在未来，旧金山会有更多的无人驾驶!!

Two trailblazing ride-hailing services are heading toward uncharted territory as they seek regulatory approval to transport passengers around the clock throughout one of the most densely populated U.S. cities in vehicles that will have no one sitting in the driver's seat.

两家开创性的网约车服务公司正走向未知领域，因为它们正在寻求监管部门的批准，想在美国人口最密集的城市之一——旧金山，24小时接送乘客，而车辆是无人驾驶。

If Cruise, a subsidiary of General Motors, and Waymo, a spinoff from Google, reach their goal before year's end, San Francisco would become the first U.S. city with two totally driverless services competing against Uber, Lyft and traditional taxis - all of which depend on people to control the automobiles.

如果通用汽车的子公司 Cruise 和谷歌的分公司 Waymo 想在年底前实现他们的目标，旧金山将成为美国第一个拥有两种无人驾驶服务与 Uber、Lyft 和传统出租车竞争的城市——后三者都是靠人来控制汽车。

But Cruise and Waymo still must navigate around potential roadblocks, including complaints about their vehicles making unexpected, traffic-clogging stops that threaten to inconvenience other travelers and imperil public safety.

但 Cruise 和 Waymo 仍然必须解决出现的障碍，包括他们的车辆出现了意外的交通堵塞，可能给其他旅客带来不便，并危及公共安全。

Cruise already has been charging people for driverless rides in less congested parts of San Francisco during night-time hours since last June. Waymo has been giving free driverless rides in a broader swath of the city while awaiting clearance to begin charging passengers in robotic vehicles that Google secretly began working on 14 years ago.

自去年 6 月以来，Cruise 已经在夜间向旧金山人某地区的无人驾驶汽车的乘客收费。Waymo 一直在城市更广泛的范围内提供免费无人驾驶汽车，同时等待批准在开始向乘客收费。

The effort to unleash dueling driverless services throughout San Francisco is shaping up to be just the first step in a far more ambitious expansion centered in California - a state where more than 35 million vehicles driven by humans are currently registered.

在整个旧金山付出的无人驾驶服务的努力，正是为了完成扩大到以加利福尼亚为中心的梦想。 该州目前登记了超过 3500 万辆由人类驾驶的车辆。

Cruise recently applied for permission to begin testing its robotic vehicles throughout California at speeds of up to 55 miles per hour (88 kilometers per hour) - 25 miles per hour (40 kilometers per hour) above the maximum speed for its robotaxis in San Francisco. Waymo is already testing its driverless cars in Los Angeles - the second largest city in the U.S.

Cruise 最近申请许可开始在整个加利福尼亚州测试无人驾驶车辆，速度最高可达每小时 55 英里 - 比其在旧金山的无人驾驶最高速度高出每小时 25 英里。Waymo 已经在美国第二大城市洛杉矶测试其无人驾驶汽车。

The California push comes on top of Cruise starting to test its robotaxis in Austin, Texas, as well as Phoenix, where since 2020 Waymo's driverless ride-hailing service has been carrying passengers on Arizona roads that are far less congested and challenging than the streets of San Francisco.

自2020年以来，Waymo的无人驾驶服务一直在亚利桑那州的道路上搭载乘客，那里的道路远不如旧金山的街道拥挤和具有挑战性。

We still have work to do, but it's improving at a pretty rapid rate," Cruise CEO Kyle Vogt told The Associated Press. "As it gets fine-tuned, it will get really elegant over time, but also the safety continues to improve."

Cruise CEO Kyle Vogt告诉美联社：“我们仍有工作要做，但它正在以相当快的速度改进，随着它的微调，随着时间的推移它会变得非常好，而且安全性也在不断提高。“

Saswat Panigrahi, Waymo's chief product officer, expects the company's past experience to pay off as it transplants what it has learned from operating a driverless ride-hailing service in Phoenix to more heavily trafficked cities like San Francisco and Los Angeles.

Waymo 的首席产品官Saswat Panigrahi预计，该公司过去的经验会有所回报，因为它将从凤凰城运营无人驾驶服务中学到的经验，用在旧金山和洛杉矶等交通更繁忙的城市。

"The uncertainty is definitely now far lower, having operated a fully autonomous service with real riders," Panigrahi said.

