There's a technology revolution in the auto¹ business, and it involves more than streaming radio apps and voice-activated Facebook updates.

汽车行业正在经历一场技术变革，而且不止是网络电台应用和声控Facebook更新那么简单。

Consumers who haven't shopped for a new car for five or more years -- and that's a lot of people, since the average U.S. vehicle has been on the road for just over a decade -- may encounter some exotic new advances.

在美国公路上奔驰的汽车平均年龄为10年多一点，很多消费者至少已有五年没有购置新车。当他们进入车市，也许会发现汽车多了一些新奇的高科技功能。

To attract safety-conscious drivers, some car makers² are revisiting the question, 'Is there anywhere else we can stash³ an air bag?' Night-vision systems not unlike what the military uses to spot enemies in the dark are appearing at the upper reaches of the luxury market. And to meet tougher fuel-economy standards, car makers are installing transmissions with up to nine speeds.

为吸引注重安全的车主，一些汽车制造商正在重新考虑一个问题：“还有没有更多的地方可以放置安全气囊？”顶级的豪华车市场已出现汽车夜视系统，可以媲美军队用于在黑暗中识别敌人的夜视技术。为符合越来越严格的燃油经济性标准，制造商正在汽车上配备高达九速的变速箱。

Only a few customers might order such novel features. But what starts out as a costly⁴, brand-burnishing option in a luxury sedan often migrates into wider use as technology prices invariably drop. Here's a sample of new technology hitting showrooms this year.

目前，只有少数消费者愿意花钱选购这样的新奇功能。然而，豪华车上一些价格高昂、彰显品牌的选配项目往往会在技术成本不可避免地日趋降低后一举成为广泛应用的大众配置。下文列出了2013年出现的一些高科技。

Click an Inflatable Seat Belt

气囊安全带

Auto makers and safety-technology suppliers such as Sweden's Autoliv have developed shoulder straps⁵ with air bags built in. In the U.S., Ford⁶ Motor Co. was the first to offer this bag-in-belt technology on 2011 Explorers. Now, Mercedes-Benz will offer it on its new S-Class sedans.

汽车制造商以及瑞典奥托立夫公司(Autoliv)等安全技术供应商已研究出集成安全气囊的安全肩带。在美国，福特汽车公司(Ford Motor Co.)首开先河，在2011款Explorer汽车上安装了气囊安全带。现在，梅赛德斯-奔驰公司(Mercedes-Benz)也在其新款S级轿车上提供这一配置。

Although traditional lap and shoulder belts prevent thousands of deaths a year, they can also cause what researchers call 'seat-belt syndrome⁷.' The belts can lead to severe injuries to organs, muscles and spines⁸, especially in violent crashes. Inflatable seat belts are meant to reduce this risk. Traditional air-bag systems mounted in the car's steering⁹ wheel and elsewhere use a hot gas to rapidly inflate¹⁰ the bag during a crash. To prevent burns, bag-in-belt systems use a cold gas to inflate its protective bladder.

虽然传统的腰带式和肩带式安全带每年都能防止数千起死亡事故，但也会引起研究人员所谓的“安全带并发症”(seat-belt syndrome)。安全带可能导致人体组织、肌肉和脊椎的严重损伤，尤其是在猛烈的撞车事故中。气囊安全带的应用正是为了降低这一风险。传统的气囊系统一般安装在汽车的方向盘等地方，在撞车时点燃固态燃料并产生气体，使气囊迅速膨胀。为防止乘客被炙热气体灼伤，气囊安全带使用冷气体来给气囊充气。

Ford says it currently offers bag-in-belt systems on four models -- the Explorer, the Flex¹¹ wagon¹² and the Lincoln MKT. About 25% of people who buy those vehicles order the bag-in-belt option, Ford says. Mercedes says it will likely move the technology into other models, but isn't outlining specific plans.

