未來的汽車比我們想的還要棒_風聞

【來源龍騰網】

正文原創翻譯：

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The car of the future will be designed by women, built by anyone, and fly over traffic. But what else is motoring over the horizon? 

未來的汽車將由女性設計、由眾人制造，並在道路上空飛行。那麼，除此之外還有其它的特點嗎？

The flying car 

飛行汽車 

It sounds like something from the wildest fringes of fantasy or a particularly speculative edition of the BBC’s late, lamented science series, Tomorrow’s World. But an American aeronautical company, with funding from the US Department of Defense, has developed a flying car that actually can fly and is actually available to buy. The Transition is a four-wheel vehicle, licensed for the road, which transforms into a plane in about 20 seconds and can then fly up to 500 miles. So an owner could take off from Edinburgh, for example, fly to London, fold up the wings, drive home and park in the garage. 

這聽起來像來自於最瘋狂的幻想邊緣，或者一部富有想象力的BBC科學劇——《明日世界》（它的停播令人惋惜）。不過，一家美國航空公司在國防部的資助下，已經開發出一款真的能飛行而且買得到的汽車。Transition（汽車名稱，意為變化、過渡）是一款四輪汽車，拿的是陸面道路執照，卻可以在約20秒內變身成一架飛機，並飛行最多500英里。所以，舉個例子，一位車主可以從愛丁堡出發飛到倫敦，然後收起翅膀，開回家，停在車庫裏。 

“People tend to smirk when you say you’re trying to make a flying car,” says 42-year-old Carl Dietrich, the Transition’s inventor. “But we’re very serious about producing a flying car and selling it.” 

“當你説自己正在研發一款飛行汽車，人們往往會傻笑，”

Transition的發明者——42歲的卡爾·迪特里希説，“但我們是很認真地在製造並出售飛行汽車。” Dietrich, who has a PhD from the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), began developing the Transition in 2006 at the headquarters of his company, Terrafugia, near Woburn, Massachusetts. The first test flights took place in New York state in 2009 and Dietrich expects to deliver a finished product to his first 10 customers next year, with production “ramping up” in 2014. 

迪特里希擁有麻省理工學院（MIT）航空航天部博士學位，其公司Terrafugia的總部位於馬薩諸塞州的沃本，他從2006年開始在此研發Transition汽車，2009年在紐約進行了第一次試飛，迪特里希預計明年向第一批的10位客户提供成品，在2014年實現產能提升。 

Of course, the Transition doesn’t come cheap. The starting price is $279,000 (£177,000), slightly less than the cheapest conventional two-seater aircraft and about the same as a supercar such as a Ferrari. Dietrich expects that most purchasers will want the Transition for “recreational purposes” — which probably translates as “showing off”. 

當然，Transition可不便宜。起價為279000美元（177000英鎊），稍低於最便宜的傳統雙座飛機，和一部超級跑車（比如説法拉利）持平。迪特里希期望大部分買家是為了“娛樂性目的” ——意思可能就是“炫耀”。 

Unfortunately, it won’t be of any use to the frustrated motorist stuck in a traffic jam; the Transition needs a proper runway to take off. Nevertheless, Dietrich believes his design will be a useful tool for highly paid salesmen who have to travel large distances between customers.

很不幸，對於堵在路上的焦慮的司機們來説毫無用處；Transition需要一個適合長度的跑道來起飛。不過，迪特里希相信他的這個設計對收入高的推銷員來説是件有用的工具，因為他們需要在顧客之間穿梭很長距離。

The ‘flat-pack’ car

“組裝”車

原創翻譯：龍騰網 http://www.ltaaa.com 翻譯：MYT 轉載請註明出處

Anybody who wants to see what the car of the future might look like should sneak a peek over Gordon Murray’s shoulder as he works at his computer.

想要看看未來的車長的怎麼樣的人，可以偷偷從戈登.穆雷的背後看一眼，他正在計算機前工作。

Murray, now 66, made his name with Formula One. His designs for Brabham and McLaren in the Eighties won world championships for those teams and their drivers. He then turned his mind to conceiving the most exclusive and fastest road car in the world — the $1 million, 240mph McLaren F1.

