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打印7 Two of the most frustrating things about driving a car are getting lost and getting stuck in traffic. While the computer revolution is unlikely to cure these problems, it will have a positive impact. Sensors in your car tuned to radio signals from orbiting satellites can locate your car precisely at any moment and warn of traffic jams. We already have twenty-four Navstar satellites orbiting the earth, making up what is called the Global Positioning System. They make it possible to determine your location on the earth to within about a hundred feet. At any given time, there are several GPS satellites orbiting overhead at a distance of about 11,000 miles. Each satellite contains four "atomic clocks," which vibrate at a precise frequency, according to the laws of the quantum theory.
开车最头疼的两大麻烦是迷路和交通堵塞。虽然计算机革命不可能彻底解决这两个问题，但却会带来积极的影响。你汽车上与绕轨道运行的卫星发出的无线电信号调谐的传感器能随时精确地确定你汽车的方位，并告知交通阻塞情况。我们已经有24颗环绕地球运行的导航卫星，组成了人们所说的全球卫星定位系统。通过这些卫星我们有可能以小于100英尺的误差确定你在地球上的方位。在任何一个特定时间，总有若干颗全球定位系统的卫星在11000英里的高空绕地球运行。每颗卫星都装有4个“原子钟”，它们根据量子理论法则，以精确的频率振动。
8 As a satellite passes overhead, it sends out a radio signal that can be detected by a receiver in a car's computer. The car's computer can then calculate how far the satellite is by measuring how long it took for the signal to arrive. Since the speed of light is well known, any delay in receiving the satellite's signal can be converted into a distance.
卫星从高空经过时发出能被汽车上计算机里的接收器辨认的无线电信号。汽车上的计算机就会根据信号传来所花的时间计算出卫星有多远。由于光速为人熟知，接收卫星信号时的任何时间迟缓都能折算出距离的远近。
9 In Japan there are already over a million cars with some type of navigational capability. (Some of them locate a car's position by correlating the rotations in the steering wheel to its position on a map.)
在日本，具有某种导航能力的汽车已有一百万辆之多。（有些导航装置通过将方向盘的转动与汽车在地图上的位置并置来测定汽车的方位。）
10 With the price of microchips dropping so drastically, future applications of GPS are virtually limitless. "The commercial industry is poised to explode," says Randy Hoffman of Magellan Systems Corp. , which manufactures navigational systems. Blind individuals could use GPS sensors in walking sticks, airplanes could land by remote control, hikers will be able to locate their position in the woods -- the list of potential uses is endless.
随着微芯片价格的大幅度下降，未来对全球卫星定位系统的应用几乎是无限的。“制造这一商品的工业定会飞速发展，”生产导航系统的麦哲伦航仪公司的兰迪·霍夫曼说。盲人可以在手杖里装配全球卫星定位系统传感器，飞机可以通过遥控着陆，徒步旅行者可以测定自己在林中的方位—其潜在的应用范围是无止境的。
11 GPS is actually but part of a larger movement, called "telematics," which will eventually attempt to put smart cars on smart highways. Prototypes of such highways already exist in Europe, and experiments are being made in California to mount computer chips, sensors, and radio transmitters on highways to alert cars to traffic jams and obstructions.
全球卫星定位系统其实只是叫做“远程信息学”的这一更大行动的一部分，这一行动最终将把智能汽车送上智能高速公路。这种高速公路的样品已经在欧洲问世，加州也在进行试验，在高速公路上安装计算机芯片、传感器和无线电发射机，以便向汽车报告交通拥挤堵塞情况。
12 On an eight-mile stretch of Interstate 15 ten miles north of San Diego, traffic engineers are installing an MIT-designed system which will introduce the "automated driver." The plan calls for computers, aided by thousands of three-inch magnetic spikes buried in the highway, to take complete control of the driving of cars on heavily trafficked roads. Cars will be bunched into groups of ten to twelve vehicles, only six feet apart, traveling in unison, and controlled by computer.
在圣迭戈以北10英里的15号州际公路一段8英里长的路面上，交通工程师正在安装一个由麻省理工学院设计的引进“自动司机”的系统。这一计划要求计算机在公路上埋设的数千个3英寸长的磁钉的协助下，在车辆极多的路段完全控制车辆的运行。车辆会编成10辆或12辆一组，车距仅6英尺，在计算机的控制下一齐行驶。
13 Promoters of this computerized highway have great hopes for its future. By 2010, telematics may well be incorporated into one of the major highways in the United States. If successful, by 2020, as the price of microchips drops to below a penny a piece, telematics could be adopted in thousands of miles of highways in the United States. This could prove to be an environmental boon as well, saving fuel, reducing traffic jams, decreasing air pollution, and serving as an alternative to highway expansion.
这种计算机化的公路的倡导者对其未来的应用充满希望。到2010年，远程信息技术很可能应用于美国的一条主要公路。如果成功的话，到2020年，当微芯片的价格降到一片一美分以下时，远程信息技术就会应用在美国成千上万英里的公路上。这对环保也会很有利，能节省燃油，减轻交通阻塞，减少空气污染，还可用作公路扩建的替代办法。
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