Panigrahi 说：“现在的不确定性因素肯定要低得多，因为已经与真正的乘客一起完全自主的服务。”

Both Cruise and Waymo recently announced their driverless fleets each have covered more than 1 million miles without a major accident. But their robotaxis also have experienced nagging problems in San Francisco that have caused traffic headaches and other nuisances that threaten to inconvenience people or, worse, block emergency vehicles rushing to a fire or other urgent calls for help.

Cruise 和 Waymo 最近都宣布，他们的无人驾驶车队各自行驶了超过 100 万英里，没有发生重大事故。但他们的出租车在旧金山也遇到了令人头疼的问题，这些问题导致了交通问题和其他可能给人们带来不便，或者更糟糕的是，阻碍了紧急车辆赶往火灾或其他情况的紧急车辆。

"The expected things are easy, but it's the unexpected things that humans react to in real time that are a concern," said transportation expert Nico Larco, who is director of the Urbanism Next Center at the University of Oregon. "Best case, it will just causes confusion, havoc, congestion if the cars stop in the middle of the road. But the worst cases could actually be harmful to someone."

交通专家 Nico Larco 说：“意料之中的事情很容易，但令人担忧的是人类实时做出反应的意想不到的事情，”他是俄勒冈大学 Urbanism Next Center 的主任。“最好的情况是，如果汽车停在路中间，只会造成混乱、破坏和拥堵。但最坏的情况实际上可能对人造成伤害。”

A pair of Associated Press reporters witnessed the potential problems first hand in mid-February after a Waymo vehicle safely transported them on a trip through San Francisco that required navigating hilly terrain, turning in rush-hour traffic and yielding to pedestrians darting out into the crosswalks.

在 2 月中旬两名美联社记者亲眼目睹了潜在的问题，当时一辆 Waymo 汽车安全地送他们穿越旧金山，途中需要穿越丘陵地带、在交通高峰期转弯，转向冲进人行横道的行人。

During one ride, the robotaxi stopped in the middle of the street after the AP reporters got out, and remained there for several minutes while a line of human-operated cars stacked up behind it. It turned out that a back door on the driver's side hadn't completely closed.

美联社记者下车后，自动驾驶出租车停在了街道中间，并在那里停留了几分钟，后面有一排人工驾驶的汽车。原来是驾驶座的一扇后门没有完全关上。

In another glitch involving Cruise last September, an AP reporter took a roughly five-mile ride in a robotaxi nicknamed "Peaches," which repeatedly bypassed the designated destination. The reporter finally had to use the Cruise app to contact a dispatcher in a remote center so the car could be stopped - in the middle of the street.

在去年 9 月涉及 Cruise 的另一个故障中，一名美联社记者乘坐昵称为“Peaches”的自动驾驶出租车行驶了大约 5 英里，多次绕过指定目的地。记者最终不得不使用 Cruise 应用程序联系偏远中心的调度员，以便将汽车停在街道中间。

Vogt noted that a number of improvements have been made since then, and indeed two different Cruise robotaxis - one named "Cherry" and the other named "Hollandaise" - dropped off the same reporter and his colleague at their designated designations on a follow-up trip, although Cherry stopped at a bus stop that briefly prevented the arrival of an oncoming bus.

Vogt 指出，自那以后已经进行了一些改进，实际上有两个不同的 Cruise 出租车——一个名为“Cherry”，另一个名为“Hollandaise”——让同一名记者和他的同事在指定地点下车，“Cherry”停在一个公共汽车站，短暂地阻碍了迎面而来的公共汽车的到来。

Broader concerns about robotaxis operating in ways that cause headaches for the people outside the vehicle were raised in a cautionary letter sent to California regulators in January by the San Francisco County Transportation Authority.

在 1 月份旧金山县交通管理局向加州监管机构发出的一封警告信，这让人们对自动驾驶出租车的运营方式有了更广泛的担忧。

The letter cited at least 92 reported incidents of Cruise robotaxis making sudden stops in the street through Dec. 31. At least three of the incidents blocked the right of ways for public transportation for periods ranging from nine to 18 minutes.