穆雷今年66歲，憑一級方程式賽車出名。他在80年代設計的布拉布漢姆和邁凱輪為車隊及其賽手奪取了不少冠軍。然後他將精力轉向構思世界上最獨一無二和最快的公路賽車 - 價值100萬美元，時速240英里的邁凱輪F1。

But, since 2006, Murray has had something of a Damascene conversion. Sitting in a traffic jam on the A3 one morning, surrounded by big saloon cars going nowhere fast, he suddenly realised the future of driving depended on devising a way of manufacturing small cars at a fraction of the cost that they are made today.

不過，2006年，穆雷歷經了一次質的轉變。某天上午，他坐在A3車裏堵在了路上，四周被慢慢挪動的大轎車包圍着。他突然間意識到，汽車的未來應該是設計出一種方法，用比現在造車成本的一小部分的價格生產小型汽車。

The result is the T.27, an ultra-compact electric vehicle. Only 8ft 2in long and 4ft 3in wide, the three-seater T.27 is so tiny that three of them can fit nose-to-the-pavement in a single parking bay and two are able to drive side by side in one lane of traffic, potentially doubling the amount of road space available without building new highways.

付諸實現後的成果是T.27，一輛超級緊湊的電動車。T.27僅有8尺2寸長，4尺3寸寬，配三個座位。它是如此的小，臉朝人行道停擺放的話能在標準停車位裏塞進3輛。2輛車並排只佔一個車道，因此有潛力在不擴建新公路的情況下成倍增加道路容量。

It’s propelled by a lightweight powertrain and, thanks to special tyres and cutting-edge aerodynamics, uses only 1.12 pence worth of energy per mile, making it the most energy-efficient car in the world.

這輛車靠一個輕量動力系統驅動。由於加裝了特別的輪胎和應用了尖端的空氣動力學技術，每英里的能耗僅合1.12便士，使之成為世界上能效率最高的汽車。

But what’s really revolutionary about the T.27, and its petrol equivalent, the T.25, is the way they might be made. Up until now, it’s always been easier for manufacturers of large cars – as opposed to small cars – to recoup the money they laid out on their factories. This is because factory costs are the same whether you’re making a small car or a large car, but a large car delivers a much greater profit margin.

但T.27以及它的汽油版T.25最具革命性的地方，是生產它們的方法。直至目前，大型汽車廠商跟小型車相比，回收他們投到工廠資金更加容易。因為無論生產大車還是小車，工廠的成本是一樣的。但生產大車提供了更大的利潤空間。

Murray has devised a production process that ends this disparity. Called iStream, it has been described as “bringing Ikea’s flat-pack construction to the car industry”. In a nutshell, the chassis is assembled separately from the body and pre-painted body panels are then mechanically fixed to the chassis at the end of the assembly line.

穆雷已設計出一個生產流程，終止了這種差異。這個流程被稱為iStream，被形容為“將宜家的組裝工藝引進汽車業。“概括起來，就是底盤、車體和預先噴漆的外殼分開加工，最後在流水線末端用機械將車體和外殼拼合起來。

This, Murray claims, allows the factory to be a fifth of the size of a normal car plant and removes the need for skilled workers, thus reducing the cost of setting up a factory by 80 per cent. What’s more, because the process is so simple, the T.25 and T.27 wouldn’t necessarily have to be made by a traditional car brand. Dyson could make them. Or Virgin.

“It’s a really good idea,” says Richard Bremner, associate editor of Autocar magazine. “After 100 years, isn’t it time we came up with a different way of putting cars together?”

The traffic buster

穆雷稱，用這種方式可使廠房的大小比普通廠房小五分之四，而且不需要技術工人，從而將建廠的費用減少80%。不僅如此，由於流程異常簡單，T.25和T.27不必由傳統的汽車品牌廠來生產。連戴森或維京都能生產。（注：Dayson，家庭小電器品牌。Virgin，維珍集團，集團業務範圍包括旅遊、航空、娛樂業等。）

Bill Ford may occupy the most prominent position in the world from which to survey the cars of the future. Executive chairman of Ford Motor Company, Bill Ford is the 54-year-old great-grandson of Henry Ford and one of the leading seers of the automotive industry.

