Alibaba is experimenting with a drone delivery service as the Chinese ecommerce group seeks ever faster ways to put its goods in eager consumers’ hands.

阿里巴巴(Alibaba)正在测试无人机送货服务，这家中国电子商务集团寻求以更加快速的方式，将商品送到急切的消费者手中。

The service — using propeller-driven drones in three major Chinese cities — appears more a publicity¹ stunt² than a serious business model, but raises the question of whether using drones for short-hop logistics is viable³ on the mainland, where airspace is tightly controlled.

这项在中国三大城市测试的、使用螺旋桨驱动无人机送货的服务，似乎更像是一个宣传噱头，而不是一种正式的商业模式，但它提出了一个问题：在中国大陆使用无人机进行短途送货是否可行？中国存在严格的航空管制。

Alibaba “aren’t hinting that drone-delivery service is ripe for commercialisation in [mainland China]”, the company said.

阿里巴巴表示，该公司并不是在暗示无人机送货服务（在中国大陆）的商业化时机已经成熟。

It said the quadcopter drones were deployed⁴ in a “one-off test”, to last three days, launched in areas of Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou to whisk boxes of ginger⁵ tea to customers.

阿里巴巴称，将在北京、上海、广州三地展开为期三天的“一次性测试”，测试中将使用四轴飞行器把盒装姜茶快递给客户。

The drones would not be flown right to customers’ doors, but to central logistics sites where the “last-mile” delivery will be handled by human couriers, said Alibaba, whose online marketplaces account for about 75-80 per cent of the ecommerce in China.

该公司表示，这些无人机不会直接飞到客户门前，而是会飞到物流站点，“最后一公里”的送货将由快递员负责。阿里巴巴的在线集市占据了中国电商市场约75%到80%的份额。

The drones were deployed by logistics company YTO Express, a partner of Alibaba.

阿里巴巴的合作伙伴、物流公司圆通速递(YTO Express)执行了这次无人机送货服务。

Companies the world over have begun to experiment with unmanned aerial vehicles as part of efforts to more easily and quickly reach more remote delivery addresses.

全球各地的企业已开始测试无人机送货，以求更快捷地将货物送到较偏远的送货地址。

But regulations in China are so onerous⁶ that few believe airspace will be freed up any time soon to widespread use of whirring and buzzing quadcopter drones.

但中国的法规非常繁琐，以至于没什么人相信其领空不久之后就能开放给嗡嗡作响的四轴飞行器广泛使用。

Last June, US video artist Trey Ratcliff was detained and had his GoPro camera-equipped drone confiscated⁷ by police after he flew it over the Forbidden City in Beijing without permission.

去年6月，美国影像艺术家特里•拉特克利夫(Trey Ratcliff)在未经许可的情况下，操控装有GoPro摄像头的无人机从北京故宫上空飞过。拉特克利夫随后被逮捕，无人机也被警方没收。

“Deciding to fly a drone over China is kind of like Luke Skywalker deciding to ride his landspeeder on the Death Star,” he wrote in a blog post about the incident. “Note to self: don’t mess with these guys.”

拉特克利夫在一篇博客中对此事描述道：“决定操控无人机飞过中国上空，有点像卢克•天行者(Luke Skywalker)决定在死星(Death Star)上驾驶他的陆上飞艇(landspeeder)。自我提醒：别碰这些家伙。”

In 2013, a Shanghai bakery scrapped⁸ plans to deliver cakes within 30 minutes, using drone couriers, blaming airspace regulations.

2013年，上海一家面包店放弃了用无人机在30分钟内将糕点送到顾客手中的计划，并将原因归于航空管制。

Even in the relatively⁹ liberal US, Amazon has had to navigate¹⁰ regulatory issues as it tries to set up drone delivery services. The company, which has drone R&D testing centres in both the US and the UK, said last year that it was creating Amazon Prime Air, which aims to use pilotless flying vehicles to deliver packages to millions of customers within half an hour of orders being placed.

即使在管制相对宽松的美国，亚马逊(Amazon)在尝试建立无人机送货服务时，也必须小心应付监管问题。亚马逊在美国和英国都有无人机测试中心。去年该公司表示，正在创建Amazon Prime Air服务，其目标是利用无人飞行器将包裹送到数百万顾客手中，顾客下单后最多等半小时包裹即可送到。

However, founder¹¹ Jeff Bezos has said the service could be delayed by red tape as US authorities have yet to approve proposals for commercial drone use. Tech commentators¹² have dismissed the project as a marketing¹³ gimmick¹⁴.

然而，亚马逊创始人杰夫•贝索斯(Jeff Bezos)已表示，这项服务有可能因繁琐的审批手续而延迟推出，因为美国监管部门尚未批准使用商业无人机的方案。科技评论人士认为该计划是一个营销噱头、不必理睬。

Racing¹⁵ against Amazon to get drones into regular commercial use, Google has opted¹⁶ for test runs in Australia, as aviation authorities have yet to allow any more than limited use in the US.

在让无人机进入正规商用方面，谷歌(Google)正与亚马逊展开竞赛。谷歌选择在澳大利亚进行测试，当地航空管理部门对无人机使用的限制并不比美国宽松。