VOA慢速英语:美国邮政局测试自驾卡车运输邮件

The United States Postal Service, or USPS has begun tests with self-driving trucks to transport mail.
美国邮政局（USPS）开始测试使用自动驾驶卡车来运送邮件。
The Postal Service is partnering with a California based company, called TuSimple, on the project. The tests are being carried out over two weeks.
美国邮政局同加州一家名为TuSimple的公司在这个项目上展开了合作，测试将会为期两周时间。

Two of TuSimple's self-driving trucks will transport mail between the southwestern cities of Phoenix, Arizona and Dallas, Texas. The trucks will make five round trips between the cities. Each one will cover a distance of about 3,300 kilometers.
TuSimple公司的两辆自动驾驶卡车将会在亚利桑那州凤凰城和德克萨斯州达拉斯这两座西南城市之间运送邮件。这些卡车将会在这些城市之间进行5次往返，每次往返大约将会跨越3300公里的距离。

The testing is aimed at seeing whether the self-driving technology can reduce transportation times and costs and improve road safety. If successful, the Postal Service could deploy the trucks permanently to move mail between major U.S. population centers.
这次测试旨在了解自动驾驶技术是否可以减少运输时间和成本，并改善道路安全。如果测试成功，美国邮政局可能会在重要人口中心城市之间永久性部署这种卡车来运送邮件。

"The work with TuSimple is our first initiative in autonomous long-haul transportation," said Postal Service official Kim Frum. She told the Reuters news agency the project is part of USPS efforts "to operate a future class of vehicles" using the latest technologies.
美国邮政局官员 Kim Frum 表示：“与TuSimple公司的合作是我们在自主长途运输方面采取的第一项举措。”她对路透社表示，该项目是美国邮政局运营未来一类采用最新技术车辆的一部分。

TuSimple said a human "safety driver" will be sitting in the driver's seat at all times during the trips to intervene if necessary. An engineer will ride in the passenger seat as an observer and to take notes.
TuSimple表示，出行期间会有一位人类“安全驾驶员”始终坐在驾驶座上，在有必要的情况下进行干预。工程师将会坐在副驾位置观察并记录。

The trucks will travel on major interstate roads that pass through Arizona, New Mexico and Texas.
这些卡车将会在穿越亚利桑那州、新墨西哥州和德克萨斯州的大型州际公路上行驶。

TuSimple noted on its website the trucks are equipped with a camera system that sees about 1,000 meters down the road. It said this provides 35 seconds of reaction time, giving the system enough time "to make the safest and most efficient driving decisions."
TuSimple公司在其网站上指出，这些卡车装备了一套摄像系统，可以看到路上大约1000米的距离，这可以提供35秒的反应时间，让系统有足够时间“来做出做安全、最有效的驾驶决策。”

The California company and the USPS have yet to talk about the cost of the program, but Frum said no tax dollars were used. The Postal Service pays for its operating costs through sales of postage stamps and other products.
这家加州的公司和USPS尚未谈到该项目的成本，但是Frum表示没有用到纳税人的钱。美国邮政局通过销售邮票和其它产品来支付其运营成本。

One of the main goals of the technology is to remove the need for truck drivers.
该技术的主要目标之一是消除对卡车司机的需求。

Chuck Price is TuSimple's chief product officer. Price told Reuters he thinks the testing project is a good example of the way autonomous trucks will be used in the future. "These long runs are beyond the range of a single human driver, which means today if they do this run they have to figure out how to cover it with multiple drivers in the vehicle," he said.
Chuck Price是TuSimple公司的首席产品官。Price对路透社表示，他认为该测试项目是未来自动驾驶卡车应用方式的一个很好的例子。他说：“这种长途驾驶超出了单名驾驶员的能力范围，这意味着如果今天他们要跑这一趟，他们必须弄清楚如何凭借车内的多名驾驶员来跑完全程。”

Transportation experts say the United States is currently facing a shortage of truck drivers. The American Trucking Associations estimates there will be a shortage of as many as 174,500 drivers by the year 2024. The group says this will result from an aging workforce and the difficulty getting younger people to work as truck drivers.
运输专家表示，美国目前正面临卡车司机的短缺。美国货运协会估计，到2024年，卡车司机的缺口将会达到17.45万名。该协会表示，这是劳动力老龄化以及难以让年轻人从事卡车司机工作而导致的。

Price said self-driving trucks built to transport goods have some advantages over driverless vehicles. They generally operate on interstates that do not have the complex traffic systems found in cities. This will reduce mapping requirements for the trucks and lower safety risks involving people walking on streets or riding bicycles, Price said.
Price表示，为运输货物而建造的自动驾驶汽车比无人驾驶汽车具有部分优势。它们通常是在州际公路上运行，没有城市里那种复杂的交通系统。Priice表示，这会降低卡车地图绘制的要求，也减少了包括行人和骑自行车的人在内的安全风险。