福特公司表示，其目前在四款车型上提供气囊安全带，分别为Explorer、Flex旅行车和林肯(Lincoln)MKT。在购买上述车型的消费者中，约有25%选购了气囊安全带配置。梅赛德斯-奔驰公司称，其打算将这一技术运用到其他车型上，但还没有公布具体计划。

Spot Pedestrians¹³ in the Dark

夜视行人识别系统

Safety regulators around the world are increasingly focused on motor-vehicle accidents involving pedestrians, and that's spurring development of new systems to help drivers see people on foot before it's too late.

全球的汽车安全监管部门都越来越重视涉及行人的机动车事故，这刺激了用于帮助驾车者提前发现行人以及时采取避险措施的新系统的研发。

More than 4,000 pedestrians a year die in the U.S. after being hit by a car. Nearly 70,000 were injured in motor-vehicle accidents in 2011, according to government data. Many of these incidents happen at night.

在美国，每年有超过4,000个行人因撞车事故死亡。据美国政府公布的数据，2011年，因机动车事故受伤的行人数量接近70,00人；很多事故都在夜间发生。

This year, German luxury brand BMW AG is launching a 'dynamic-spotlight' technology that uses an infrared¹⁴ camera mounted behind the grille to see down the road ahead. Software can pick out the outline of a person (or animal) and signal the car's headlights to illuminate¹⁵ them -- and help prevent a collision. The system also shows an in-cabin alert, projecting an icon¹⁶ representing a person enclosed in a yellow triangle onto either a dashboard screen or the windshield.

2013年，德国豪华车品牌宝马公司(BMW AG)推出“dynamic-spotlight”夜视系统，通过安装在汽车前格栅后面的红外线摄像头来观察前方路面情况，相关软件能够识别行人（或动物）的外形轮廓，启动汽车前大灯照亮前方，协助避免碰撞事故的发生。该系统也有驾驶舱提示功能，发现行人时系统会在仪表盘屏幕上显示或在挡风玻璃上投射一个黄色三角形内置人形的图标。

Design Your Own Dashboard

设计自己的仪表盘

Dashboards used to be static displays with mechanical dials and gauges¹⁷. Now, auto makers are ditching the dials in favor of programmable screens that can display more information and allow drivers to personalize the look of the cockpit displays.

汽车仪表盘曾经是静态显示的各种机械表盘。现在，汽车制造商正在采用可以编程的屏幕，用于显示更多信息，并允许驾驶者自行定制仪表盘界面。

The new Lexus IS F-Sport model, due out this June, uses a thin-film transistor¹⁸ display and a moving tachometer dial (which measures RPMs) to create a hybrid¹⁹ of the traditional and the new. The technology is adapted from Lexus's super sports car, the LFA. By toggling a control on the steering wheel, the driver can get the big dial in the center of the dashboard to move to the right, revealing a flat-screen display that can be customized for two different drivers. 'We can change languages, miles per hour to kilometers' and show information such as route guidance, says Bill Camp of Lexus's training operation, Lexus University.

新款雷克萨斯(Lexus) IS F-Sport车型计划于2013年6月推出，其仪表盘采用雷克萨斯超级跑车LFA上的技术，通过薄膜晶体管屏幕和一个发动机转速表，打造出传统与创新相结合的显示方式。驾驶者可以拨动方向盘上的控制键，将仪表盘中央的大表盘移到右边，腾出空间来为两类不同的驾驶者定制表盘。雷克萨斯公司内训部门“雷克萨斯大学”(Lexus University)的比尔??坎普(Bill Camp)说：“我们可以改变仪表盘的显示语种，切换英里和公里计量方式”，并能显示路面导航等信息。

Shift Into Ninth Gear

九速变速箱

Ever-tougher federal demands for fuel efficiency have led car makers to add more gears to transmissions. And more. And more.

