Informed conversations about self-driving cars no longer are about feasibility. New key talking points are When? and Which automakers first? and Who will be responsible when an accident happens?消息灵通人士关于自动驾驶汽车的深谈早已与可行性牵涉到了，现在大家注目的焦点是“什么时候上市？”，“哪家汽车厂商会首先发售这种车？”以及“如果再次发生事故，责任究竟在哪方？”Nissan has said it will sell a driverless car by 2020. IHS forecast several models available by 2025. Both of these are guesses -- but they indicate how fast the technology is progressing.日产汽车（Nissan）早已回应将于2020年销售无人驾驶汽车。IHS咨询公司预计，到2025年，市场将发售好几款此类车型。

这两个消息都有猜测的性质——但它们指出，这项技术的发展是何等神速。What seemed unimaginable a decade ago becomes more practical, comprehensible, and real by the day. Googles (GOOG) self-driving Toyota Prius (TM) has logged hundreds of thousands of miles without incident on California roads. Most automakers are testing self-driving cars on tracks and -- lately, as I experienced earlier this week in Las Vegas -- in traffic.十年前还变得那么不可思议的事情现在早已显得十分不切实际，可以解读，而且无比现实了。谷歌（Google）那辆自动驾驶丰田普锐斯（Toyota Prius）早已在加州的公路上安全性行经了上万英里，没曾为任何事故。

大多数汽车厂商正在赛道上测试自动驾驶汽车，同时——最近，正如我本周初在拉斯维加斯体验的——也在现实路况中积极开展这种测试。The Audi A7 equipped with traffic jam assist was programmed to drive itself slowly in heavy traffic at no more than 40 miles per hour. (Dr. Bjorn Giesler, head of Audis project team, was behind the wheel.) The car was loaded with cameras, sensors, and a special device that monitors a drivers eyes to ensure he or she doesnt fall asleep at the wheel. In that event, the car will safely slow down, stop, and call for help.奥迪A7配备了一套“交通堵塞辅助系统”，它能在相当严重交通堵塞的车流中以每小时不多达40英里的时速自动驾驶（测试时奥迪项目组组长比约恩?吉斯纳博士就躺在驾驶席上）。这辆车上装有了各种摄像头、传感器和一套类似设备，能监测驾驶者眼睛的情况，以保证司机驾车时不要睡觉。如果司机知道睡觉了，这辆车就不会稳稳地滑行、暂停行经，催促援助。

Think of a driverless car as a robot. For Audi and other automakers, a key question is how much of the driving should be done by the robot, how much by the driver. The driver decides. Executives at Audi and other automakers say the driver, in any case, must remain engaged and attentive, ready to take over in the event of the unexpected: a car travelling the wrong way or out of control, for example.大家不妨把无人驾驶汽车看作是机器人。对奥迪公司（Audi）和其他汽车厂商来说，关键问题是驾驶员中究竟有多少该由机器人来已完成，多少该由驾驶者来已完成。

这只不过最后还是各不相同驾驶者自己。奥迪和其他品牌的高管都回应，驾驶者无论如何都必需维持插手和警觉，再次发生开错道或失控这类车祸时要能随时新的接管车辆。Audi executives wont use the word driverless; instead they speak about piloted driving. Other auto executives talk about autonomous or assisted driving. Only Google is adamant that it wants a driverless car, one that can help the elderly and the blind, as well as anyone who would rather be reading a book.奥迪的高管从不用“无人驾驶”这个字眼，他们说道的是“引领式”驾驶员。

其他品牌的高管说的则是“自动”或“辅助”驾驶员。只有谷歌否认自己要研发的就是无人驾驶汽车，也就是能协助老年人和盲人，以及那些宁可在车上读书的人的自动驾驶汽车。

Todays Audis and many other brands already may be equipped with features like adaptive cruise control that keeps a car a safe distance and constant speed behind cars ahead. Several have dynamic lane assist, which warn when a car is leaving a lane inadvertently -- and can gently steer the car back.如今奥迪和其他很多品牌有可能都配备了自适应巡弋控制系统这类配备，能让汽车与前车维持安全性距离，同时保持直线运动行经。还有几个品牌使用了动态车道辅助系统，车辆无意中背离车道时能收到预警，同时轻轻地让车返回准确的车道上。

Given a multitude of sensors, weather conditions, road changes, pedestrians, and other vehicles -- robotic logic must be able to decide safely and instantaneously whether to turn, accelerate, or brake. The software, hardware, and algorithms that sift all this information are getting cheaper, smaller, and faster. Last year, the control systems filled the trunk of an Audi vehicle; this year, custom chips that function as the brain sit on a board about the size of a book.在大量传感器、各种天气条件、路况变化、各种行人和其他车辆共存的情况下——机器人逻辑必需能安全性及时地作出弯道、加快和刹车的要求。而涉及的软硬件，以及处置所有这些信息的算法现在都日益低廉、小型化并且运算速度更加慢。去年奥迪试验车辆的后备箱里还塞满了控制系统；而今年，作为车辆大脑、坐落于仪表板上的自定义芯片只有一本书那么大。State and federal regulators still must decide under what circumstances to permit so-called autonomous systems or, perhaps, whether to mandate features like adaptive cruise control or lane assist, if they are deemed to make automobile travel more safe.现在，美国各州和联邦政府的监管者还是得要求在什么情况下可以容许使用这些所谓的自动系统。

或者说，如果这些系统显然被指出可使汽车更加安全性的话，否不应拒绝厂商都标配自适应巡弋掌控或车道辅助系统。Auto insurance today is a very straightforward process. But what about when a piloted car hits a pedestrian? Or when a truck hits a piloted car? Once piloted driving becomes more common, real-world experience will show how many accidents happen. Actuaries have statistical tools for assessing how much accidents will cost and, therefore, how much everyone will pay in insurance premiums.如今的汽车保险流程非常简单。

但是，如果自动驾驶汽车撞到了行人怎么办？或者说，如果卡车撞到了自动驾驶汽车又怎么办？一旦自动驾驶汽车显得日益普及，实际情况就不会告诉他我们究竟不会再次发生多少事故。保险精算师手里有统计资料工具，能算出有这些事故不会导致多大损失，也能算出有每个人要付多少保险费。As for legal responsibility, a question at an Audi press conference summed it up this way: If a car without a driver has an accident, who is responsible: the driver? The owner of the car? Audi? No one has answered the questions definitively, but its a good bet that driverless cars will be involved in far fewer accidents than ones with -- otherwise, why have them?至于说道法律责任，奥迪新闻发布会的一个问题是这么总结的：“如果一辆没驾驶者的车出有了事故，究竟该谁负责管理：司机？车主？还是奥迪？”没有人有清楚答案。

但可以认同的是，无人驾驶汽车事发的概率不会比传统汽车要较低——否则干嘛要研发它们呢？。

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