比爾.福特擔任着世界上最顯著的職位，從這個職位可以展望到汽車的未來。比爾.福特是亨利.福特的曾孫，54歲的他是汽車工業重要的預言家。

A vegetarian, folk guitarist and taekwondo black belt, when he joined Ford’s main board in 1988, Bill was asked for the sake of the corporation’s image to end his membership of environmental organisations. He refused and, instead, insisted on bringing environmental concerns to the heart of the corporation’s policies.

1988年加入福特的主要董事會時，比爾是一位素食者、民謠吉他手和跆拳道黑帶。董事會要求他退出環保組織，以維護公司的形象。他拒絕了，並且堅持把關注環境融入到公司的核心政策。

Under Bill’s influence, half of Ford’s entire research budget has been channelled towards devising more fuel-efficient engines. On top of all this, quite literally, the roof of Ford’s famous River Rouge complex has been planted with acres of oxygen-producing sedum plants, creating the world’s largest roof garden.

在比爾的影響下，福特研究預算的一半被用於研發能源利用率更高的發動機。福特有名的River Rouge建築羣的頂上已經種植了大量產氧的景天屬植物，成為世界最大的屋頂花園。

Bill stepped down as CEO in 2006, but, if anything, this has allowed him to explore even more radical ideas. His latest mission is to rid the world of traffic jams.

2006年比爾從CEO職位退下來。不過，這如果有什麼不同的話，他可以有更多時間研究出更激進的想法。他最新的任務就是把交通堵塞這個世界難題給解決了。

“Right now there are about seven billion people on the planet and about one billion cars,” he says. “By the middle of this century, there might be nine billion people and two to four billion cars. Those numbers are going to cause commensurately vast problems of jams and congestion.”

“目前，地球上大概有70億人口，10億輛車。”他説。“到本世紀中葉，人口將有可能達到90億，汽車將有20-40億輛。這些數字將會相應地引起堵塞和擁擠等大問題。”

His solution is a network of wirelessly connected cars that drive themselves and warn each other of accidents or traffic jams. And the idea is not as pie-in-the-sky as it sounds. Google has already invented a self-driving car, a fleet of which have now clocked up a total of 300,000 miles without a single accident.And Ford is involved in a field trial in Germany, spearheaded by Daimler, in which 120 specially equipped cars are driving around the roads of the Frankfurt Rhine-Main region, sending each other “status upxes” on road hazards and jams.

他的解決辦法通過建立一個無線網絡將汽車連接起來，汽車自動駕駛，如果發生車禍或交通堵塞則相互警告。這個想法並不像空中樓閣那般不切實際。Google已經發明瞭自動駕駛車，而由這種車組成的車隊目前已經保持了300,000英里無任何事故的紀錄。福特正在德國進行實地測試。由戴姆勒公司牽頭，這個測試由120輛特裝車組成，在法蘭克福-萊茵-美因地區公路上行駛，互相發送有關道路狀況和堵塞情況的“ 狀態更新信息”

The death of the car salesman

汽車銷售商之殤

Tesla Motors, from California’s Silicon Valley, has already earned a place in automotive history for the electric sports cars it’s created. But the world may have an even greater reason to be thankful to Tesla: the company is trying to kill off the traditional car salesman.

位於加州硅谷的特斯拉汽車公司，因其創造的電動賽車而在汽車發展史上擁有一席之地。但世界將會有更大的理由向特斯拉汽車公司致謝：該公司正準備消滅傳統的汽車銷售商。

原創翻譯：龍騰網 http://www.ltaaa.com 翻譯：MYT 轉載請註明出處

Since hiring Apple’s former vice president of real estate, George Blankenship, in 2010, it has been opening stores across the United States that echo the Apple aesthetic.

Apple is generally considered to have revolutionised the computer store with its bright, minimalist venues, its “concierge desks” and its “Genius” shop assistants on hand to solve customers’ computer problems. The Tesla sales staff – none of whom work on commission – are under orders to do something similar.

