A research has shown that nearly 90 percent of traffic accidents are caused by human errors. So our aim is a fully autonomous car that gets rid of the cause of most accidents: the driver. Researcher Hodgson points out, “For safety, the faster you can remove humans, the better, even if there are unfortunately a few accidents from new causes. It s a question of balancing the number injured or killed by autonomous vehicles with the people whose lives are potentially saved.”
It’s an idea that Elon Musk, chief executive of electric car company Tesla Motors, has long believed. His company are determined to be the first to deliver a fully autonomous vehicle to consumers. Last year, Musk announced that Tesla’s 2017 goal was “to do an example drive of full autonomy all the way from LA to New York…and have the car park itself.”
However, even Tesla admits that there are problems to overcome—the software needs further validation and the appropriate regulatory approval needs to be in place. Indeed, recent crashes of Tesla vehicles and Google cars confirm that the software isn’t ready yet.
The UK government appears committed to encouraging the development of autonomous vehicles. It’s supporting four city trials, publishing the Modem Transport Bill to reduce red tape around their introduction and adapting the legal system to take into account problems such as insurance liability when a human isn’t in control of a vehicle.
The insurance industry is similarly eager to help increase autonomy in cars. As the Association of British Insurers (ABI) points out, “More than 90 per cent of road accidents are caused by human error.” This costs motor insurers a shocking £20m per day in claims.
1. What difficulty does the company Tesla Motors have?| A．New inventions may cause more injuries and deaths. |
| B．The company lacks confidence to make new creations. |
| C．The software should be made officially acceptable. |
| D．The traffic regulation has proved unreasonable. |
| A．Ambiguous. | B．Positive. |
| C．Cautious. | D．Disapproving. |
| A．Insurance companies would like to support autonomous cars. |
| B．Human mistakes may be the key cause of traffic accidents. |
| C．Traffic accidents wastes insurance companies quite a lot. |
| D．Motorists are surprised to hear about autonomous cars. |
| A．To show his deep love for autonomous cars. |
| B．To introduce a new development in technology. |
| C．To amuse readers with funny examples. |
| D．To provide a persuasive argument against autonomy. |
相似题推荐
【推荐1】Microsoft greeted the start of a new era for the internet last night, saying that it would improve its search engine and browser using artificial intelligence. The technology behind the viral ChatGPT service will be integrated into the American software group’s products.
Bing, Microsoft’s search site, and Edge, its online browser (浏览器), would be upgraded to generate everything from recipes and shopping suggestions to draft emails and social media posts in response to inquiries from users, the company said.
Microsoft revealed its plans a day after Google had announced Bard, its own chatbot, and promised further to integrate AI into its search engine. The two companies are racing to dominate AI, betting that it will revolutionise the way in which people gather information online. “Rapid innovation is going to come,” said Satya Nadella, chairman and chief executive of Microsoft. “AI will fundamentally change every software category, starting with the largest category of all: search.”
Bing would be powered by AI, and the new iteration will answer questions in a similar, conversational fashion to ChatGPT, Microsoft said. It could draft a plan for a trip to Mexico, for example, before estimating the cost and drafting an email setting out the plan for other travellers, in response to follow-up inquiries. Other queries suggested by Microsoft included whether an Ikea loveseat would fit into a 2019 Honda Odyssey and what an electronic music fan’s first festival should be.
A panel in the company’s Bdge browser will be able to compose messages or social media posts for users, based on commands regarding content, tone, format and length.
Analysts have suggested that AI could transform online search and could pose a serious threat to Google, the market leader. Bing is trying to overtake Google after enduring years in its shadow. Google, which is owned by Alphabet, once claimed that the most searched-for term on Bing was “Google”.
1. How would Microsoft update its products?| A．Equip them with the latest AI technology. |
| B．Release new search engines and browsers. |
| C．Combine its search engine and browser. |
| D．Update its service based on users’ inquiries. |
| A．People’s way of gathering information online has completely changed. |
| B．The application of AI will change people’s lives rapidly. |
| C．AI will take on the responsibility to improve software. |
| D．A search engine is the most important software for computers. |
| A．Edition. | B．Invention. | C．Application. | D．Equipment. |
| A．Bing has become the leader of developing chatbots. |
| B．Microsoft is trying to beat Google in online searching. |
| C．AI will basically change every software category. |
| D．Google has been preferred by more people than Bing. |
【推荐2】There are more than 10 million people in the world who are unable to speak and they depend on computerized equipment to provide their voices. But because there are so few recorded voices for them, the same voice used by the physicist and writer Stephen Hawking is used by little children.
