Robotaxis are real now — so is the pushback
Robotaxis are real now — so is the pushback
自动驾驶出租车已成现实，随之而来的还有各方阻力
Robotaxis are expanding. So is the fight over the rules governing them. 自动驾驶出租车（Robotaxis）正在扩张，围绕其监管规则的博弈也在加剧。
In New York, Gov. Kathy Hochul withdrew a proposal earlier this year that would have opened the door to driverless robotaxis outside New York City after taxi drivers, unions, and state lawmakers opposed it. Six months later, commercial driverless service remains illegal in the state, and legalization efforts are stalled. 在纽约，州长凯西·霍楚尔（Kathy Hochul）今年早些时候撤回了一项提案，该提案本可在纽约市以外地区为无人驾驶出租车开辟道路，但遭到了出租车司机、工会和州议员的反对。六个月过去了，商业无人驾驶服务在该州仍属非法，合法化进程陷入停滞。
In DC, labor unions are fighting legislation that would legalize commercial robotaxis, while lawmakers are weighing a 200-vehicle cap and a 15-cent-per-mile fee that would fund Metro upgrades and aid workers displaced by autonomous vehicles. A July City Council hearing on the proposal stretched for a grueling 10 hours. 在华盛顿特区，工会正在抵制将商业自动驾驶出租车合法化的立法，而议员们则在权衡一项提案：限制车辆总数为200辆，并征收每英里15美分的费用，用于资助地铁升级并援助被自动驾驶车辆取代的工人。7月份针对该提案的市议会听证会持续了长达10个小时的艰苦辩论。
In San Francisco, Mayor Daniel Lurie, a vocal supporter of robotaxis, is now calling for tougher robotaxi regulations after Waymos repeatedly snarled traffic during emergencies and major events. And as of July, California police can now formally cite autonomous-vehicle manufacturers when their driverless cars break traffic laws. 在旧金山，作为自动驾驶出租车的坚定支持者，市长丹尼尔·卢里（Daniel Lurie）现在呼吁加强监管，此前Waymo车辆在紧急情况和大型活动期间多次造成交通拥堵。自7月起，加州警方已获权在无人驾驶汽车违反交通法规时，正式对自动驾驶汽车制造商开出罚单。
And while Congress has yet to pass comprehensive robotaxi legislation, federal regulators have stepped up their scrutiny. The Trump administration’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration recently warned autonomous-vehicle companies that vehicles unable to safely interact with police, firefighters, and other first responders pose a danger to the public. 尽管国会尚未通过全面的自动驾驶出租车立法，但联邦监管机构已加强了审查力度。特朗普政府时期的美国国家公路交通安全管理局（NHTSA）最近警告自动驾驶汽车公司称，无法与警察、消防员及其他急救人员安全互动的车辆会对公众构成危险。
Texas this year began enforcing new permitting requirements for commercial AV operators, while cities in Florida have complained that state preemption laws leave them with little power to respond to problems on their own streets. 德克萨斯州今年开始对商业自动驾驶运营商实施新的许可要求，而佛罗里达州的城市则抱怨称，州的优先权法律使他们在应对本市街道问题时几乎无能为力。
Taxi drivers, labor unions, and safety advocates have fought autonomous vehicles for years. What’s changing is the scale and immediacy of the fight. Now that robotaxis have burst free from the pages of science fiction and onto actual city streets, policymakers are confronting a messier reality filled with questions about safety, regulation, growth, and jobs. They’re having to decide how quickly fleets should be allowed to expand, what companies must prove before they do, and how much control cities and states should have over their operations. 出租车司机、工会和安全倡导者多年来一直在抵制自动驾驶汽车。改变的是这场斗争的规模和紧迫性。如今，自动驾驶出租车已从科幻小说走进现实街道，政策制定者正面临一个更加混乱的现实，其中充满了关于安全、监管、增长和就业的问题。他们必须决定车队扩张的速度、公司在扩张前必须证明什么，以及城市和州政府应在多大程度上控制这些运营。
