密歇根新闻广播 底特律市从汽车城到移动城的转变之路

 

For the last century, almost since the day Henry Ford's first assembly line started rolling in 1913, Detroit has been known as the Motor City. It was a regional point of pride that cars made in Michigan could be found zipping down roadways in every U.S. state and across the globe.

That image has been battered¹ in recent decades as factories have been shuttered and work forces trimmed. But today a new vision is emerging, one in which Detroit specializes not only in building cars, but in all things transportation. That includes new technologies like autonomous² vehicles, but it also means connecting those technologies to services like public transportation and bike shares.

In short: everything that moves people, goods, or information from point A to point B. Call it the "Mobility³ City."

Of course, Detroit is not the only place working to become a leader in 21st century transportation networks. Pittsburgh, for example, recently launched a partnership⁴ with the ride-sharing company Uber, and now has autonomous vehicles crawling its streets. In Silicon⁵ Valley, companies like Google and Tesla have been advancing their own vision of mobility.

But according to Glenn Stevens, the executive director of MICHauto, Detroit has a number of advantages that those cities simply cannot match. "There's more automotive and connective vehicle research being done here than anywhere in the world," he told us. "But we have to leverage⁶ all that for our future."

Efforts to do so are already underway. There are much-publicized projects like Mcity and the American Center for Mobility, two multi-million dollar autonomous vehicle testing facilities planned for the region. Equally important are many smaller developments that have not generated headlines.

Jean Redfield is the CEO of the Detroit-based non-profit NextEnergy. She said Michigan's culture emphasizes accomplishments⁷ over possibilities, which may obscure some of the work already being done.

"We do have mobility pilots active in the city. They're a little below-the-radar compared to the big splashy Uber announcements in places like Pittsburgh," she told us.

One development that did make headlines: The recent passage in Lansing of legislation that will ease development and testing of autonomous vehicles on Michigan roads. One legislator likened the state's efforts to become a mobility leader to the 20th-century space race.

Redfield sees some truth in that analogy. She thinks that, if anything, mobility presents an even more complex problem than the moonshot.

"The challenge is, it's not a single-minded focus," she told us. "The space race was ‘land on the moon.' The connected-technologies future is a whole ecosystem⁸ of new technologies, new business models, and new players coming in and working with established players in new and different ways. So it's as aggressive as the space race, and even harder to go after."

Yet, despite those challenges, both Redfield and Stevens are optimistic that Detroit will emerge as the mobility leader. Part of the reason for that optimism? Detroit has already reshaped the transportation world once before.

"We put the world on wheels, so why not put the world into an autonomous vehicle?" Stevens said. "And I think that's what we're going to do."

1 battered   

adj.磨损的；v.连续猛击；磨损

参考例句：

• He drove up in a battered old car.他开着一辆又老又破的旧车。
• The world was brutally battered but it survived.这个世界遭受了惨重的创伤,但它还是生存下来了。

2 autonomous   

adj.自治的；独立的

参考例句：

• They proudly declared themselves part of a new autonomous province.他们自豪地宣布成为新自治省的一部分。
• This is a matter that comes within the jurisdiction of the autonomous region.这件事是属于自治区权限以内的事务。

3 mobility   

n.可动性，变动性，情感不定

参考例句：

• The difference in regional house prices acts as an obstacle to mobility of labour.不同地区房价的差异阻碍了劳动力的流动。
• Mobility is very important in guerrilla warfare.机动性在游击战中至关重要。

4 partnership   

n.合作关系，伙伴关系

参考例句：

• The company has gone into partnership with Swiss Bank Corporation.这家公司已经和瑞士银行公司建立合作关系。
• Martin has taken him into general partnership in his company.马丁已让他成为公司的普通合伙人。

5 silicon   

n.硅(旧名矽)

参考例句：

• This company pioneered the use of silicon chip.这家公司开创了使用硅片的方法。
• A chip is a piece of silicon about the size of a postage stamp.芯片就是一枚邮票大小的硅片。

6 leverage   

n.力量，影响；杠杆作用，杠杆的力量

参考例句：

• We'll have to use leverage to move this huge rock.我们不得不借助杠杆之力来移动这块巨石。
• He failed in the project because he could gain no leverage. 因为他没有影响力，他的计划失败了。

7 accomplishments   

n.造诣；完成( accomplishment的名词复数 )；技能；成绩；成就

参考例句：

• It was one of the President's greatest accomplishments. 那是总统最伟大的成就之一。
• Among her accomplishments were sewing,cooking,playing the piano and dancing. 她的才能包括缝纫、烹调、弹钢琴和跳舞。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

8 ecosystem   

n.生态系统

参考例句：

• This destroyed the ecosystem of the island.这样破坏了岛上的生态系统。
• We all have an interest in maintaining the integrity of the ecosystem.维持生态系统的完整是我们共同的利益。