2020年经济学人 无人送货机的防护(1)

Internet shopping makes buying things easier, but has also led to the rise of a new kind of thief: the porch pirate.

网络让购物变得更加容易，但也导致了一种新型偷窃的兴起：包裹窃贼。

Porch pirates scour¹ door steps for deliveries that have been made when a householder was out, and nab them.

包裹窃贼会在住户外出时，在门口的台阶上搜寻投送的快递，然后把快递劫走。

Sometimes, they will stalk delivery vans to do so.

有时他们会跟踪送货车进行偷窃。

Residents of New York City, for example, lose an astonishing 90,000 parcels every day to porch pirates,

例如，根据《纽约时报》的报道，纽约市的居民每天因包裹窃贼

according to a report in the New York Times

而丢失多达9万个包裹。

Porch piracy² is a problem that may be solved by the spread of parcel-delivering drones.

无人送货机的普及或许可以解决包裹窃贼的问题。

Because each drone delivery involves a separate journey, rather than having to be fitted into a round,

因为每一架无人机都直送一家货物，而不是来回运送多家，

it will be easier for courier and customer to agree on when a drone should arrive than on the arrival time of a van.

所以快递员和客户更容易就送货时间达成一致，而不是货车何时到达。

However Nirupam Roy and Nakul Garg, a pair of engineers at the University of Maryland,

但是，马里兰大学的两位工程师Nirupam Roy和Nakul Garg

worry that drone deliveries are open to a different sort of piracy—hijacking. A drone in flight is easily upset.

担心无人送货机可能会遭遇另一种类型的盗窃——空中劫持。飞行中的无人机很容易受干扰。

A well-aimed stone, baseball or similar missile is enough to bring it down, permitting its payload to be purloined³.

一枚瞄准好的石头、棒球或类似的投掷就足以将其击落，使其运送货物被窃取。

Nor need such stone-throwers have pecuniary⁴ motives⁵.

这些扔石头的人也不需要有金钱动机。

Vandalism, or irritation⁶ with the very presence of drones, might also provoke pot shots.

破坏公物或对无人机的存在感到不满，都可能会引发枪击事件。

High-flying drones, like those employed by the police for surveillance, will normally be out of range of such activity.

高空飞行的无人机，比如那些被警方用于监视的无人机，通常会超出这种活动的范围。

But parcel drones will have to fly low, at least for part of their journeys.

但是运送包裹的无人机必须低空飞行，至少在运送过程中需要这样。

To counter this risk the pair therefore propose to build a lightweight,

为了应对该风险，两人提议建造一个轻量级的

low-power self-defence mechanism⁷ which lets a drone sense a missile fast enough to get out of its way.

低功率自卫机制，让无人机能够迅速感应投掷以躲避开来。

That is nowhere near as easy as it might sound. Drones are lean machines, provided with only enough battery strength,

这远没有听起来那么容易。无人机是一种精简的机器，只有提供足够的电池强度、

computing⁸ power and payload-carrying capacity to do the job they are designed for.

计算能力和有效载荷，它们才能完成自己的工作。

1 scour   

v.搜索；擦，洗，腹泻，冲刷

参考例句：

• Mother made me scour the family silver.母亲让我擦洗家里的银器。
• We scoured the telephone directory for clues.我们仔细查阅电话簿以寻找线索。

2 piracy   

n.海盗行为，剽窃，著作权侵害

参考例句：

• The government has already adopted effective measures against piracy.政府已采取有效措施惩治盗版行为。
• They made the place a notorious centre of piracy.他们把这地方变成了臭名昭著的海盗中心。

3 purloined   

v.偷窃( purloin的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• You have chosen align yourself with those who have purloined the very seat of your existence. 你们选择了将自己与那些盗取了你们存在之真正席位的人相校准。 来自互联网

4 pecuniary   

adj.金钱的；金钱上的

参考例句：

• She denies obtaining a pecuniary advantage by deception.她否认通过欺骗手段获得经济利益。
• She is so independent that she refused all pecuniary aid.她很独立，所以拒绝一切金钱上的资助。

5 motives   

n.动机，目的( motive的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• to impeach sb's motives 怀疑某人的动机
• His motives are unclear. 他的用意不明。

6 irritation   

n.激怒，恼怒，生气

参考例句：

• He could not hide his irritation that he had not been invited.他无法掩饰因未被邀请而生的气恼。
• Barbicane said nothing,but his silence covered serious irritation.巴比康什么也不说，但是他的沉默里潜伏着阴郁的怒火。

7 mechanism   

n.机械装置；机构，结构

参考例句：

• The bones and muscles are parts of the mechanism of the body.骨骼和肌肉是人体的组成部件。
• The mechanism of the machine is very complicated.这台机器的结构是非常复杂的。

8 computing   

n.计算

参考例句：

• to work in computing 从事信息处理
• Back in the dark ages of computing, in about 1980, they started a software company. 早在计算机尚未普及的时代（约1980年），他们就创办了软件公司。