2021年经济学人 自动驾驶汽车（2）

Similar techniques are used to train self-driving cars to operate in traffic.

自动驾驶汽车在进行上路训练时也会应用类似技术。

Cars thus learn how to obey lane markings, avoid other vehicles, hit the brakes at a red light and so on.

汽车会学习如何遵守车道标志、避开其他车辆、在红灯时刹车等。

But they do not understand many things a human driver takes for granted—that other cars on the road have engines and four wheels, or that they obey traffic regulations (usually) and the laws of physics (always).

但他们理解不了许多人类司机认为理所当然的事情，比如为什么路上的汽车有引擎和四个轮子，或者为什么这些车(通常)遵守交通规则、(总是)遵循物理定律。

And they do not understand object permanence.

它们无法理解“物体恒存性”。

In a recent paper in Artificial Intelligence, Mehul Bhatt of Orebro University, in Sweden, who is also the founder¹ of a firm called CoDesign Lab which is developing his ideas commercially, describes a different approach.

近期，瑞典厄勒布鲁大学的梅于尔·巴特在《人工智能》杂志上发表了一篇论文，描述了一种独特的方法。梅于尔·巴特也是一家名为CoDesign Lab的公司的创始人，该公司正着手将他的想法商业化。

He and his colleagues took some existing AI programs which are used by self-driving cars and bolted onto them a piece of software called a symbolic-reasoning engine.

他和他的同事采用了现有的自动驾驶汽车使用的部分人工智能程序，同时将一个叫做“符号推理引擎”的软件嵌入其中。

Instead of approaching the world probabilistically, as machine learning does, this software was programmed to apply basic physical concepts to the output of the programs that process signals from an autonomous² vehicle's sensors³.

该软件不像机器学习那样以概率的方式认知世界，而是将基本的物理概念应用到处理自动驾驶汽车传感器信号的程序输出中。

This modified output was then fed to the software which drives the vehicle.

然后将修改后的输出输入驱动车辆的软件当中。

The concepts involved included the ideas that discrete⁴ objects continue to exist over time, that they have spatial⁵ relationships with one another— such as "in-front-of" and "behind"—and that they can be fully⁶ or partly visible, or completely hidden by another object.

所涉及的概念有：互相独立的物体会一直存在，它们之间有空间关系，比如“在前面”、“在后面”，它们可以完全可见、部分可见、或者完全被另一个物体挡住。

And it worked. In tests, if one car momentarily blocked the sight of another, the reasoning-enhanced software could keep track of the blocked car, predict where and when it would reappear, and take steps to avoid it if necessary.

它是有用的。在测试中，如果一辆车暂时挡住了另一辆车的视线，该推理增强软件可以追踪被挡住的车，预测它将在何时何地再次出现，并在必要时采取措施避开它。

The improvement was not huge. On standard tests Dr Bhatt's system scored about 5% better than existing software.

不过进步并不大。在标准测试中，巴特博士的系统评分比现有的软件仅高出约5%。

But it proved the principle. And it also yielded something else.

但它证明了原理，还产出了其他东西。

For, unlike a machine-learning algorithm, a reasoning engine can tell you the reason why it did what it did.

因为，推理引擎和机器学习算法不同，它可以告诉你为什么这么做。

1 Founder   

n.创始者，缔造者

参考例句：

• He was extolled as the founder of their Florentine school.他被称颂为佛罗伦萨画派的鼻祖。
• According to the old tradition,Romulus was the founder of Rome.按照古老的传说，罗穆卢斯是古罗马的建国者。

2 autonomous   

adj.自治的；独立的

参考例句：

• They proudly declared themselves part of a new autonomous province.他们自豪地宣布成为新自治省的一部分。
• This is a matter that comes within the jurisdiction of the autonomous region.这件事是属于自治区权限以内的事务。

3 sensors   

n.传感器，灵敏元件( sensor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• There were more than 2000 sensors here. 这里装有两千多个灵敏元件。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Significant changes have been noted where sensors were exposed to trichloride. 当传感器暴露在三氯化物中时，有很大变化。 来自辞典例句

4 discrete   

adj.个别的，分离的，不连续的

参考例句：

• The picture consists of a lot of discrete spots of colour.这幅画由许多不相连的色点组成。
• Most staple fibers are discrete,individual entities.大多数短纤维是不联系的单独实体。

5 spatial   

adj.空间的，占据空间的

参考例句：

• This part of brain judges the spatial relationship between objects.大脑的这部分判断物体间的空间关系。
• They said that time is the feeling of spatial displacement.他们说时间是空间位移的感觉。

6 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。