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翻译|注释
How does a self-driving car work?
自动驾驶汽车是如何工作的？
The Economist explains
《经济学人》说
How does a self-driving car work?
自动驾驶汽车是如何工作的？
Self-driving cars combine existing driver aids with extra software and sensors
自动驾驶汽车将现有的驾驶辅助系统与额外的软件和传感器融合。
CARS that can drive themselves, a staple of science-fiction, have started to appear on roads in real life. Google’s self-driving vehicles are the best-known, but most carmakers are also developing them. In 2011 BMW sent a robotic car at motorway speeds from Munich, the German carmaker’s hometown, to Nuremberg, about 170km away (with a driver on board just in case).
作为科幻小说的一个主题，自动驾驶汽车已经开始出现在现实生活的道路上了。谷歌的自动驾驶汽车名气最大，而大多数汽车制造商也纷纷投入开发。2011年，宝马自动驾驶汽车进行高速路试，从德国的慕尼黑总部出发，前往约170公里外的纽伦堡（车上配备一名司机以应对突发情况）。
注解：
① self-driving: 为复合形容词，类似的如ice-breaking ship，破冰船； time-consuming job，耗时的工作；record-breaking score，破纪录的分数。
②away“离…多远，相隔” 如the bus is five blocks away. 注意这种表达方式。
Audi got a self-driving TTS Coupe to negotiate 156 tight curves along nearly 20km of paved and dirt road on Colorado’s Pikes Peak, with nobody behind the wheel. Proponents say that driverless cars would reduce road deaths, ease congestion, reduce fuel consumption, improve the mobility of old and disabled people and free up time spent commuting. So how do they work?
奥迪的一辆TTS自动驾驶汽车，在无人驾驶状态下，于科罗拉多州派克峰近20公里的柏油路和砾石路上，成功进行了156个急转弯。支持者表示，自动驾驶汽车能够减少道路交通事故死亡人数、缓解交通拥堵、降低油耗，还能方便老年人与残障人士的出行，节省通勤时间。那么自动驾驶汽车的技术原理是什么呢？
注解：
① negotiate：此处不是‘谈判’的意思，而是‘越过’，属于熟词僻义。如：If you negotiate an area of land, a place,or an obstacle, you successfully travel across it or around it.
②mobility在文中的意思为“出行”，词根mob/mov的基本含义是move, 这里可以理解为隐喻机制（通俗来说，就是面向对象不同），因此mobility还可指关节的灵活性（mobility of joints）或军队的机动性（army’s mobility）。
In many ways self-driving cars are a logical extension of existing driver aids such as lane-keeping systems (which follow road markings and sound a warning and correct the steering if a vehicle starts to drift out of its lane), adaptive cruise control (which maintains a constant distance from the vehicle in front, rather than a constant speed), auto-parking systems (which can reverse a car into a parking space), emergency braking (which slams on the brakes if an obstacle, another vehicle or a pedestrian is detected in front of the car) and satellite-navigation systems.
自动驾驶汽车是现有驾驶辅助系统的必然延伸，这体现在许多方面，例如车道保持系统（该系统会确保汽车按照路标行驶，如果车辆开始偏离车道，会发出警告并纠正汽车的驾驶方向）、自适应巡航控制系统（其作用是与前方车辆保持恒定距离，而并非保持恒定速度）、自动泊车系统（可使车辆自行倒入停车位）、紧急制动（如果系统检测到前方有障碍物、其他车辆或是行人，就会猛地刹车）以及卫星导航系统。
注解：
①reverse: 词根 ver为turn之意，值得注意的是into，这里是其本义: 进入（空间上的），但更常见的是其义项，变成，如turn into, grow into.
②被动语态为英语重要表达形式之一。在科技英文写作中，偏向于多用被动形式，而在英汉翻译中，经常要把被动语态转为主动语态。
Computerised control of a car’s steering, acceleration and braking is already possible under some circumstances, in other words. For a car to drive itself, these systems must all be tied together using software, and supplemented with a set of sensors so that the software can tell what is going on around the vehicle.
换言之，在某些情形下，汽车转向、加速和制动已经实现了计算机控制。自动驾驶汽车须通过软件与一组传感器融合来辨识车辆周边状况。
注解：
①under some circumstance：在某些情况下。关于小词“under”，本义是指“在……下方”，这里引申为处在某种状态下，类似的用法还有under arrest/construction/investigation/scrutiny。
②关于英语的同义替换。英语表达习惯是喜变化，在一段里不重复使用相同的词。例如本段中的for a car to drive itself,以及前文中出现的关于自动驾驶汽车的不同说法，a self-driving car/vehicle, driverless cars/vehicles, autonomous vehicles，大家可以在写作中予以借鉴。
Accordingly, today’s self-driving cars are covered with sensors. Mapping nearby features, spotting road edges and lane markings, reading signs and traffic lights and identifying pedestrians is done using a combination of cameras, radar and lidar (which works like radar, but with pulses of light rather than radio waves). Ultrasonic detectors provide more accurate mapping of the surroundings at short range, for example when parking.
