英語聽力文摘 未來智能輪胎
未來智能輪胎
Ya?l: My car is stupid, Don.
Don: What do you mean, Ya?l?
Y：I turn the key, the engine ignites. I turn the steering wheel, the wheels move. And that’s it!
D: Well, what you expect? That’s how a car works.
Y：I know, but cars are so rigidly mechanical, you know, it’s like when we removed the horses to make horseless carriages; they took away the only intelligent part of the carriages!
D: So you want to go back to the horse-baggage days?
Y：No, but it would be cool, if cars are more intelligent.
D: You mean like be able to sense things and react to them, like a horse mind?
Y：Right, actually there are designers and engineers at MIT working on a new kind of three-wheeled car–a new kind of wheel actually. It’s a sort of “smart” wheel that contains most of the mechanical parts of the car–drive train, suspension, and braking. And the wheels have artificial intelligence–they can sense obstructions and potholes in the road. And since these smart wheels can communicate with each other, they could allow cars in cities to move in flocks, like birds or sheep. Also, the wheels can turn 360 degrees, so the car can move in any direction.
D: That sounds kind of futurist. Do these kinds of cars actually exist?
Y：Sort of, there are computer models and prototypes, but it’s not like you can buy one at a car dealership.
D: Well, let me know when you can.
Ya?l: Don，我的汽車真“笨”。
Don: Ya?l，你什么意思?
Y：我擰車鑰匙，引擎發(fā)動。我轉(zhuǎn)方向盤，輪胎轉(zhuǎn)動。就是這樣。
D:汽車都是這樣呀，你還想怎么樣呢?
Y：我明白，可是這也太機械化了吧。我們用汽車代替馬車，但是卻卸下了馬車唯一智能的部分。
D:那么，你想回到馬車時代?
Y：我不想，要是汽車能更智能就太好了!
D:你是說能像馬一樣識別事物并做出反應(yīng)?
Y：沒錯，事實上，麻省理工學(xué)院的設(shè)計師和工程師已經(jīng)在研究一種新型三輪車。這是種車的“智能”輪胎具備大部分汽車的機械部分功能——驅(qū)動系統(tǒng)、懸置系統(tǒng)、制動系統(tǒng)。輪胎人工智能：能識別障礙物和道路的坑洼。另外，智能輪胎能相互交流，讓車子像鳥和羊一樣成群結(jié)隊。輪胎還能360度轉(zhuǎn)彎，這樣車可以向任何方向移動。
D:這聽起來很前衛(wèi)，這種車確實存在嗎?
Y：算吧，已經(jīng)有計算機模型和汽車原型了，但是想在車行買到可能還不太現(xiàn)實。
D:那么，可以的時候別忘了告訴我。
