【经济学人】无人驾驶汽车技术诉讼的背后|2017.05.04|总第888期

PURLOINED documents, duplicitous employees and conflicted loyalties. The race to dominate the field of self-driving cars is in its early stages, but is already full of intrigue. On May 3rd a packed courtroom watched lawyers tussle during a hearing on a lawsuit that could affect the future of autonomous-vehicle technology.

被盗的文档、两面三刀的雇员、背叛或忠诚：无人驾驶汽车领域的统治大战才刚刚开始，但各方已经争得不可开交。5月3日的法庭座无虚席，此时这里正上演一场激烈的庭审辩诉，双方律师各执一词，试图赢得这场关系到无人驾驶汽车未来走向的关键之争。

• Purloin：vt. 偷窃

• Duplicitous：adj. 奸诈的；双重的；搞两面派的

• Intrigue：n. 阴谋；诡计；复杂的事

• Autonomous：adj. 自治的；自主的；自发的

On one side is Waymo, the self-driving car unit owned by Google’s parent company, Alphabet. It has accused Uber, a ride-hailing firm, of using stolen technology to develop its autonomous-driving capabilities. The origin of the dispute was a deal last summer when Uber spent $680m to buy Otto, a self-driving lorry firm. Anthony Levandowski, who had worked at Alphabet for ten years and played a big role in its self-driving efforts, had co-founded the startup, which was just seven months old when Uber bought it.

其中一方是Google母公司Alphabet下属主营无人驾驶汽车的分公司Waymo。该公司控告专车服务公司Uber使用盗取的技术开发其无人驾驶功能。这场争论的起因要追溯到去年夏天，Uber斥资6.8亿美元购买

了刚刚成立7个月的无人驾驶货车公司Otto。而Otto的联合创始人Anthony Levandowski曾在Alphabet供职十年之久，其十年的从业经验使Otto在无人驾驶技术的开发中起到了重要作用。

• Ride-hailing：打车服务

• Dispute：vt. 辩论；怀疑；阻止；抗拒

• Lorry：n. （英）卡车；[车辆] 货车

Before leaving Alphabet to start Otto, Waymo claims, Mr Levandowski illegally downloaded around 14,000 computer files that contained proprietary information about its lidar technology. Lidar uses lasers to scan a vehicle’s surroundings and is essential for many self-driving systems. Mr Levandowski has not directly addressed many of Waymo’s allegations. He has invoked the Fifth Amendment to avoid making statements that could be self-incriminating. The government could choose to bring criminal charges in the months ahead, and Mr Levandowski has hired his own civil and criminal defence lawyers.

Waymo宣称，Levandowski在离开Alphabet创立Otto之前曾非法下载了大约14000份计算机文件，其中包含有关激光定位器技术的产权信息。激光定位器利用激光扫描汽车四周情况，是多数无人驾驶系统的核心技术。但Levandowski并未正面回应Waymo的指控，而是根据美国宪法第五修正案，避免因做出陈述而自证其罪。政府将在接下来的几个月中择日提起刑事控告，Levandowski则自行聘请了民事和刑事辩护律师。

• Lidar：n. 激光雷达；激光定位器

• Allegation：n. 指控; 陈述，主张; 宣称; 陈词，陈述

• Self-incriminating：自证其罪的

Uber, for its part, has firmly rejected the allegations, and says that its lidar is different from Waymo’s. It had been working on autonomous cars well before it bought Otto, it points out. But the very fact of the lawsuit comes at a bad time for Uber, which is under fire for having a rough-and-tumble culture that values winning at all costs. The lawsuit may also have hurt Uber’s ability to recruit employees to help develop its autonomous efforts. Because of it, no one knows which technologies the firm will be able to use.

Uber就其本身而言坚决否认这些指控，并表示其激光定位器不同于Waymo的激光定位器。Uber指出，自己的无人驾驶汽车技术研发远早于收购Otto。但对于Uber来说，这场诉讼来得非常不是时候。Uber进退维谷，所以它需要不惜代价地取得胜诉——该诉讼会使Uber难以招募新人帮助继续研发无人驾驶技术，因为大家都不清楚到底哪项技术是可以使用的。

• Rough-and-tumble：adj. 混乱的

As a result, the outcome could affect the landscape for autonomous-vehicle technology. Alphabet has been working on self-driving cars since 2009 but now faces lots of competition. It has watched established carmakers and younger rivals accelerate their efforts. Uber has been scrambling to develop autonomous capabilities lest another company come up with a cheaper ride-hailing service using self-driving cars. A federal judge was expected to decide whether to grant Waymo’s request for an injunction as The Economist went to press. Such an outcome could bar Uber from using its lidar technology until the case goes to trial in October.

这场交锋的结果将左右无人驾驶汽车产品的市场格局。Alphabet自2009年起便致力于无人驾驶汽车的研发，而今它要面对层出不穷的竞争对手。它亲眼目睹了声名卓著的汽车制造商和初出茅庐的新兴竞争企业不断的成长。Uber之所以选择介入无人驾驶汽车的研发竞赛，是因为它害怕其它公司使用无人驾驶汽车提供更低廉的专车服务。截至本文发刊时，联邦法官正在决定是否批准将Waymo的诉求转为禁令。其结果将是，直至该案于十月份正式宣判之前，Uber都将被禁止使用其激光定位器技术。

• Lest：conj. 唯恐，以免；担心

As well as revealing cut-throat competition over self-driving car technology, the case draws attention to how intertwined rivals often are in Silicon Valley. Alphabet is one of Uber’s largest shareholders. Its venture-capital arm, Google Ventures, made a $250m investment in Uber in 2013. Until last year David Drummond, Alphabet’s chief legal officer, sat on Uber’s board.

除了在无人驾驶汽车技术上赤膊相向，该案还在其他方面吸引了人们的注意力，即为什么硅谷企业之间经常会发生一些错综复杂的纠纷。Alphabet是Uber的最大股东之一，其风险投资部门Google Ventures在2013年向Uber投资了2.5亿美元。直到去年，Alphabet的首席法务官David Drummond还是Uber的董事会成员。

• Intertwined：adj. 缠绕的；错综复杂的

Firms allow star employees to develop complex loyalties, too.(读者试译） It has emerged in legal documents that at Alphabet, Mr Levandowski had two self-driving startups on the side. Alphabet dealt with this by quietly buying the firms for a reported total of $50m, presumably wanting to keep him and to stop rivals acquiring his startups.

（期待您的翻译，明天会有针对这句话的长难句解析哟~）根据Alphabet的法律文档，Levandowski还另外创立了两家无人驾驶技术公司。而对此，Alphabet的回应则是悄无声息地购买了这些公司，据报道交易金额为总计5千万美元。这一做法大概是希望挽留Levandowski，并避免对手购买他的新创公司。

• Presumably：adv. 大概；推测起来；可假定

Uber last month demoted Mr Levandowski so that he no longer leads the company’s autonomous initiatives. The future of ferrying things and people about will rely on self-driving technology. Uber’s acquisition of Otto seemed a far-sighted bet not long ago. But now it looks like Uber’s riskiest decision yet.

Levandowski上个月被Uber降职，不再担任公司无人驾驶技术研发的主管职务。未来的交通运输业将是无人驾驶技术的天下。不久之前，Uber选择购买Otto还似乎颇有远见；而今，这一举动看上去是Uber最为鲁莽冒进的决策了。

• Ferrying：v. （用船、木筏等）渡运（人、物、汽车等）；渡运飞机；摆渡

翻译 ▍陌生

审核 ▍妖精

图文编辑 ▍太止

责任编辑 ▍毛毛