Waymo, the market leader, is currently operating more than 3,500 vehicles publicly in 11 US cities. Zoox — a purpose-built robotaxi without a steering wheel that bears a striking resemblance to a toaster — just began offering paid rides in Las Vegas and continues to offer free trips to users of its Explorer program in San Francisco as it collects feedback. It’s testing in a total of 10 cities and plans to extend the Explorer program to Austin and Miami later this year. Tesla, which began its Robotaxi rollout with a safety monitor aboard more than a year ago, appears to finally be growing its unsupervised fleet ahead of launching its purpose-built robotaxi, the Cybercab, later this month. 市场领导者Waymo目前在美国11个城市公开运营着超过3500辆汽车。Zoox——一种没有方向盘、外形酷似烤面包机的专用自动驾驶出租车——刚刚开始在拉斯维加斯提供付费乘车服务，并继续在旧金山为其“探索者计划”（Explorer program）的用户提供免费乘车服务以收集反馈。它目前在总共10个城市进行测试，并计划在今年晚些时候将该计划扩展到奥斯汀和迈阿密。特斯拉在一年多前就开始了配备安全员的自动驾驶出租车部署，目前看来，在计划于本月晚些时候推出其专用自动驾驶出租车“Cybercab”之前，特斯拉终于开始扩大其无人监管的车队规模。
Still, for all the political attention, robotaxis remain a tiny share of the US ridehailing market. While Waymo now provides more than 500,000 paid rides a week, Uber handles about 40 million trips a day globally. At that scale, robotaxis haven’t yet displaced many driving jobs or fundamentally changed how cities move. But their visibility vastly exceeds their market share, especially when a driverless car stops in the wrong place during a blackout or interferes with an emergency response. 尽管受到政治关注，但自动驾驶出租车在美国网约车市场中所占份额仍然微乎其微。虽然Waymo目前每周提供超过50万次付费乘车服务，但Uber在全球每天处理约4000万次行程。以目前的规模来看，自动驾驶出租车尚未取代大量驾驶岗位，也没有从根本上改变城市的交通方式。但它们的曝光度远超其市场份额，尤其是在停电期间无人驾驶汽车停在错误位置或干扰紧急救援时。
And the consequences could look very different as autonomous fleets grow from thousands of vehicles to hundreds of thousands. That’s why the battles taking shape across the country are increasingly about the terms of expansion: what companies have to prove before they grow, what they owe cities and workers, and how much control cities and states should have over their operations. 随着自动驾驶车队从数千辆增长到数十万辆，其后果可能会大不相同。这就是为什么全国范围内正在形成的斗争越来越多地围绕扩张条款展开：公司在扩张前必须证明什么，它们对城市和工人负有什么责任，以及城市和州政府应在多大程度上控制这些运营。
What the critics want
批评者想要什么
In many places, the robotaxi rollout has outpaced the rules governing it. “Robotaxis are popping up all over the place,” said Shua Sanchez, national campaign director of SAVE-US, a nonprofit advocating for stricter state AV legislation in the absence of federal rules. “The state legislatures don’t have experience with this technology, and there aren’t good laws on the books to regulate them.” 在许多地方，自动驾驶出租车的推广速度超过了监管规则。“自动驾驶出租车到处涌现，”非营利组织SAVE-US的全国竞选总监舒亚·桑切斯（Shua Sanchez）表示，该组织在缺乏联邦规则的情况下，主张制定更严格的州级自动驾驶立法。“州议会缺乏这种技术的经验，也没有现成的法律来监管它们。”
SAVE-US is working with lawmakers in New Jersey and New York on a three-pronged approach. It wants multi-stage testing and commercial-deployment permits, under which companies would have to demonstrate their vehicles can operate safely with a small fleet before adding more cars, while continuing to share safety data after commercial service begins. It also wants autonomous vehicles to use multiple kinds of sensors, rather than relying on cameras alone (as Tesla does), and is calling for restrictions on marketing terms like “Autopilot” or “Full Self-Driving” for consumer driver-assist features when the systems still require human oversight. SAVE-US正在与新泽西州和纽约州的议员合作，采取三管齐下的方案。它要求进行多阶段测试和商业部署许可，根据该方案，公司必须在增加车辆之前证明其车辆在小规模车队中可以安全运行，并在商业服务开始后继续共享安全数据。它还要求自动驾驶汽车使用多种传感器，而不是仅依赖摄像头（如特斯拉所做的那样），并呼吁在系统仍需要人工监督的情况下，限制对消费者驾驶辅助功能使用“自动驾驶”（Autopilot）或“完全自动驾驶”（Full Self-Driving）等营销术语。
The group isn’t opposed to autonomous vehicles, Sanchez said, but is “pro the safe development of technology.” He added that AV safety isn’t a settled question, and that even a strong record today doesn’t guarantee the same after a software or hardware change. 桑切斯表示，该组织并不反对自动驾驶汽车，而是“支持技术的安全发展”。他补充说，自动驾驶汽车的安全性并非定论，即使今天有良好的记录，也不能保证在软件或硬件更新后依然如此。