中国广州市的某些区已向无人驾驶汽车开放道路。人们早就期待中国政府批准在公共道路上测试无人驾驶汽车，此番终于成行。
Two Chinese start-ups, Jingchi and Pony.ai, were offering rides to the public last week for the first time in what appeared to be part publicity stunt, part effort to address a widening gap in test miles with US competitors.
中国的两家初创企业小马智行(Pony.ai)和景驰科技(Jingchi)上周首次面向公众提供试乘。此举似乎一方面是种宣传噱头，另一方面是旨在拉近与美国竞争对手在测试里程方面日益扩大的差距。
The start of legal road testing in China — albeit on a limited scale — is an important step for the country’s autonomous auto industry, which so far has done all testing in California.
无人驾驶汽车开始在中国展开合法的道路测试(尽管规模有限)，是该国自动驾驶汽车行业迈出的重要一步。此前，中国自动驾驶汽车企业都是在美国加州进行路测。
The industry faces stiff competition from US companies such as Waymo, Google’s autonomous driving arm, which in November passed 4m test miles in four states since 2009. Racking up test miles is one of the key metrics in training artificial intelligence software to drive.
中国自动驾驶汽车行业面临Waymo等美国企业的激烈竞争。Waymo是谷歌(Google)旗下的自动驾驶汽车公司，去年11月在美国4个州跨越了400万英里测试里程关口。在训练人工智能软件驾驶汽车方面，累计测试里程是关键指标之一。
While a human brain needs just a few dozen hours to get a driver’s licence, scientists say computers may need hundreds of millions of test miles to learn to navigate traffic safely.
科学家表示，人脑只需要几十个小时的训练就能拿到驾照，而电脑可能需要数以亿计的测试里程才能学会在车流中安全地驾驶。
Beijing’s city government opened applications for legal tests in the outskirts of the city on December 15, starting tests shortly afterwards.
北京市政府去年12月15日开始接受无人驾驶汽车在京郊合法上路测试的申请，并在不久后启动了路测。
Baidu, reckoned to be the country’s leader in driverless technology, previously tested vehicles near its Beijing headquarters without explicit government permission, exploiting a legal grey area. It also tests in California.
被认为是中国无人驾驶技术领跑者的百度(Baidu)，此前曾在未获得政府明确许可的情况下，利用法律上的灰色地带，在其北京总部附近测试无人驾驶汽车。该公司也在加州进行路测。
Pony.ai, which has Chinese founders but is based in California, said it began testing in Nansha, a district of Guangzhou, last Tuesday. 小马智行由中国人创建，但公司总部位于加州。该公司表示，它上周二开始在广州市南沙区展开上路测试。
The same day, Jingchi said it launched a similar pilot project. It said it would hold a three-month, public test ride programme for highly autonomous vehicles in China in a different part of Guangzhou, known as Biotech Island.
景驰科技上周二也宣布启动了类似的试点项目。该公司表示，将在广州市生物岛展开为期三个月的公共试乘计划。
Both Jingchi and Pony.ai have licences to test self-driving cars on roads in California.
景驰科技和小马智行都在美国加州拿到了无人驾驶汽车上路测试牌照。
Pony.ai said that its Nansha test “marks the first time a self-driving car company has made the service available to members of the general public in China”. A video released by the company showed a car navigating traffic with the diver’s hands conspicuously in his lap and not on the steering wheel.
小马智行表示，在南沙区的上路测试标志着国内无人驾驶公司面向普通市民的首秀。在该公司发布的一段视频中，一辆汽车行驶在车流中，而驾驶员的双手明显放在自己的大腿、而不是方向盘上。
Baidu previously offered test rides on a much more limited scale during the World Internet Conference in Wuzhen in November 2016, but those were not part of its public pilot.
百度曾于2016年11月乌镇世界互联网大会(World Internet Conference)期间提供了规模极为有限的试乘，但那些试乘并不属于其公共试点项目。
Jingchi said in a statement carried by Chinese media on Thursday that its pilot testing programme was “the first operating fleet of dozens of driverless vehicles in China. . . the public can line up through public channels to make bookings”.
上周四，景驰科技在中国媒体上发表声明称，其试点测试项目是首个在国内运营由数十辆无人驾驶汽车组成的车队、公众可以通过公共渠道进行排队预约的项目。
Neither Jingchi nor Pony.ai responded to requests for further comment.
景驰科技和小马智行都未回应进一步置评的请求。
Regulation and permission for autonomous driving technology are handled on a city-by-city basis in China, much like the US where some states have given special permission to some companies to test driverless-car software.
在中国，自主驾驶技术的监管与许可由各个城市自行处理，这一点与美国很像。在美国，一些州已向一些公司授予测试无人驾驶汽车软件的特别许可。
Both Pony.ai and Jingchi are led by teams who left Baidu’s self-driving car programme. Baidu said in December that it was suing Jingchi and its founder — a former Baidu executive — in a Beijing court, alleging theft of intellectual property.
小马智行和景驰科技的领导团队都是从百度自动驾驶汽车项目离职出来的。去年12月百度表示正向北京一家法院起诉景驰科技及其创始人(曾任百度高管)，称其窃取了知识产权。