自從2010年起用蘋果的房地產前副總裁布蘭肯希普，特斯拉汽車公司一直在全美各地開設具有蘋果風格的零售店。蘋果公認為對計算機店進行了革命性的改造，諸如明亮、抽象的場所，前台，“天才”般的店員能隨時幫顧客解決計算機問題。而特斯拉的銷售職員 - 都是不拿提成的 -被指示要做類似的事。

The stores, which will soon be coming to Britain, feature coffee bars, touch-screen “Design your Tesla” displays and an open service bay so customers can watch technicians at work. The aim is to answer visitors’ questions about electric vehicles, but there is no hard sell. “Buying a car is not usually a pleasurable experience,” says spokeswoman Shanna Hendriks. “It’s uncomfortable. There’s pressure to put money down. You’re told, ‘If you put 10 per cent down today, I can offer you a discount’. We don’t say that. Our goal is not necessarily to sell you a car. For the first time ever, we want you to leave a car salesroom with a smile on your face.”

而這種即將來到英國的零售店、特色咖啡酒吧以及“設計屬於自己的特斯拉”的觸摸屏，都顯示出了其開放性服務，這樣顧客就能看到正在工作的技術人員們了。這麼做的目的是為了解答訪客們對於電動車輛的疑問，不過這裏絕沒有強制推銷。“買車通常不會是什麼愉快的經歷。”女代言人Shanna Hendriks説道，“總有人慫恿你首付定金，這種壓力讓我很不舒服。有人會告訴你‘如果你今天付10%的首付金的話，我們會給你打折。’但事實上我們從沒這麼説過。我們並不是一定要你買車。如果這是您第一次來，我們只想您帶着笑容離開。”

The woman’s touch

女性的接觸

Some visions of the future turn out to be way off the mark, but there is one thing of which we can be absolutely certain: women are going to become increasingly important to the car industry in the next two decades.

對未來的一些展望似乎是偏離了目標，不過我們對一件事相當的確定：在未來二十年中，女性將在汽車工業中扮演日趨重要的角色。

Already women are estimated to be solely responsible for choosing 35 per cent of all new cars in the UK and to have an active role in more than 80 per cent of purchasing decisions. As these figures rise, both here and around the world, manufacturers need cars that reflect female tastes.

據估算，在英國女性獨立選擇愛車的比例已達到35%，並且她們在80%的消費決斷中相當活躍。而隨着這些數據的上漲，不僅是這裏，世界的廠家都將重視符合女性口味的車型。

General Motors, the manufacturer of Vauxhall cars in Britain and Chevrolet, Cadillac and Buick in the United States, already has a woman – Wulin Gaowa – in charge of its new “Advanced” design studio in Shanghai. Volvo caused waves at the Geneva International Motor Show in 2004, when it unveiled a concept car — complete with “ponytail holes” in the headrests – that had been developed by an all-female team of five senior managers and three chief designers.

英國沃克斯豪爾和雪佛蘭、美國凱迪拉克和別克的製造商通用汽車，已經有了女性設計師——烏林高娃——她負責在上海的新型設計工作室。當沃爾沃在2004年的日內瓦國際車展中公開了一種新概念車型時，頓時引發了一陣浪潮——包括頭靠墊處的“馬尾小孔”——這都是由一個女性小組發明的，而這個小組包括五名高層管理和三名首席設計師。

And four years ago, BMW revealed that the latest version of its Z4 sports car had been designed inside and out by two female designers, Nadya Arnaout and Juliane Blasi. The result, says Hilke Schaer, a senior designer at BMW, was a car that was more “human”.

四年前，BMW曾泄露出小道消息説，最新款的Z4跑車已由兩名女性設計師——Nadya Arnaout 和 Juliane Blasi 完成了從內到外的一切設計。“至於結果，”BMW高級設計師 Hilke Schaer 説道，“就是一部更加人性化的車了。”

“You spend a lot of time in your car. It’s no longer just a speed machine; it’s a living space, and women are better at designing those ’emotional’ details that make a car more personal.”

“你將在你的車中度過不少時間，因此他不再只是一個幫你趕時間的機器；它是一個生活空間，而在設計這些讓車變得更貼近私人的‘充滿感情的’細節方面，顯然女性會更拿手一些。”

評論翻譯

原創翻譯：龍騰網 http://www.ltaaa.com 翻譯：MYT 轉載請註明出處

hildavies

The moment that a flying car becomes reality, it’s use will become regulated & restricted to the point of impracticality.

Some might say “Good thing too - just imagine the carange as our low-level airpspace is filled by poorly trained pilots zipping back and forth without traffic lanes to keep them in check.”

The idea of me having a flying car is great, but the idea of lots of other people having one two is much less attractive.

