For the First Time, Zoox Can Charge People for Rides in Its Steering-Wheel-Free Robotaxis
For the First Time, Zoox Can Charge People for Rides in Its Steering-Wheel-Free Robotaxis
首次获批：Zoox 无方向盘自动驾驶出租车获准向乘客收费
Vehicles purpose-built to drive without human help received the first-ever approval in the US to pick up paying customers, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) announced on Thursday. 美国国家公路交通安全管理局（NHTSA）周四宣布，专为无需人工干预而设计的自动驾驶车辆首次在美国获得批准，可以搭载付费乘客。
The company, Amazon subsidiary Zoox, says it will soon begin to charge for rides in Las Vegas, where it’s been carrying passengers for free since last year. The company is also currently picking up a limited set of passengers in Austin, Miami, and San Francisco, all for free. 亚马逊旗下的子公司 Zoox 表示，很快将在拉斯维加斯开始收费运营；自去年以来，该公司一直在当地为乘客提供免费乘车服务。目前，该公司还在奥斯汀、迈阿密和旧金山为少量乘客提供免费接送服务。
The approval is a milestone for the autonomous vehicle industry. Waymo, the nation’s leading robotaxi provider, uses vehicles that meet government design standards—with steering wheels, pedals, and mirrors, and conventional seating arrangements. (Even the company’s new, purpose-built robotaxi has those legally mandated features.) But some industry players argue that driverless tech can only reach its potential with vehicles built to be driven by computers—ones that don’t meet federal vehicle safety standards written for older technology. 此次获批是自动驾驶行业的一个里程碑。美国领先的自动驾驶出租车服务商 Waymo 所使用的车辆均符合政府设计标准，配备了方向盘、踏板、后视镜以及传统的座椅布局（即使是该公司新款的专用自动驾驶出租车也保留了这些法律规定的功能）。但一些业内人士认为，只有使用专为计算机驾驶而设计的车辆，无人驾驶技术才能发挥其潜力，而这类车辆往往不符合针对旧技术制定的联邦车辆安全标准。
That has proven a difficult path. Zoox has worked for more than a decade to design, manufacture, and receive government approval for its vehicles, which don’t have steering wheels or pedals and feature a “campfire-style” seating arrangement where riders face each other. 事实证明，这是一条艰难的道路。Zoox 花了十多年时间来设计、制造其车辆并争取政府批准。这些车辆没有方向盘或踏板，并采用了乘客面对面坐的“篝火式”座椅布局。
The NHTSA’s two-year exemption from its safety standards will allow Zoox to deploy up to 5,000 robotaxis. The company will, in turn, be subject to more stringent government oversight and will submit extra data on crashes and unexplained stops. The NHTSA can retract Zoox’s exemption if it finds that it’s not operating safely. NHTSA 给予了 Zoox 为期两年的安全标准豁免，允许其部署最多 5,000 辆自动驾驶出租车。作为交换，该公司将接受更严格的政府监管，并需提交有关碰撞和不明原因停车的额外数据。如果 NHTSA 发现其运营存在安全隐患，有权撤销对 Zoox 的豁免。
In a speech at an industry conference in San Diego on Thursday, NHTSA administrator Jonathan Morrison said Zoox had proved that it exceeded the safety standards applied to traditional cars. 在周四于圣地亚哥举行的一次行业会议上，NHTSA 局长乔纳森·莫里森（Jonathan Morrison）表示，Zoox 已经证明其车辆超越了传统汽车所适用的安全标准。
“This technology needs to be developed appropriately, safely, and responsibly,” Morrison said to an audience of industry insiders and policy experts. “If we see an unreasonable risk to safety, you’re going to hear from us.” “这项技术需要以适当、安全和负责任的方式进行开发，”莫里森对在场的行业内部人士和政策专家说道，“如果我们发现存在不合理的安全风险，你们一定会收到我们的警告。”
Earlier this month, Morrison published an unusual open letter drawing attention to what he called a “clear pattern” of autonomous vehicles interfering with the work of emergency responders. “To state it bluntly: An AV that cannot safely interact with first responders is a danger to the general public,” he wrote then, and directed companies to focus their resources on fixing the issue. Morrison said the NHTSA would meet with several companies about their solutions to this emergency response interference issue. 本月初，莫里森发表了一封不同寻常的公开信，指出自动驾驶车辆干扰应急救援人员工作的情况已形成“明显的模式”。他当时写道：“直言不讳地说：如果自动驾驶车辆无法与急救人员安全互动，那它就是对公众的威胁。”他要求各公司集中资源解决这一问题。莫里森表示，NHTSA 将与多家公司会面，讨论他们针对这一应急响应干扰问题的解决方案。
Tesla says it started testing its own steering-wheel-free Cybercab in late June but hasn’t outlined how it might receive government approval for those vehicles. Its limited robotaxi service currently uses modified Model Y’s with steering wheels and pedals. 特斯拉表示，已于 6 月下旬开始测试其无方向盘的 Cybercab，但尚未说明将如何为这些车辆获得政府批准。其目前有限的自动驾驶出租车服务使用的是带有方向盘和踏板的改装版 Model Y。
Zoox says that even before official approval to carry customers, it has autonomously transported more than 500,000 riders more than 3 million miles. The company issued a voluntary recall on its software earlier this month after it found that its cars might not properly detect smoke and could get in the way in emergencies. That government filing indicated that Zoox has 105 active robotaxis—an indication that getting to 5,000 will be a lot of work. Zoox 表示，在获得正式载客批准之前，它已经自动运送了超过 50 万名乘客，行驶里程超过 300 万英里。本月初，该公司对其软件进行了自愿召回，原因是发现车辆可能无法正确检测到烟雾，并可能在紧急情况下造成阻碍。政府备案文件显示，Zoox 目前有 105 辆在役自动驾驶出租车——这意味着要达到 5,000 辆的目标仍有大量工作要做。