谷歌把自动驾驶车从奢侈品变成大众交通工具

谷歌（Google）所开发的自动驾驶车辆在近日亮相，这款小车没有方向盘也没有油门、煞车踏板，而且只有两个座位，很像在主题乐园才看得到的游乐器具。 新亮相的谷歌汽车并不像是先前该公司试验自动驾驶功能时采用的丰田普锐斯（Toyota Prius）、奥迪TT（Audi TT）或是丰田雷克萨斯（Toyota Lexus）等车款，不过车顶上还是配备了一个测距用激光雷达系统。藉由大胆发表这款最新开发的小车，并非汽车业者的谷歌再次成功炒热自动驾驶车辆这个话题。 而谷歌对于这款自动驾驶车辆的定位，并不是如同现今私人拥有的汽车，而是将之视为一个全新型态的交通工具，有点像是“出租车机器人”，能将小朋友、老人家、身障者从某一个地点载送到另一个地点。 下面的宣传视频剪辑能更清楚解释谷歌的理念；该公司共同创办人拉里·佩奇（Larry Page）针对该视频表示：“我们的自动驾驶车辆开发团队之下一步，这个视频剪辑能充分说明。” 谷歌最新开发的自动驾驶车辆首度亮相 在预期会有的所有技术与法规议题之外，笔者坚信自动驾驶车辆会遭遇到的最大障碍，其实是我们自己，是我们对机器根深蒂固的、而且也并非不合理的不信任态度。 就像很多科幻小说与电影的剧情所描述，原本非恶意、智慧水平超越人类的机器，后来出了一些错误，而人类却对于停止这些机器束手无策。Google的人应该也看过那样的科幻电影──从上面的视频可看出，他们似乎有意消除这种并不显著的人类对机器恐惧症。 当然，我们也在影片里听到人们轻松地描述谷歌的自动驾驶车辆有多“酷”；那真的很酷，但事实上，我认为我们之中有很多人到了大概2020年那时候，可能还需要更多充分的理由，才能被说服为自动驾驶车辆掏出一大笔钱来。 不过如果自动驾驶车辆所扮演的角色跟我们今日所认知的不一样，是一种类似个人巴士、出租车的概念，并非私人拥有的机器呢？谷歌最新的自动驾驶车辆透露了一些重要消息。 传统汽车业者正积极推销先进驾驶辅助系统(ADAS)技术，作为要求安全性的车辆最新配备，但要说服现有的客户群去买一辆自动驾驶汽车，完全会是两回事。但要将“汽车”的概念与“驾驶行为”完全脱钩，对任何一家车厂来说都会是个大胆挑战。 显然自动驾驶车辆要往前更进一步，并不是在未来十年能设计出一辆多么酷的汽车，虽然这是大多数车厂都很擅长的。 如谷歌的另一位共同创办人谢尔盖·布林（Sergey Brin）所言，最新的谷歌自动驾驶车辆原型，具备“改变你周遭世界与社会的能力”，就算你对这种“利他”论调不完全买账，谷歌汽车还是有助于拉抬自动驾驶车辆的声势。 谷歌已经在扭转自动驾驶车辆争议的路途上，跨出了无法回头的第一步；自动驾驶车辆也许并不适合作为个人私有的奢侈品，而是能让这个社会更美好的大众工具。 本文授权编译自EE Times，版权所有，谢绝转载 编译：Judith Cheng 参考英文原文：Google’s New Car to Change Self-Driving Debate，by Junko Yoshida

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• 未来的出租车没司机、没方向盘并且自动驾驶
• ADAS是自动驾驶的必经之路，但还要等30年！C9gesmc

{pagination} Google’s New Car to Change Self-Driving Debate Junko Yoshida, Chief International Correspondent From a personal luxury to a tool serving the social good On Tuesday, May 27, Google unveiled its design for self-driving cars. Big surprises for Google’s guinea-pig passengers include the absence of both steering wheel and pedals and a two-seat design that resembles a ride in a theme park. The new Google car looks nothing like the Toyota Prius, Audi TT, or Toyota Lexus, which Google previously used for its self-driving trials. A laser radar system, with the range finder mounted on the top, however, remains a part of Google’s new design. In this bold iteration, Google, a non-automotive company, is clearly committed to changing the conversation around self-driving cars. Rather than promoting the self-driving car as an extension to cars we own today, Google is pitching the new prototype as a completely new category of transportation, like a “robo taxi” that picks up the young, the old, and the disabled to carry them from point A to point B. Google’s promo video makes that clear. As Larry Page, Google’s co-founder, wrote in the comment section of the video clip, this is “a next step for the self-driving car team... this video says it all.” Beyond all the technology and regulatory issues anticipated, I firmly believe that the biggest hurdle autonomous cars must clear is us: namely, our deeply rooted -- and not entirely unreasonable -- distrust of machines. No, I’m not being a Luddite here. One of the prevailing, recurrent themes of science fiction, from Karel Capek to the Terminator films, depicts a benevolent machine whose intelligence has progressed to the point beyond that of humans. But somehow, something goes wrong, and we, the humans, don’t have a clue about how to stop the machine. I think Google, a master of its own messaging, has seen the movie. In fact, the company makes mighty efforts in the promotional video to ease that yet-to-surface, basic human trepidation about machines. Sure, we hear people casually talking about how “cool” Google’s self-driving car is. It is cool. But in reality, I think many of us would still need a lot more convincing before plunking down, sometime around 2020, serious money for an autonomous car. However, if the self-driving car neither looks nor acts like a car as we know it today, and if it’s designed to function as a personal bus or cab instead of a replacement for our own driving machine, I think that Google’s new self-driving car might be onto something. It’s one thing that conventional automakers promote the Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS) as a suite of new safety bells and whistles. But it’s a whole different ballgame talking the existing customer base into buying autonomous cars. Decoupling the concept of the car from the very act of driving is a radical departure for any car OEM. Clearly, the next chapter of the self-driving car isn’t about designing the super-cool car of the next decade, which most carmakers are very good at. Google’s co-founder Sergey Brin believes the new Google car prototypes have "the ability to change the world and the community around you." Well, even if you don’t totally buy into the altruistic pitch that Google cars will help the underserved, Google has taken an irrevocable first step in changing the debate on the autonomous car, from being a personal luxury to a tool that serves the social good.