Will robot cars drive traffic congestion off a cliff?
駕駛機器人汽車會使交通擁堵變得更為嚴重嗎？
Self-driving cars are expected to usher in a new era of mobility, safety and convenience. Transportation researchers say the problem is that people will use them too much. Experts foresee robot cars chauffeuring children to school, dance class and baseball practice.
自駕車將在移動性，安全性，和便利性方面迎來一個新的時代。運輸研究員說將來人們使用自動駕駛汽車過多將會帶來問題。專家預測自動駕駛汽車會作為司機送孩子去上學，去舞蹈班，和棒球訓練場。
The disabled and elderly will also have new mobility and people may stay home more because they can send their cars to do things like pick up groceries they’ve ordered online. Researchers believe the number of miles driven will skyrocket, which may mean a corresponding surge in traffic congestion.
殘障人士和老人將會獲得新的行動方式而其他人們留在家里的將會更多，因為他們可以讓他們的車去做一些事情，比如去取他們在網(wǎng)上買的東西。研究者相信駕駛里程數(shù)將會飆升，而這也意味著更嚴重的交通堵塞問題。
You are talking about a technology that promises to make travel safer, cheaper, more convenient. And when you do that, you’d better expect people are going to do more of it.
Don MacKenzie, a University of Washington transportation researcher
你正在討論一個讓駕駛變得更為安全，便宜，及便利的技術。當你這樣做的時候，最好明白人們將會為它做的更多。
Don MacKenzie 華盛頓大學交通研究學者
It’s possible that congestion will be reduced because driverless cars and trucks are safer and can travel faster with reduced space between them. Highway lanes can be narrower because vehicles won’t need as much margin for error and there will be fewer accidents to tie up traffic. But those advantages will be limited as long as driverless cars share roads with conventional cars, which is likely to be the case for decades.
交通擁堵也有可能緩解，因為無人駕駛汽車和卡車會更安全，也可以跑的更快，并減少兩車之間的距離，公路可以做的更窄，因為汽車不需要太多的間距來避免錯誤,也會減少汽車事故的發(fā)生。但是這些優(yōu)點將會被限制只要無人還是汽車還在和常規(guī)汽車共用道路，這種情況將會持續(xù)幾十年。
?This scenario depends on a societal shift from private vehicle ownership to commercial fleets of driverless cars that can be quickly summoned with a phone app. To make the shared-vehicle model work, government would have to impose congestion pricing on highways and take other measures to discourage people from traveling alone in their self-driving cars.
這個方案依賴于社會的轉變從私人自駕車到使用商業(yè)無人駕駛汽車船隊，通過一個手機app快速的呼叫一個汽車。為了實現(xiàn)共享汽車模式，政府不得不征收擁堵費在公路上并通過其他方式限制人們通過自駕汽車的方式獨自旅行。
