Foldable cars are in our future. Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.
我们未来的折叠车（维基百科提供照片）
Nothing like a hot, sticky July day to make you think that driving would have been one of the circles of Hell had Dante had a bad commute. These are the days when the grind can seen eternal, when it feels that life has become an endless trail of brake lights leading to the horizon, and that it shall always be so.
在挥汗如雨的七月里，没什么能让你觉得比一次糟糕通勤的驾车更像去但丁所说的地狱。这样的日子过多了真叫人抓狂，会令你感到生活仿佛成了一连串直通向天际的刹车灯，而且似乎永远会这样。
But take heart, my friends. To keep hope alive, I’ve compiled a sampling of some of the freshest thinking about changing the experience of getting around, and not just in cars. Some are imminent, others may never reach fruition. Yet most are focused on making this slice of our lives a little more bearable.
但振作起来吧，朋友们，我们要对生活充满希望。我收集的一些关于改变出行体验的新点子也许会让你感兴趣，出行不是仅仅驾车一种方式的。这样新点子有些能马上就试试，有些可能永远无法实现。但大多都是为了让我们的日子过得舒心一点儿。
1) The flowing rate: If the highways near you are jammed every day, meet what may be your future. Xerox is working with the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority on a pilot program based on the idea that drivers pay a higher toll if traffic is heavier. Starting this November on notoriously crammed I-110, solo drivers will be able to pay to enter what used to be HOV lanes. The toll will start at 25 cents a mile, but can rise to as high as $1.40 a mile. The plan is to guarantee a consistent speed of at least 45 miles an hour. And they hope to do that by using algorithms Xerox is developing to control traffic flow by raising and lowering the toll as needed.
1）交通流速管控：如果你附近的高速公路每天都塞车，你可能希望未来会采取一些措施来避免这种现象。施乐（Xerox）为洛杉矶县大都会运输局开发了一个试点方案，让驾驶员在交通繁忙时缴纳更高的通行费。这个11月在以拥堵而闻名的I-110公路上会开始实施，单独出行的驾驶员将可以付费进入原本多人同车出行才能进入的车道。通行费起价是每英里25美分，但会涨到每英里1.4美元。这个方案会保障每小时车速都能达到45脉，施乐希望采用按照需求提高和降低通行费的算法来控制交通流量。
2) Rain, rain, go away: Know how headlights can sometimes seem pointless in a bad rainstorm? Well, scientists at Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh noticed that too, and now have invented a model that can see through rain and snow. It works like this: A digital projector illuminates raindrops for several milliseconds while a camera mounted on the side of the projector captures each raindrop’s location; software predicts where those drops will come down within the driver’s field of view. Then light rays that would normally hit the raindrops are automatically switched off. That reduces glare and leaves only beams of lights that travel between the drops showing what’s up ahead. This is so much cooler than pulling over.
2）下雨也能走：知道有时头灯在大暴雨中毫无效果的滋味吧？没错，匹兹堡卡耐基米伦大学的科学家们也注意到这点了，并就此发明了一个能穿透雨雪的装置。它是这样工作的：数字投影仪在几毫秒内照亮雨滴，而安装于投影仪旁的摄像头会记录每个会进入驾驶员视野的雨滴位置，随后软件预测雨滴在视野中的轨迹。遇到雨滴的光线会自动关闭，这样就避免炫目强光的产生而只让雨滴间的光线通行，从而照亮眼前的道路。这可比由于视野不佳而不得不路边停车酷多了。
3) That’ll teach ya: Talk about getting tough on texting drivers. Researchers at India’s Anna University of Technology have developed a device that not only jams the phone signal of the person in the driver’s seat, but also sounds a tone to let people in nearby vehicles and passengers in his or her own car know that the driver’s distracted. But it wouldn’t stop there. The Cellphone Accident Preventer also has the capability to send your license number to the local police. That’s harsh.
3）这会给你个教训的：谈谈发短信的驾驶员。印度安娜理工大学的研究者们开发了一个设备，它不仅能屏蔽驾驶员位置手机信号，而且还能在驾驶员走神时发出声音警告旁边汽车或自己汽车上的人。不止于此，这个手机事故预防器还具有将你的注册码发送给当地警局的能力，这个可够严厉的。
4) Parting is such sweet sorrow: Or you could take the approach devised by Florida inventor Ronald Pothul. He calls it a “Dock-n-Lock” and it requires the driver to place his or her phone in a locker compartment. Otherwise the car won’t start, due to a non-removable ID chip on the phone. Only after the ignition is shut off will the locker open.
