VOA慢速英语:Navigation App Helps Predict Traffic Conditions

From VOA Learning English, this is the Technology Report in Special English.
来自美国之音慢速英语，这里是科技报道。
 
From New Delhi to Beijing, commuters spend a lot of time stuck in traffic. In the United States, Los Angeles and San Francisco tie for second place for having the worst traffic problems. Washington, D.C. is in first place with the worst traffic, according to the Texas A&M Transportation Institute.
从新德里到北京，上班族堵在路上耗费了大量时间。据德州农工大学交通研究所称，在美国，洛杉矶和旧金山是交通拥堵排名第二，而华盛顿是交通问题最糟糕的的地方。

In Los Angeles, drivers spend sixty-one hours every year stuck in traffic. These drivers know all too well how bad the traffic can be.
洛杉矶的驾车者每年堵在路上的时间为61小时，他们太清楚交通状况有多糟糕了。

“It’s a prison of cars. There’s too many cars, you can’t move around a lot.”
“这简直是汽车监狱，车太多了，你根本走不动。”

“I get very frustrated. I try to listen to some music, maybe snap my fingers or something to try to pass the time.”
“太让人沮丧了，我设法听点音乐、打响指或别的事来打发时间。”

Professor Cyrus Shahabi also knows about traffic jams. He lives more than 65 kilometers from his office at the University of Southern California, in Los Angeles. He is always late even with the help of a navigation system.
Cyrus Shahabi教授也很了解堵车状况，他住的地方距离洛杉矶南加州大学的办公室65公里多，即使有导航系统的帮助他也总是迟到。

He and PhD student Ugur Demiryurek decided to develop an app for that. The ClearPath app claims to do what other navigation systems cannot. Professor Shahabi says his program uses historical data to predict traffic conditions even before the driver leaves the house.
他和博士生Ugur Demiryurek决定为此开发一个应用，据说ClearPath应用可以做其他导航系统无法做到的事。 Shahabi教授称该项目使用历史数据来预测交通状况，甚至在驾车者离开家之前就在预测了。

"What’s unique is that we utilize a lot of data that’s currently become available including traffic data, weather data, and we analyze that so that we can predict what’s going to happen in front of you when you leave home.”
“它与众不同的是，我们利用大量目前可获得的数据，我们分析包括交通数据、天气数据等数据，这样我们就能预测出你离开家之后的交通状况。”

ClearPath uses two and a half years worth of traffic data from 9,000 sensors on the roads of Los Angeles. It also collects information on accidents.
ClearPath使用了两年半的时间内从洛杉矶9000个传感器获得的交通数据，它还会收集事故信息。

“Now you are driving and there’s an accident in front of you, but the accident is 20 minutes away. And you know from historical data that that accident would clear by the time you get there. We can take that into account and send you towards the accident because we think by the time you get there, there wouldn’t be any accident.”
“现在你驾车的时候，如果遇到前方出现事故，但到达事故地要20分钟。这样通过历史数据就可知道，等你到那里的时候事故已经清理完了。我们会把这些考虑在内，将你导向事故发生地点。因为我们认为在你到达那里时事故已经清理完毕。”

Professor Shahabi says his system does more than just respond to current traffic conditions. With ClearPath, he says, a driver can enter what time he wants to leave on a specific time and date, and ClearPath will give the fastest route. It looks at the entire road network, including surface streets as well as highways, before the driver hits the road.
Shahabi教授说，他的系统不仅可以对目前的交通状况做出应对，他说，有了ClearPath，司机可以输入他想要出发的时间，ClearPath将给出最快的路线。 它会在司机上路之前查看整个路网，包括平面道路和高速公路。

Ugur Demiryurek says they will launch the free ClearPath app for roads in Los Angeles in two months. In a year, he and Professor Shahabi hope to have ClearPath available nationwide and overseas once they can collect traffic data from other cities.
Ugur Demiryurek说，他们两个月后将在洛杉矶的道路上免费启动ClearPath应用。他和Shahabi教授希望一旦收集了其他城市的交通信息，一年后能在全国和海外推广这个应用。

“I thought always that L.A. had the worst traffic, but now I know that Shanghai, Beijing, Seoul, Tokyo, believe it or not, Singapore, Hong Kong definitely are examples that can immediately utilize this.”
“我总是认为洛杉矶的交通最差，但现在我知道上海、北京、首尔、东京、新加坡、香港都一样糟，这些机会我们要当即抓住。”

Professor Shahabi hopes to license this new technology to companies that already have navigation systems, such as Google and Apple.
Shahabi教授希望将这项新技术授权给已经拥有导航系统的公司，比如谷歌和苹果。