谷歌拆分無人汽車業務 新成立Waymo公司
Google is putting its self-driving car technology into a new company which it will call Waymo, the firm has announced. Waymo will be owned by Google's parent company, Alphabet.
谷歌日前宣佈,將把其無人駕駛汽車技術投入一家名爲Waymo的新公司。Waymo將歸谷歌母公司Alphabet所有。At a media event, the company showed the story of a blind man who was able to make a full trip using a prototype self-driving car.
在一次媒體活動中,Waymo公司講述了一位盲人的故事,他能夠使用原型無人駕駛汽車完成一次完整的旅行。"Steve Mahan rode alone in our prototype vehicles, cruising through Austin's suburbs,” wrote Google's John Krafcik. "Steve is legally blind, so our sensors and software were his chauffeur."
谷歌的約翰·克拉富西克寫道:“史蒂夫·馬漢獨自駕駛我們的原型汽車,遊覽了奧斯汀的郊區。史蒂夫是法定盲人,所以我們的傳感器和軟件是他的司機。”
Mr Krafcik will become Waymo's chief executive. The company said it will try to apply the technology behind self-driving vehicles to other purposes.
克拉富西克先生將成爲Waymo的首席執行官。該公司表示,會嘗試將無人駕駛汽車背後的技術用作其他目的。While other companies, most notably electric car maker Tesla, have managed to roll out elements of self-driving technology to real roads, Google has been taking a far more cautious approach.
雖然其他公司,如最著名的電動汽車製造商特斯拉,已經設法將無人駕駛技術的元素到推廣到真正的道路上,但是谷歌一直採取更加謹慎的方法。The Waymo's announcement could suggest that Google will deviate from its original goal of only offering 100% self-driving vehicles.
Waymo公司的聲明可能暗示,谷歌將偏離其原始目標--僅提供100%無人駕駛汽車。Google did not respond to reports that it was abandoning making its own car in favour of working with other, perhaps more established, carmakers.
有報道稱,谷歌放棄製造自己的汽車,也許是爲了與更成熟的汽車製造商達成合作。不過谷歌公司並未對此作出迴應。