4）离别是场甜蜜的忧伤：或者你可以采用来自佛罗里达的发明人雷纳德•波图尔（Ronald Pothul）提出的方法。他将其称之为“Dock-n-Lock”，你需要将手机放到一个车上特制的盒子里，并通过手机上不可拆卸的识别芯片确认，才能发动车辆，而只有当熄火时盒子才能打开。
5) The road to power: Some day it will seem silly that we had to plug in electric vehicles to juice them up. A team of Japanese engineering students has taken the first steps in what could be our EV future by designing a way for the road itself to provide the power. They call it EVER–Electric Vehicle on Electrified Roadway–and it involves transmitting an electrical current through concrete and up through the vehicle’s tires. The group at Toyohashi University was able to transmit between 50 to 60 watts of power through a 4-inch block of concrete and produce enough of a current to light a bulb. Right, that’s a long way from juicing up cars on the interstate, plus the cost of building electrified highways would be enormous. But maybe, just maybe it will gain traction. (Forgive me.)
5）供能道路：当未来我们不得不给电动车辆充电来保证行驶也许看起来很傻。一组日本理工科学生们开始迈出了未来一种可能形式的电动车辆的第一步，这种车是通过道路提供能量驱动行驶的。他们将其称为“EVER-Electric Vehicle（永远的电动车）”，能量从道路的混凝土传递给车轮。丰桥大学的团队已经能通过4英寸大小的混凝土块传递50到60瓦的能量，这足以点亮一个灯泡。的确这种方法在州际公路上驱动车辆需要很长的路要走，再加上修建可充电道路成本可能非常巨大。但是也许，只是也许，它会奏效的。（原谅我吧。）
6) Bring on the peanuts: Later this year Qantas Airlines will start putting free digital tablets in the pockets of all seats on its 767 flights–and not just those in first class. Everyone will get access to 200 hours of free video and audio. And the airline ultimately saves money by no longer needing the in-flight entertainment systems that add weight to each plane.
6）一笔小投资：今年晚些时候澳洲航空将启动一项将数字平板电脑放到它的767航班的每个座位口袋里（不只是头等舱）的计划，每个人都可以有200小时的视听享受。这样航班会替换掉每台飞机都配有的笨重的飞行娱乐系统，并且省下一笔钱。
7) But will there be iPads?: No one less than NASA is taking a run at reinventing the helicopter. Its Large Civil Tilt Rotor (LCTR) looks like a plane, but with two huge rotors at the end of each wing instead of small propellers. At take-off and landing those rotors spin parallel to the ground just as in a helicopter. For flight they swivel into position to act like propellers. The LCTR would be able to carry up to 90 passengers and make trips as long as 1, 000 miles.
7）这里也会有iPad吗？NASA正开展一项直升机改造计划，它的大型民用倾转旋翼直升机（LCTR）看起来就像一架飞机，但它在两翼端部分别配备了两个巨大的旋翼而非小推进器。在起飞和着陆时与普通直升机一样旋翼轴线与地面平行，而在飞行中它们旋转到特定位置当做推进器使用。LCTR有能力携带90名旅客飞行1000英里。
8) Don’t you hate being so predictable?: Here’s an innovation that’s not so much about how you get somewhere, but about where you’re going to be. Scientists at the University of Birmingham in the U.K. have developed an algorithm that uses, in part, the movements of your social group to predict where you’ll be 24 hours from now. The predictions proved to be far less precise if the “mobility patterns” of friends–defined as contacts on a person’s cellphone–weren’t factored in.
8）你对预测准确反感吗？这儿有个想法不是关于你怎样去某处，而是关于你要去哪里。英国伯明翰大学的科学家们开发了一种算法，它某种程度上根据你的社交圈子的动向预测你今后24小时会在哪里。但如果朋友间“流动模式”——手机通信没有被考虑的话，预测得准确度的确不咋地。
9) Park it anywhere: The idea’s been around since 2010, but now SoBi Social Bicycles programs are about to roll out in Buffalo and two still unnamed West Coast cities. Bike-sharing is starting to take off in some American cities, but SoBi takes the idea to the next level by combining it with GPS. Each bike has its own on-board computer which can be accessed through a SoBi mobile app. It tells you where a SoBi bike is nearby and then you have 15 minutes to get there and unlock it, using its keyboard and a confirmation code you’ve been given. When you’re done, you can leave the bike anywhere, instead of needing to return it to a share station. A combination of pedal power and a small solar panel helps charge the system.
9）到处停车：这个念头2010年就有了，但现在索比社会自行车项目（SoBi Social Bicycles programs）会在美国巴弗洛城和 两个尚未指定的西海岸城市正式推广。自行车共享这种方式正在一些美国城市兴起，但索比进一步将全球定位导航（GPS）集成到车上来。每台自行车利用索比移动应用程序访问其车载计算机。当你到达目的地，你可以把车停在任何地方，而非必须将其返回给站台。这个系统的能源是通过踏板力和小太阳能平板共同提供的。
10) Video bonus: Park it anywhere II: Check out this video of the Hiriko, the electric urban share car designed at the MIT Media Lab. It’s tiny to begin with, then folds up so you can fit three of them in the parking space one ordinary car would need.
10）附送一份录像：到处停车续：看看Hiriko提供的一段关于麻省理工学院媒体实验室设计的电动城区共享汽车的录像。它如此之小，以至于折叠之后只需要普通汽车停车位三分之一的尺寸。
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