Now, what we really need is the teleporter from Star Trek …

一旦這種會飛的車成為了現實，政府肯定會對他進行管制和限制，甚至會相當誇張。

也許有的人會説“這不也是好事嗎——不然想想那該多可怕，在我們的行車空間裏突然擠滿了橫衝直撞的沙包飛行員，而且他們還不用受行車道的控制。”

讓我搞一輛會飛的車來確實是不錯，不過要是飛車爛大街的話那就沒什麼意思了。

就目前而言，我覺得星際迷航裏那空間傳送器要比這貨給力多了…

lance551025

I am a man and I like the Z4 but cannot find the desire to own and drive it, there is something not quite right for me. Could that be it is a feminine car? Is there a subconscious resistance?

我是個爺們，我喜歡寶馬Z4不過我還是提不起勁去買一輛來開，總感覺似乎有點不適合我。是因為那是一款女性用車，所以我潛意識中才有所抗拒嗎？

profevil

By designer do you mean the shaping of the outside or the design of the engine and mechanical structure? Less women are studying engineering.

你是指由設計師設計的外觀還是引擎和機械架構？要知道很少有女人去學工程的。

atavist

Why haven’t these obsessive people realised that only qualified pilots are allowed to fly? Handicapped as a car, handicapped as a plane, it’s a laughable transvestite in either role.

這些固執的傢伙怎麼還沒意識到只有合格的駕駛員才被准許飛行？因為開車開飛機而落得殘疾的下場？真是可笑的異裝癖心理。

mannymantel

Oh dear. What would Clarkson say????

哦，親愛的，Clarkson會怎麼説？？？？（註釋：Jeremy Clarkson,世界車評界最有影響力的人。）

inessence

He’d probably say it’s a dog !!

他或許會説它是一隻狗！！

Steve Mallard

I’m surprised the authors didn’t mention the Google self-driving car, a vision of the future which is here now:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G…

I live a few miles from Google HQ in California and I regularly see the cars on the road, albeit with a (hands-free) human behind the wheel in case anything goes wrong.

The cars are apparently ready for prime-time, just waiting for the traffic laws to change to make them legal.

Imagine going out for a couple of drinks after work, then sitting in the back for a nap as your car takes you home.

I, for one, would buy one like a shot!

我很驚訝作者竟然沒有提到谷歌的自動駕駛車，未來的世界的設想在這裏：

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G…

我住在離谷歌設在加利福利亞州的總部幾英里的地方，所以經常能看見這種車（自動駕駛）在路上跑，儘管有人坐在駕駛座上（沒用手操作），但那只是為了防止意外狀況的發生。

這種無人駕駛車一直在等待，等待交通法規能允許它們實際運用這個最佳時機。

想象一下吧，當你下班後，喝上幾杯，然後在車上睡上一覺，讓你的智能車送你回家。、

我們每個人都會擁有一輛，就像沒人都有一把槍那麼尋常一樣！

bigt

The TerraFugia is actually classed as a Light Sport Aircraft (LSA). You need a pilots licence to fly one.

The biggest hurdle to a flying car is not the technology. It’s people. Or more to the point, the percentage of idiots in the population.

Specifically, its about your average moron have the basic flying and aerial navigation skills (no the autopilot doesn’t do *everything*) plus the skill and judgement to deal with mid air emergencies, not to mention following air traffic directions (which is one reason why not everyone is a pilot).

Until we have moved on from a society where too many people still drink just a few extra beers then drive off and wrap their car laden with passengers into a tree, or get completely lost more than 5 miles down the road, we will not be ready for flying cars.

Technology can be “ubiquitous” ready and affordable only a few years.

People won’t be ready for about 200 years, if ever.

TerraFugia實際上已經被歸入輕型運動類飛機。如果你要駕駛它需要一個飛行員執照。 造飛行汽車的最大阻礙不是科技，是人或者是白痴所佔的人口比例。 特別是有基本飛行操作能力和空中導航（自動導航儀不能做所有的事）的白痴的平均數，加上在半空中處理緊急事件的能力和判斷力，更別説接下來會遇到的空中交通方向了（這就是為什麼不是每個人都是飛行員的原因）。 除非我們搬出這個太多人因為多喝了一點酒就把載滿乘客的車撞倒大樹上，或者完全迷路並走到離目的地超過五公里地方的社會，不然我們不會準備好飛行汽車。 科技可以讓飛行汽車在幾年內“無所不在”並且有一個實惠的價格。 人們卻用200年也都準備不好，如果有（200年）的話。 

原創翻譯：龍騰網 http://www.ltaaa.com 翻譯：MYT 轉載請註明出處

wademcinnis

Who wants a human car?