美国政府对汽车燃油经济性日益严格的要求迫使汽车制造商增加变速箱档位。没有最多，只有更多。

You don't have to be very old to remember when most cars came with four-speed transmissions. Now, Chrysler Group LLC says it will introduce a nine-speed gearbox designed to fit into a relatively²⁰ small, front-wheel-drive car.

即便不是年纪很大的人也能回忆起大多数汽车都采用四速变速箱的时代。现在，克莱斯勒集团(Chrysler Group LLC)称其将推出一款九速变速箱，用于尺寸相对较小的前轮驱动汽车。

ZF Friedrichshafen AG, the German company that makes the nine-speed transmission, says it can improve fuel economy by 10% to 16% compared with a six-speed automatic, mainly because it offers a wider spread of gears to keep the engine in the 'sweet spot,' where it's turning as slowly as possible to stay at a certain speed.

九速变速箱制造商德国采埃孚股份公司(ZF Friedrichshafen AG)表示，与六速自动变速箱相比，九速变速箱能提高燃油经济性10%到16%，主要是由于其齿轮组传递范围更广泛，能在特定的发动机转速下延缓切档，保持引擎处于“最有效点”。

Such a transmission's challenge lies largely in the software that controls the vehicle's shifting. Too much and drivers could feel as if the car is constantly changing gear and not running smoothly²¹. Too little and the fuel-economy benefits don't materialize.

这类变速箱的主要挑战在于一个智能控制换档的软件。如果换档过于频繁，驾驶者可能感觉得到，认为发动机运行不够平滑顺畅。如果换档过少，燃油经济性的好处就不能得以体现。

Michael Ebenhoch, director of ZF's front-drive transmission development, says that with nine speeds, 'we are getting closer to the maximum' for a passenger car. On the other hand, he says, 'the guy who developed the five speed said we don't need six.'

采埃孚公司前轮驱动变速箱研发组的负责人迈克尔??艾本诺克(Michael Ebenhoch)说，九速变速箱“已接近乘用车变速箱的档位极限”，但从另一方面来说，“当年开发五速变速箱的人也说过今后不再需要六速变速箱”。

Drive by Computer

电脑自动驾驶

Traditionally, steering a car has involved a series of mechanical connections that allow the wheel in your hands to guide the four wheels on the road. Infiniti's new Q50 sedan -- which replaces the current G series in the Nissan Motor Corp. luxury brand's lineup -- boasts the industry's first so-called steer-by-wire system, which swaps²² out those mechanical elements with an all-electronic system.

以往，汽车转向涉及一系列机械传动，让驾驶者通过手中的方向盘指引汽车的四个轮子。英菲尼迪(Infiniti)新款Q50轿车旨在替代日产汽车公司(Nissan Motor Corp.)高端的G系列车型，宣称其在行业内率先使用了所谓的线控转向系统(steer-by-wire system)，将转向过程中的机械环节全部替换为电子系统。

Proponents²³ say an electronic signal can be faster than a mechanical linkage²⁴ at translating what the driver does with the steering wheel to the road. The electronic system also allows drivers to choose among four different degrees of serenity²⁵ or sportiness in the handling. If the electronics fail, Infiniti says a backup mechanical-linkage system will keep the car under control.

支持者表示，全电子系统能更快地对驾驶者的转向意图做出反应，驾驶者可以选择四种不同程度的转向处理方式，或注重平稳，或彰显运动。英菲尼迪称，如电子转向系统失灵，备用的机械连接系统能够避免汽车失控。

The steer-by-wire system is part of an array of technology on board the Q50, including advanced cruise control and radar-enabled braking, that allows the driver to take control when the road is fun and twisty, but also enables the car to handle a lot of driving work itself during a routine commute²⁶.

线控转向系统是Q50车型上一系列高科技配置中的一部分，此外还有先进的巡航系统和自动刹车雷达，不但能让驾驶者自如应对地形复杂的路段，还能让汽车在常规驾驶时自动处理许多行车事宜。