百度进行中国首次自主驾驶汽车路测

Tell-tale white and blue self-driving cars belonging to Baidu, China’s largest search engine, have been spotted on public roads in northern Beijing, in what appear to be the first public road tests of fully autonomous cars in China.

中国最大搜索引擎百度(Baidu)旗下的蓝白色自主驾驶汽车已被发现出现在北京北部的公共道路上，似乎在进行中国首次全自主驾驶汽车公路测试。

China’s government has announced it will develop national regulations for testing on public roads in China, which a Baidu executive said could be ready by the end of the year. But already the company appears to be testing fully autonomous cars in what is a legal grey area — the cars have drivers in them but they appear not to be driving. A Baidu representative declined to comment.

中国政府已宣布将制定自主驾驶汽车国内路测的国家规范；一名百度高管表示，该规范可能在今年底前出台。但该公司似乎已在法律灰色地带——车内坐有司机，但他们似乎不在驾驶——测试全自主驾驶汽车。百度的一名代表拒绝置评。

A senior executive at Baidu confirmed it was working with local governments to start legally testing autonomously-driven cars on some public roads in China by February 2018, which would be a milestone for the industry.

百度一名高管证实，该公司正与地方政府合作，从2018年2月起合法地在国内公共道路上对自主驾驶汽车进行测试，这将成为该行业的一个里程碑。

People in the industry say the permissiveness of regulations will set the pace of this technology.

业内人士表示，国家规范的宽容程度将决定这项技术的发展速度。

“I think [it] will not be technology that will set that pace, it will be regulations and liability rules,” said Martin Lundstedt, chief executive of Volvo Group, which last week unveiled a self-driving truck prototype in Beijing.

“我认为，决定发展速度的不是技术，而是规范和赔偿责任规则，”沃尔沃集团(Volvo Group)首席执行官马丁?伦德斯泰特(Martin Lundstedt)表示。沃尔沃上周在北京发布了一款自主驾驶卡车的样车。

Currently at least five Chinese or Chinese-invested companies, including Baidu, have licences to test driverless cars on public roads in Silicon Valley, given out by the California Department of Motor Vehicles as part of an experimental programme.

目前，至少5家中国或中资入股的公司（包括百度）获得了加州机动车辆管理局(DMV)颁发的在硅谷进行无人驾驶汽车路测的牌照，作为一个试验项目的一部分。