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Electric flight, in particular, unlocks new possibilities for vehicle configurationsthat we just could not explore in the past. If you sue electric motors, you can have many of them around the aircraft, and it doesn"t add a lot of extra weight. And that gives you redundancy and safety. And also, they are cleaner, cheaper and quieter than internal combustion engines. Autonomy allows the transportation network to scale, and I actually think it makes the aircraft safer. Commercial flights are already automated for most of their duration, and I believe there will come a day when we won"t even trust an airplane that required a human to fly.
configuration[knfɡj"ren]：n. 结构；布局；形态；格式塔心理完形；[计算机] 配置.
explore[k"splr]：v. 探测；探险；考察；探究
sue[su]：vt. 控告；起诉；vi. 请求；起诉
redundancy[r"dndnsi]：n. 冗余；多余信息；备份；裁员
combustion[km"bstn]：n. 燃烧
duration[du"ren]：n. 持续时间；期间
特别是电动飞机，解锁了车辆配置的新可能，这在以前我们是无法做到的。如果你使用电动发动机，可以在飞机上安很多个，飞机的重量却不会增加太多，而且能保证适当的余度和安全。 此外，电动发动机比内燃机更环保，更便宜，也更安静。自动驾驶可以使交通网络规模化， 我觉得这会使飞机更加安全。客机在大部分飞行时间里已经实现了自动化，我相信将来有一天，我们甚至不会信任需要 由人来驾驶的飞机了。
So, one of our teams at A3 wanted to see just how close this future really was. So they built and flew a prototype of one such vehicle. And they made a point of only using mature, commercially available technologies today. We call it Vahana. It"s fully electric. It takes off and lands vertically, but files forward like a regular airplane. It"s fully self-piloted. You push a button, it takes off, flies and lands, all by itself. The prototype that you see here is designed to carry a single passenger and luggage. And it can go about 20 miles in 15 minutes.
pilot["palt]：n. 飞行员；领航员；试播节目；<美>排障器；[机]导向器；v. 驾驶；领航；向导；试点；adj. 试验性的；引导的
我们在A3的一个团队，想看看我们离实现这一天还有多远，所以他们打造并试飞了这种飞机的一个模型，他们规定只准使用当今已成熟并已投入商业应用的技术。我们给这个模型起名叫 瓦哈纳。它是全电动的。可以垂直起行和降落，像普通飞机一样向前飞行，完全依靠自动驾驶，你按一下按钮，它就起飞，飞行和落地，全程自动完成。你在这里看到的这个模型，设计为只能运送一名乘客和行李。它在15分钟内可以飞行大概20英里。
And our estimate for a trip like that is it would cost around 40 dollars, which you can really build a business around. It has multiple redundantmotors and batteries, you can lose one, it will continue flying and land normally. It"s pretty quiet. When it"s flying overhead, it will be quieter than a Prius on the highway. It"s intelligent and has cameras, lidar and radar, so it can detect and avoid unexpected obstacles. And the team really focused on marking it efficient, so the batteries are small, light, and they last longer. For reference, the Vahana battery is less than half the size of a Tesla Model S battery. It"s about 40 kilowatt-hours. And you can hot swap the batteries in just a few minutes.
redundant[r"dndnt]：adj. 多余的，过多的；累赘的，冗长的；解雇的；重复的，千篇一律的
lidar["ladɑ]：n. 激光探测和测距；激光雷达
radar["redɑr]：n. 雷达
swap[swɑp]：v. 交换；用 ... 作交易；n. 交换；适合交换的东西
我们预计这样的旅程大概会花费40美元，这真的可以做成一门生意。它有多个备用发动机和电池，即使其中一个失效了，仍可以继续正常飞行和降落。它非常安静。它在飞行状态中，比行驶在高速上的普锐斯还安静。它是智能的，配有摄像头，激光雷达和雷达。所以它可以探测并绕开不可预见的障碍物。这个团队非常关心它的效率，所以电池都是又小又轻，但可以续航更久的。举个例子，瓦哈纳电池的尺寸还不到一辆特斯拉S汽车电池的一半。耗电量 40千瓦时，你可以在几分钟内完成电池的热交换。
And I do think that in a few years, people will be comfortable getting by themselves in a self-piloted, electric, VTOL air taxi. But the team is busy working on the next version, which is going to carry at least two passengers and fly quite a bit farther. But more importantly, there are over 20 companies around the world working on vehicles just like this one right now. My best guess is in the next five years, you"ll start seeing vertiportsin some cities, and little airplane icons on your side-sharing apps. And it might begin with a dozen, but eventually, we could have hundreds of these, flying around our cities. And it will fundamentally transform our relationship with local travel.
vertiport["vtpt]：垂直升降飞机机场
fundamentally[fnd"mentli]：adv. 从根本上；基本地
我真的觉得再过几年，人们会习惯乘坐这种 自动驾驶、全电动、垂直起降的空中出租车。这个团队正在研究下一代产品，可以搭载至少两名乘客，而且飞行里程更长。更重要的是，世界上有超过20家公司正在研制类似这样的飞机，我猜很有可能在接下来的五年内，你可以在一些城市看到垂直升降机场。在你的共享软件旁边也会出现小小的飞机图标。也许一开始只有几架，但是最终可能看到几百架，飞行在我们的城市上空。它将从根本上改变我们与当地交通的关系。
In the past century, flight connected our planet, in the next, it will reconnect our local communities, and I hope it will reconnect us to each other.
在上个世纪，飞机将世界各地连接起来了，在下个世纪，飞机会把我们的社区重新连接起来， 我希望它也会将人们 彼此重新连接起来。
本文如果对你有帮助，请点赞收藏《英语学习：自动驾驶飞机改变你的出行方式（二）》，同时在此感谢原作者。
