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  3. Networked Automobile I’m driving through eastern France, the blip-blip of the lane markers running backward through my perip

Networked Automobile I’m driving through eastern France, the blip-blip of the lane markers running backward through my perip

admin2012-04-09  35
问题                         Networked Automobile
    I’m driving through eastern France, the blip-blip of the lane markers running backward through my peripheral (边缘的) vision at about 90mph. I check the mirrors: nothing there. Pretending to doze off, I let the car drift gently to the left. Just as it begins to change its direction towards the dotted line, the left side of my seat vibrates, activated by an infrared (红外线的) sensor looking at the road paint. I can assure you that the buzzing seat would have jolted (摇晃) me back to the job at hand. The car I’m driving is a prototype from the French automaker Peugeot Citroen, but a showroom-ready copy isn’t many months away.
    Flash back five months: I’m at a test track at the base of Mount Fuji in Japan, in a Lexus fitted with a pre-crash safety system. I drive down the track at about 40mph toward a rubber post. Instinct and education make it hard to keep my foot off the brake, but a group of earnest engineers insist that I aim their $70,000 sedan straight for the post. At the last fraction of a second, when the car’s radar sensors and microprocessors have determined that the idiot at the wheel really isn’t going to steer around the obstacle, the safety system shoots into action. Seatbelt pretensioners cinch up (系紧), and the front and rear suspension dampers stiffen. As soon as I touch the brake pedal — better late than never — the car’s brake-assist tugs them on at max effort. It isn’t enough to avoid the crash, but the impact speed is about half what it would have been without the new system.
    The next generation of environment-sensing cars will use more than just radar and infrared sensors to watch for signs of trouble. Video cameras will look for stoplights that have turned red and for children who are running toward the road. Distance-sensing lasers will check for vehicles in the driver’s blind spot and the passing lane. These sensors won’t do anything that a vigilant (警醒的) driver can’t already do, but what if they could? What if your car could sense road conditions and traffic problems that are out of your sight? That’s coming too.
    The next giant leap in sensing will be radio-networking that enables cars to exchange information. "Communication (between cars) will be like an additional sensor," says Ralf Herrtwich, director of vehicle IT research at DaimlerChrysler Car-to-car communication will ensure that your automobiles ahead. And this extra "sensor" will have almost unlimited range, because information can be instantaneously relayed from one vehicle to the next, to the next, and so on.
    No one doubts the extent of information-gathering and communication features that will be built into the networked cars of the future. Some of these features will merely assist the driver by, for example, pointing out a patch of black ice around the next bend. But what about the driver who fails to act on the warning? Should his car be empowered to "take the wheel"? Some automotive experts foresee a day when our cars will be so well-informed that we’ll be better off leaving some of the driving to them.
    Time for another demonstration. It’s Berlin, and I’m in a Smart car, DaimlerChrysler’s tiny two-seater that has become a familiar in Europe’s cramped city streets. But this Smart is different: it’s smart. On the dashboard, a flashing display warns me of an accident two streets away, and the navigation system suggests a detour (绕道). My car, outfitted with a GPS position finder and an off-the-shelf wireless local area network (WLAN) communication system, was informed by another car carrying the same gear.
    If knowledge is power, then the intellectual-horsepower rating of tomorrow’s vehicles is going to be high. Say just one car’s stability-control system is activated at an unusually slow speed on a highway off-ramp (驶出坡道)- It will send out a slippery-road warning. All WLAN-equipped cars in the vicinity then get the message, but they will warn their drivers only if they are headed for the same off-ramp.
    The system will also provide traffic information on a need-to-know basis. Imagine there is a truck unloading in the next street on your route. It would never make the radio reports, but you could be trapped fuming for 10 minutes. WLAN — "traffic radar", as Herrtwich puts it — will let you know and reroute you. What is really new here is the way traffic will behave almost biologically, like a swarm of bees, a self-educating network. This is a killer apparatus, because it doesn’t require expensive infrastructure. No traffic-control center or information exchange. No need for roadside beacons (指向标) that the authorities would have to install. Instead cars will seamlessly (无线地) set up special networks, passing information from car to car.
    Virtually all of the necessary hardware is already on the shelf at companies such as Bosch, Delphi and Samsung. What is needed now is the software to tie everything together: sensors, wireless radio networks and GPS navigation systems. Together these technologies create a system that provides immediate warnings of delays, accidents, temporary speed restrictions and road conditions — the everyday hazards that lie in wait just around the corner. And because the system knows exactly where each driver is, it won’t drown drivers in a running commentary about what is happening on the other side of town (unless the other side of town is the destination they have programmed into their navigations systems).
    Of course, the system will not work well if there aren’t enough vehicles outfitted with the gear. The question is how to reach critical mass. Fortunately, WLAN networks are good for more than just traffic radar; they are also useful for downloading entertainment. "Ten years from now, we are talking about a radically changed way of listening to music, watching TV and videos," Herrtwich says. Once WLAN is adopted for in-car entertainment, the technology could also be used for road-safety and traffic-networking functions.
    But don’t hold your breath. Technical standards are still a few years away — Herrtwich predicts 2008. If the first networked cars roll out in 2010, such features will not be standard for at least another decade.
WLAN or "traffic radar" is cheap because______.
选项 A、electronic equipments develop fast
B、expensive infrastructure is not required
C、it largely reduces cars in traffic
D、it doesn’t need special networks
答案B
解析 第六句中的This指代第四句中提到的WLAN和对其解释说明的同位语“traffic radar”。第六句说它是a killer apparatus，因为不需要昂贵的基础建设。可以猜测a killer apparatus的意思是“省钱的东西”，对应题干中的cheap，故答案为B)。
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