive back and forth to transport goods between the cities of Dallas and Houston.
Aurora Innovation称其计划今年晚些时候在德克萨斯州用20辆拖挂车启动这项服务。这些卡车将在达拉斯和休斯顿之间往返运送货物。
The Pittsburgh-based company says it hopes to expand the service to thousands of tractor-trailers within three to four years. Aurora says the transportation method could operate 24 hours a day. It aims to speed up the process and possibly save on transportation costs.
这家总部位于匹兹堡的公司表示，它希望在三到四年内将这项服务扩大到数千辆拖挂车。Aurora表示，这种运输方式可以24小时运行。它旨在加快这一过程，并可能节省运输成本。
Aurora will continue testing for the next nine months. If all goes well, the driverless program will begin after that. At first, the trucks will be carrying loads for FedEx and other transportation partners between the companies' processing centers.
Aurora将在接下来的九个月里继续测试。如果一切顺利，该无人驾驶项目将在那之后启动。起初，这些卡车将在联邦快递和其他运输合作伙伴的货物处理中心之间运送货物。
Since 2021, Aurora trucks have autonomously carried goods over 1 million kilometers on public roads. But those vehicles all had human safety drivers sitting inside.
自2021年以来，Aurora卡车已在公共道路上自动运载货物超过100万公里。但这些车里面都坐着人类安全驾驶员。
The company said there have been three crashes involving those trucks. And, it said all of the crashes were the result of mistakes by human drivers of other vehicles. The crashes were minor and no one was hurt in them. And in each case, the company said, the Aurora truck was able to safely pull off to the side of the road.
该公司表示，这些卡车已经发生了三起撞车事故。它还表示，所有的撞车事故都是其他车辆的人类驾驶员失误造成的。撞车事故很轻微，没有人受伤。该公司表示，在每起事故中，Aurora卡车都能安全地停在路边。
Federal records that began in June 2021 show at least 13 crashes with other vehicles involving autonomous tractor-trailers. In all those cases, the crashes were caused by other vehicles changing lanes or hitting trucks from behind. Sometimes, human safety drivers took over just before the crash.
2021年6月开始的联邦记录显示，至少有13起事故涉及自动驾驶拖挂车与其他车辆相撞。在所有事故中，车祸都是由其他车辆变道或从后面撞上卡车引起的。有时，人类安全驾驶员会在事故发生前接管驾驶。
Progress in the U.S. on driverless, or autonomous, technology has slowed in recent years. Several companies had already made plans to launch self-driving taxi services in major cities. But those efforts have repeatedly faced delays.
近年来，美国在无人驾驶技术方面的进展有所放缓。几家公司都曾计划在大城市推出自动驾驶出租车服务。但这些努力一再面临延误。
A "robotaxi" service developed by General Motors, called Cruise, has struggled after one of its vehicles suffered a serious crash. And Alphabet's Waymo is facing opposition to expanding its autonomous rider service in California.
通用汽车公司开发的一项名为Cruise的“自动驾驶出租车”服务在其一辆汽车发生严重碰撞后陷入困境。Alphabet旗下的Waymo在加州扩大其自动驾驶服务面临反对。
Safety groups have warned that with almost no federal rules covering autonomous vehicles, it will largely be up to companies themselves to decide when their vehicles are safe enough to operate without humans.
安全组织警告说，由于几乎没有涉及自动驾驶汽车的联邦法规，公司将在很大程度上自行决定其车辆何时足够安全，可以在无人的情况下运行。
Critics say government agencies, including the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, could be doing more to ensure the safety of such programs. They point out that often, safety is only examined and new rules enacted after crashes happen.
批评人士表示，包括国家公路交通安全管理局在内的政府机构可能会采取更多措施来确保此类项目的安全。他们指出，通常只有在撞车事故发生后，才会对安全性进行检查，并制定新的规则。
But Aurora and other companies argue that years of testing demonstrate that their trucks will actually be safer than human-driven ones. They note that the vehicles' laser and radar sensors can "see" farther than any human eyes can. And the trucks never get tired like humans do. They also are not affected by alcohol or drugs.
但Aurora和其他公司认为，多年的测试表明，他们的卡车实际上比人类驾驶的卡车更安全。他们指出，这些车辆的激光和雷达传感器可以比任何人眼“看”得更远。卡车永远不会像人类那样疲劳。它们也不会受到酒精或毒品的影响。
"We want to be out there with thousands or tens of thousands of trucks on the road," said Aurora chief Chris Urmson. "And to do that, we have to be safe, he said. "It's the only way that the public will accept it." Urmson, who spoke to The Associated Press, is the former head of Google's autonomous vehicle operations.
Aurora首席执行官克里斯·厄姆森表示：“我们希望有数千或数万辆卡车在路上行驶。”他说，“要做到这一点，我们必须确保安全。这是公众接受的唯一途径。”厄姆森是谷歌自动驾驶汽车运营的前负责人，他在接受美联社采访时做出上述表示。
Phil Koopman is a professor at Carnegie Mellon University who studies driverless vehicle safety. He told the AP he agrees that self-driving trucks can theoretically be safer than human-driven ones. But he warned that the vehicles' computers will at times make errors. Koopman said the trucks' actual performance will depend on the quality of their safety engineering.
菲尔·库普曼是卡内基梅隆大学研究无人驾驶汽车安全的教授。他告诉美联社，他同意自动驾驶卡车理论上比人工驾驶卡车更安全。但他警告说，这些车辆的电脑有时会出错。库普曼说，卡车的实际性能将取决于其安全技术的质量。
With billions of dollars in investments, Koopman said he wonders how autonomous transportation companies will balance safety decisions against cost concerns. "Everything I see indicates they're trying to do the right thing, but the devil is in the details," he said.
库普曼说，花了数十亿美元的投资，他想知道自动驾驶运输公司将如何平衡安全决策和成本问题。他说：“我所看到的一切都表明他们正在努力做正确的事情，但魔鬼在于细节。”。
I'm Bryan Lynn.
我是布莱恩·林恩。(51VOA.COM原创翻译，请勿转载，违者必究！)