因此，现如今自动驾驶汽车上布满了传感器。综合利用摄像机、雷达和激光雷达技术(其工作原理类似雷达，但使用的是光脉冲而不是无线电波)，描绘周围地形，识别道路边界和车道标志，识别路标、交通信号灯及行人。例如停车时，超声波探测仪能在较短的距离内更精确地检测周边的环境。
注解：
在写作时，平时列举某些并列成分时可以用到a combination of，表示…的结合。如：A combination of talent, hard work and good look have taken her to the top.
Gyroscopes, accelerometers and altimeters provide more accurate positioning than is possible using global-positioning system (GPS) satellites alone. Google’s cars scan their surroundings to build a detailed 3D map of features such as road edges, signs, guard-rails and overpasses. Each time a car follows a particular route, it collects more data to update the 3D map.
陀螺仪、加速计和高度计可能比仅使用GPS卫星定位更准确。谷歌的自动驾驶汽车通过扫描周围环境，创建一个详细的3D地图，图中包括道路边界、路标、护栏和立交桥等标识物。汽车每次经过特定路线时，都会收集更多数据来更新这个3D地图。
注解：
①注意这个结构，这里using… alone是than 之后整个句子的主语，调整为正常语序为：using global-positioning system (GPS) satellites alone is possible，这里动宾短语作主语，但这样主语显得太长，为避免句子头重脚轻，采用倒装结构，故将主语后置。
以及注意alone, 表示“只有，仅”之意，与其具有相似用法的还有only.
②feature：其基本义为特点，特征。其他意思可视为以上面提到的隐喻机制来理解，如特写、专题报道、以…为特点等都可以这么理解。
Google’s software also ingests data on speed limits and recorded accidents. Because the car’sroof-mounted sensors can see in all directions, it arguably has greater situational awareness than a human driver. Google’s self-driving cars have clocked up 700,000km (435,000 miles) under autonomous control without incident. Snow-covered roads and temporary signs around roadworks still pose challenges, but the technology is improving all the time.
谷歌软件还能获取限速和事故记录的数据。因汽车车顶安置的传感器可以进行全方位的感应，所以它拥有比司机具有更强的态势感知能力。谷歌的自动驾驶汽车在自动控制下已经行驶了70万公里（43.5万英里），期间没有发生任何事故。积雪覆盖的道路和临时施工标牌仍对自动驾驶汽车构成挑战，但其技术一直在不断改进。
注解：
① up：up本意是向上，这里是其衍生义：reach certain number，类似表达有：eat up, break up。如： Dawson has clocked up 34 years as a police officer.
The BMW i3, an electric car capable of driving itself in stop-go traffic (by linking adaptive cruise control with lane-keeping) is due to go on sale later this year, but most observers expect it to be a few years before entirely autonomous vehicles are available. The transition is likely to be gradual. There is a continuum between a fully manual and a fully autonomous vehicle, and over the coming years it will slowly become possible to outsource more and more driving tasks to your car, particularly as tightening safety standards make driver aids compulsory.
宝马i3将于今年底上市，该款电动汽车可以在时走时停的交通状况中自动行驶（通过将自适应巡航控制系统与车道保持系统相连接）。不过，多数评论员认为车辆的完全自动化若干年后才能实现，该过渡过程可能相当缓慢。从全手动汽车到全自动汽车，这是一个连续性的变化过程。未来几年，越来越多的驾驶任务将转由汽车承担。尤其是随着安全标准的提高，将会强制安装驾驶辅助装置。
注解：
①后缀-um为名词词缀，常表示场所和地点，如museum博物馆 forum法庭，论坛等。
②作为前缀，out-只改变单词的意思，不改变其词性，常见意思有两种：一是表示“超过，过度”；如outdo v.胜过,战胜；outsize adj.过大的;二是表示“出去，过时”, outmoded adj.过时的, outside adv.在外面。
If fully autonomous vehicles do eventually become widespread, there could be dramatic consequences for car design, car ownership and urban planning. Some places might even ban manual driving, to save lives and ease congestion. Self-driving cars will not arrive overnight, but they are on their way.
如果全自动汽车最终得到普及，汽车设计、汽车所有权及城市规划将发生巨大的变化。某些地方为了减少人员伤亡或者缓解交通拥堵，甚至可能禁止人工驾驶。汽车驾驶自动化不会一夜成真，但未来已来。
注解：
①注意这种用法，be+on+n, 类似表达为on the horizon/wane/rise.
翻译组兼标注组：
Jada，英语专业，大四狗
Peter，外贸老狗，国际贸易专业
Olivia, 英专大四，财经翻译实习生
Sofia 翻译硕士，专八，备考二笔中
Victoria,刚完成考研党，经济学人爱好者
Daisy，专八，大学英语教师，经济学人爱好者
Julia，19考研党，非英语专业，经济学人爱好者
Jenny,金融从业者，经济学人粉丝，CATTI备考中
校核组：
Sindy，CATTI备考，工作党
Tina 外国语言学及应用语言学，研二，专四专八
Halen，MBA硕士，二级笔译 ，中世佛会翻译志愿者
参考书籍：
《英语阅读参考手册》
《自动驾驶，通向未来》