信中提到，截至12月31日，至少有92起自动驾驶出租车在街上突然停车的事件。其中至少有三起事故在9到18分钟的时间内封锁了公共交通通道。

Within the past year, driverless Cruise vehicles have also obstructed firefighters rushing to a three-alarm fire and or illegally entered into areas where there were ongoing efforts to douse a fire, according to the authority, which is asking regulators to hold off on unleashing robotaxis throughout San Francisco at all hours until there is more information about why and how often the cars periodically clog traffic. The abrupt braking and stops by Cruise's robotaxis have also been under investigation by federal regulators since late last year.

在过去的一年里，无人驾驶的 Cruise 车辆还阻碍了消防员赶往三级警报，或者非法进入正在努力灭火的地区，该机构要求监管机构推迟释放自动驾驶出租车时间。自去年底以来，联邦监管机构也一直在调查 Cruise 自动驾驶出租车的突然刹车和停车问题。

"We are just very wary," said Tilly Chang, the executive director for the San Francisco transportation authority. "We want to be supporters and help facilitate (driverless rides), but we have to make sure it's safe."

旧金山交通管理局执行董事 Tilly Chang 说：“我们只是非常谨慎，我们希望成为支持者并帮助促进（无人驾驶），但我们必须确保它是安全的。”

Meanwhile, dozens of other technology companies and automakers have joined in a race to develop self-driving car technology at a collective cost of more than $100 billion. Their ultimate goal is to make money off robotic drivers that are safer and less expensive than human drivers. Robotaxis could also lower prices for passengers, although Vogt believes consumers may be willing to pay more for rides without a stranger behind the wheel.

与此同时，数十家其他科技公司和汽车制造商也加入了一场开发自动驾驶汽车技术的竞赛，总成本超过 1000 亿美元。他们的最终目标是从比人类司机更安全、成本更低的自动驾驶身上赚钱。Robotaxis 还可以降低乘客的价格，尽管 Vogt 认为消费者可能愿意在没有陌生人开车的情况下支付更多的费用。

The investments so far have produced a mixed bag of successes, flops and hyperbole from the likes of Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who predicted nearly four years ago that the electric automaker would be running a huge robotaxi service by the end of 2020 but still hasn't come close to realizing that ambition.

迄今为止， Tesla CEO Elon Musk 等人的投资取得了成功、失败，但他在近四年前预测，这家电动汽车制造商将在 2020 年底前推出一项庞大的自动驾驶出租车服务，但至今仍未实现，距离实现这一雄心还很遥远。

Cruise's owner, the nearly 125-year-old General Motors, is nonetheless so confident robotaxis will drive more responsibly than humans and be able to expand its driverless service into more U.S. markets that it made the bold prediction last fall that Cruise would generate $1 billion in revenue by 2025 - a big jump from Cruise's revenue of $106 million last year when it also lost nearly $2 billion.

尽管如此，Cruise 的所有者、拥有近 125 年历史的通用汽车公司仍然非常有信心，自动驾驶出租车将比人类更负责任地驾驶，并且能够将其无人驾驶服务扩展到更多的美国市场，以至于它在去年秋天做出了大胆的预测，即 Cruise 将产生 10 亿美元的收入，到 2025 年——与 Cruise 去年 1.06 亿美元的收入相比有了很大的飞跃，当时它也亏损了近 20 亿美元。

That optimism is in sharp contrast to the disheartening experience of another storied automaker, Ford Motor, which paid $1 billion in 2017 to acquire driverless startup Argo AI, only to shut down the division last October and swallow a $2.7 billion loss after failing to find a buyer for the technology.

这种乐观情绪与另一家传奇汽车制造商福特汽车公司令人沮丧的经历形成鲜明对比，福特汽车公司在 2017 年斥资 10 亿美元收购了无人驾驶初创公司 Argo AI，但去年 10 月关闭了该部门，并在未能找到合适的供应商后吞下了 27 亿美元的亏损。