Probably more people than I would like to think.

No more need to attempt communication with chimpanzees - now your car will be your friend. Since you do not like dealing with humans you will have a human-like friend where you can be comfortable while you talk on your phone as traffic builds behind you.

Two very different views of interaction - one, the car does what is asked and the other, the car anticipates what you want it to do.

I worry the supply of the former is quickly disappearing.

誰想要一個智能的車？ 可能不止我有那個想法。 不需要再試着跟黑猩猩交流，現在你的車將會是你的朋友。既然你不喜歡跟人類打交道，你將會有一個類人的朋友，他作為一個交通設備在你身後並可以通過電話輕鬆的跟你聊天。 有兩種很不同的互動意見—— 一、你要求車怎麼做它就怎麼做。二、他預估你想做什麼。 我擔心支持前者的人數正在迅速消失。 

iranu

None of this bollocks will come to fruition.

這些胡説八道都不會成為現實。 

inessence

Does it come with semtex ?

那東西裝有塑料炸彈嗎？

tuquet

He forgot that if only 10% bought this car there then would be a traffic jam in the sky + it only needs a lunatic to get hold of one and you could have a major disaster.

Sorry this solves nothing

這個汽車飛機發明者肯定忘記了，只要有10%的人買了這種車，那就會造成空中交通擁擠+要是一個瘋子駕駛它，那麼會帶來一場重大的災難。

很抱歉，這種汽車飛機解決不了任何麻煩

inessence

Red tape will suffocate it before it even turns a wheel over here, let alone fly…………………………….And insurance ?#### 

在它甚至還沒一個輪子着地之前，估計就要被噁心的官腔做法給扼殺了，還想飛?………. 保險費呢？####

remittance_man

Sadly I suspect this idea will fail for exactly the same reasons previous flying cars have done - most people don’t have a runway in their gardens. Also I’m pretty sure there isn’t a newsagent, off-licence or supermarket in the entire country that offers a runway, traffic control and so on.

This all makes lugging folded wings around a bit of a pain in the derriere. Not to metion highly costly.

我很傷心的懷疑這個創意也會跟之前的飛車一般敗於完全相同的原因——沒有幾個家庭的花園裏會有起飛跑道這種東西。另外我也敢肯定整個國家裏都沒有哪個報刊亭，酒吧，超市會提供飛機跑道，交通管理以及相關的東西。

flookie

When Ford released its first cars they were expensive novelty products; the roads were of variable quality within towns and virtually non-existent outside. Cars being the future was wishful thinking. 

This would be a flying car not a plane; you don’t need a runway in your garden, just a short runway (size of a large carpark) on the edge of town. The cars wouldn’t park there but drive off. Drive between home & runway, fly between remote town/cities. 

當Ford發佈他們的收款車時，它們會是昂貴又新穎的產品；在城鎮內道路會具有可變屬性，而在城外普通道路則可以説不復存在。未來的汽車會是寄託我們希望的產物。當然那是一輛飛翔的汽車而不是飛機；你並不需要在花園裏安一段超長的升降跑道，一個設置在城鎮邊緣的短小（也就是一個大型停車場的大小）跑道就夠用了。車會馬上起飛而不是停在那裏。在家與跑道之間飛馳，在城鄉之間飛翔。

lanthalus

Don’t forget your silver suit and the goldfish bowl (to put on your head)

嘿！別忘了你的銀質鎧甲還有金魚缸（套頭上的）。 

flookie

Jet-pack jay-walkers? :-)

小飛機，橫穿馬路？:-) 

lincs

I wonder how well it ‘spins’? There are folk I hesitate to get into cars with, no way into an aeroplane-----and I can fly!

我很好奇用它來“兜風”有多棒？我猶豫的和人們一起進了汽車，絕不是一架飛機——我可以飛！