通用汽車將在幾年內為拼車服務公司Lyft部署自動駕駛汽車網絡，但有一個條件。GM負責策略和全球業務規劃的副總裁麥克?埃布爾森在上周二的參議院聽證會上表示，剛開始這些自動駕駛車輛將配備司機。

在這次自動駕駛車輛聽證會上，埃布爾森說GM希望通過拼車來推廣自動駕駛汽車技術。

他指出：“我們對這項技術的推廣將從配備駕駛員的車輛開始，原因是我們確實也認為自己需要收集數據，并且確保這些系統的運轉情況符合我們的預期。隨后我們才會真的開始部署沒有司機的車輛。我們認為按照這樣的框架，我們可以用非常安全的方式來開發和使用這項技術。”

埃布爾森稱，GM預計沒有司機的自動駕駛汽車將在今后幾年內出現。

他還說：“此類無人車輛真正投入使用的時間，將取決于技術發展的水平以及和監管部門商定出的標準。”

GM的目標是率先推出自動駕駛汽車。該公司首席執行官兼董事長瑪麗?芭拉在2月份的業績通報會上曾提到這一點。GM及其新業務伙伴Lyft相信，要把自動駕駛汽車技術帶給大眾，覆蓋范圍最廣、成本最低的途徑就是拼車。雖然拼車技術已經成熟，但自動駕駛車輛仍存在一系列技術、安全、監管、法律和網絡安全問題。解決這些問題后，自動駕駛車輛才能為公眾所用。

不過，GM的做法并非沒有風險。目前還不清楚該公司的第一批自動駕駛汽車會是什么樣。比如說，它們是全自動的嗎？會安裝方向盤和踏板，以便駕駛者在必要時控制車輛嗎？如果是的話，假如通過Lyft平臺前來拼車的普通人恰巧沒怎么學過開車，GM就得承擔相當大的責任。

GM悄悄地開發自動駕駛汽車技術已有一段時間。但在過去一年中，GM對這項計劃變得特別公開和積極。

今年1月，GM向Lyft投資5億美元。就此發布公告后不久，GM就推出了名為Maven的拼車服務，它囊括了GM現有的幾個測試項目，而且進行了擴展。

GM還收購了Sidecar的資產，后者是一家叫車服務商，現已停止運營。上周，GM斥資逾10億美元收購了從事自動駕駛汽車技術開發的初創公司Cruise Automation。本周一，GM和Lyft推出了車輛短租項目，目的是讓更多司機參與到叫車服務中。

谷歌、德爾福和Lyft的高層以及杜克大學人類和自主實驗室主任也在這次自動駕駛車輛聽證會上作了證。(財富中文網)

譯者：Charlie

校對：詹妮

General Motors will deploy a network of self-driving cars within Lyft’s service in a couple of years—but with a catch. In the beginning, those automated vehicles will have drivers, said Mike Ableson, GM’s vice president of strategy and global portfolio planning, during a Senate Commerce hearing on last Tuesday.

GM envisions introducing self-driving car technology through ride-sharing, Ableson said during the discussion on autonomous vehicles.

“We would introduce it originally as vehicles with drivers, because we do agree we need to collect data and make sure the systems are operating as we expect them to before we actually start deploying the vehicles without drivers,” Ableson said. “We think this offers a framework that we can develop and deploy this technology in a very safe way.”

Ableson said GM expects the self-driving vehicles with drivers to appear within the next couple of years.

“When they actually start working without drivers will depend on how the technology develops and what the criteria agreed with the regulators are,” he added.

GM’s aim is to be the first to introduce self-driving cars—an intention that CEO and Chairman Mary Barra mentioned in the company’s February earnings call with analysts. General Motorsand its new business partner Lyft, believe ridesharing is the broadest, most cost effective way to bring self-driving car technology to the masses. And while ridesharing technology is ready to go, self-driving cars still have a number of technical, safety, regulatory, legal, and cybersecurity issues to be solved before they can be used by the public.

But the company’s approach isn’t without risk. It isn’t clear what these first GM self-driving cars would look like. For example, will they be fully autonomous cars that are equipped with steering wheels and pedals so a driver could take control, if needed? If so, the automaker faces considerable liability if a regular person who happens to give rides through the Lyft platform isn’t properly trained.

GM has worked quietly on autonomous vehicle technology for some time. In the past year, it’s been particularly public and aggressive about its plans.

In January, the automaker invested $500 million into Lyft. Shortly after that announcement, the the company launched a car-sharing service called Maven, which combines and expands several of its existing test programs under one brand.

GM also purchased the assets of the now defunctride-hailing service Sidecar, and last week spentmore than $1 billion for self-driving tech startup Cruise Automation. On Monday, GM and Lyft launched a short-term car rental program aimed at bringing on more drivers to the ride-hailing service.

Executives from Google, Delphi, and Lyft, as well as the director of Duke University’s Humans and Autonomy Lab also testified at the hearing on self-driving cars.