When speech scientist Rupal Patel was at a meeting and saw a young girl talking to a grown man and both were using the same computer voice, she knew something had to be done. So Patel worked to create custom (定制的) voices for custom people. To start the process, a voice donor (捐赠者) records a series of short stories and sentences. They don’t record every single word a person might say, but they typically cover all the different combinations of sounds that happen in language.
The process might take between five and seven hours, but it doesn’t have to be done all at once and it can be done in the donor’s home. The voice donor can start, stop and pick up whenever it’s convenient. They’re encouraged to record from the same place each time so the sound is continuous. Those recordings are then divided into little pieces of speech to be kept in a database (数据库). The person who will receive the voice also records a few special sounds. Patel’s team then searches the voice database for a perfect voice match. Finally, that donated voice is joined with the receiver’s sounds, which makes a custom voice.
So far, more than 14,000 speakers from 120 countries have contributed to what the company, VocaliD, calls “The Human Voicebank”. People who want to donate can record from anywhere they have a computer or phone, sharing their voice with anyone who needs it or even banking it for themselves. “English speakers from English-speaking countries share their voice as part of our Human Voicebank because they want to help bring speech to the speechless,” VocaliD spokesperson Elisabeth Nuboer said. “We have voice donors all over the world, ranging in age from 6 to 91 and welcome everyone and all your wonderful voice.”
1. How do the speechless people speak, according to the passage?| A．They write their words on paper. |
| B．They use computerized equipment. |
| C．They depend on body language. |
| D．They type their words on phones. |
| A．There were so few recorded voices. |
| B．No recorded voices were for children. |
| C．Recorded voices didn’t sound perfect. |
| D．Recorded voices were not easy to understand. |
| A．Because they also need to make a contribution to the database. |
| B．Because their special sounds will be needed for the study in the future. |
| C．Because their throats need to be examined before using special equipment. |
| D．Because Patel’s team needs their special sounds to get a perfect voice match. |
| A．English-speaking voice donors are more important than others. |
| B．English is the main language in VocaliD’s Human Voicebank. |
| C．Many people around the world are willing to help the speechless. |
| D．The donor whose age is below six will be refused by the company. |
【推荐3】One argument for why robots will never fully measure up to people is because they lack human-like social skills. But researchers are experimenting with new methods to give robots social skills to better interact with humans. Two new studies provide evidence of progress in this kind of research.
One experiment was carried out by the researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT. The team developed a machine learning system for self- driving cars that is designed to learn the social characteristics of human drivers and how they act. The researchers studied driving situations to learn how human drivers on the road were likely to behave. Since not all human drivers act the same way, they meant to teach the driverless car to avoid dangerous situations.
The researchers say the technology uses tools borrowed from the field of social psychology (心理学). In this experiment, scientists created a system that attempted to decide whether a person's driving style is more selfish or selfless. In road tests, self-driving cars equipped with the system improved their ability to predict what other drivers would do by up to 25 percent.
In one test, the self-driving car was observed making a left-hand turn. The study found the system could cause the car to wait before making the turn if it predicted the oncoming (迎面驶来的) driver acted selfishly and was dangerous. But when the oncoming car was judged to be selfless, the self-driving car could make the turn because it saw less risk of unsafe behavior.
The researchers say they believe the technology could also be used in cars with human drivers. It could act as a warning system against other drivers judged to be behaving badly. The research suggests that humanoid robots have the ability to affect people socially just as humans do. Fang says this ability could become more important in the future when machines and humans are expected to interact regularly.
1. What was the machine learning system designed to do?| A．Teach social psychology. | B．Increase driving pleasure. |
| C．Remind drivers to drive quickly. | D．Learn about human drivers' behaviour. |
| A．It found the car itself was broken. | B．It predicted the oncoming driver was selfish. |
| C．It realized the oncoming driver was selfless. | D．It observed the oncoming driver make a turn. |
| A．It is actually useless in the future. | B．It has the ability to control people. |
| C．It causes human drivers to behave badly. | D．It can warn other misbehaving human drivers. |
| A．Science. | B．Nature. | C．Diet. | D．Sport. |
