Singapore has claimed a head-start in the global race to deploy self-driving cars with the launch on Thursday of the world’s first public trial of a robo-taxi service.新加坡在这场部署自动驾驶汽车的全球竞赛中抢到了先机。周四，该国启动了世界上第一次自动出租车服务公开发表测试。

The trial allows selected members of the public to use a smartphone app to hail a free ride in autonomous cars operated by nuTonomy, a US start-up that has been conducting trials of self-driving vehicles in Singapore since April. 这次测试容许被顺位的公众成员用于一款智能手机app调用自动驾驶出租车，体验一次免费搭乘。这些车辆是由美国创业企业nuTonomy运营的。自今年4月以来，该公司仍然在新加坡展开自动驾驶车辆试验。

The passengers, travelling either in a specially configured Renault Zoe or Mitsubishi i-MiEV electric vehicle, will be accompanied by one of the company’s engineers, who can take control of the vehicle if necessary.在上下班时，被顺位的乘客不会转入一辆经过类似配备的雷诺Zoe或三菱i-MiEV 电动车。nuTonomy公司将为首一名工程师会见乘客，在适当时，工程师可以接管汽车。

The trial steals a march on Uber, which is expected to begin testing an autonomous taxi fleet with customers in the US city of Pittsburgh within weeks. 这次试验抢在了优步(Uber)前面。预计在几周内，优步将开始跟客户在美国的匹兹堡市测试一批自动驾驶出租车。Uber and pioneers of the autonomous car industry including Google, Tesla and Volvo are already road-testing self-driving vehicles with varying success, but nuTonomy says it is the first to offer rides to members of the public in a real-world setting.优步以及谷歌(Google)、特斯拉(Tesla)和沃尔沃(Volvo)等自动汽车行业先行者已开始展开车辆路面测试，并获得了有所不同程度的顺利。但nuTonomy回应，它是第一家在真实世界里向公众成员获取自动驾驶体验的公司。

The trial, involving a fleet of six cars, will be conducted in normal traffic and includes both light and heavy traffic routes.这次试验共出动6辆汽车，试验将在长时间交通状况下已完成，并还包括流畅和挤迫两种路线。The pilot is being used to gather data on the performance of nuTonomy’s self-driving software, routing efficiency and the vehicle booking process ahead of the launch of a commercial robo-taxi service in Singapore, scheduled for 2018.这次试验的目的是搜集有关nuTonomy自动驾驶软件的展现出、路线自由选择效率和车辆预计程序的数据。nuTonomy计划于2018年在新加坡发售一项商业化的自动驾驶出租车服务。

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