The redesigned 2014 Mercedes-Benz S-class, the serene, cetacean presence you see before you, this sack of krill, is probably the world's most technologically rich automobile.
重新设计的梅赛德斯-奔驰(Mercedes-Benz)2014款S级轿车，也就是你眼前看到的这个气质沉稳、体型庞大的家伙，可能是世界上科技含量最丰富的汽车。
The company's new flagship sedan/limousine/state car requires the services of 60 onboard computers, up to 100 servo motors (operating, among other things, the powered door and trunk closures, seat-belt tensioners, and the elaborate articulation of the seats), and more than 500 LED lighting units, from its taillamps to its (amazing, game-changing) headlamps. Under the flat, brooding instrument binnacle are two high-res, 12.3-inch TFT screens, arrayed cinema style in a single, broad bezel that, at night, floats in a pool of suffused LED backlighting, like something signed out from the Starfleet motor pool. Holy mother of awesome.
奔驰新出品的这一系列旗舰轿车/大型豪华轿车/礼宾车配备60个车载电子控制系统、多达100部伺服电机（它们操控电动门、行李箱开合、安全带拉张器和精细的座椅铰接），以及遍布尾灯及其（令人赞叹、改变游戏规则的）前大灯的500多个LED照明元件。平展低覆的仪表台下是两块12.3英寸的高分辨率TFT屏幕，它们以影院风格排列在一块宽阔的面板上。面板在晚间则会笼罩在一片漫射的LED背光当中，如同从星际舰队车辆调度场调来的车队。简直太震撼了。
Gorden Wagener, Mercedes-Benz head of design, told me that the new S-class was the 'best car in the world.' I am not ready to make such a pronouncement, and I'd be unlikely to do so anyway about a car that looks like it was swallowed by a manatee. But the S-class is unquestionably a tour de force, a showy, almost arrogant display of auto-making genius (assuming it all holds together). The important thing here is Stuttgart's willingness to invoke 'best car' verbiage, which historians associate with icons such as the Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost, Duesenberg SJ, Mercedes-Benz 300SL, Bugatti Veyron and -- a late entry on the list -- Tesla. Cheeky monkeys.
奔驰负责设计事务的主管戈登・瓦格纳(Gorden Wagener)对笔者说，新款S级轿车是“世界最好的汽车”。我还没准备好做出这样的表态，而且无论如何我也不大可能就一辆看上去似被海牛吞噬的汽车做此表态。不过，毫无疑问的是，S级轿车是一款力作，一款张扬地、几乎是自负地尽展汽车制造天赋的产品（假设这些特点能够同时并存的话）。重要的是斯图加特乐意使用“最好的汽车”这一措辞，因为历史学家们往往把它与劳斯莱斯(Rolls-Royce)的“银魅”(Silver Ghost)、迪森贝格(Duesenberg)的SJ、奔驰的300SL、布加迪威龙(Bugatti Veyron)以及新近加入此列的特斯拉(Tesla)等标志性车型联系在一起。顽皮的家伙。
For four decades and five generations of the S-class, the car has traditionally been the company's technology icebreaker, introducing now-fundamental systems such as stability control and ABS braking, adaptive cruise control and adaptive body-roll control. In that time, S-class product planning has also become increasingly a victim of its own rhetoric, with each generation obliged to blow buyers' minds anew, sometimes with trivial, half-baked 'technologies' (the shambolic first edition of the infrared night-vision system comes to mind).
奔驰S级轿车前后历经四十年时间和五代车型，它历来是奔驰取得技术突破的车型，推出了现在已必不可少的系统，比如车身稳定控制系统、防抱死制动系统、自适应巡航控制以及自适应车身倾斜控制系统等。在此期间，S级系列产品的设计日益成为其豪言壮语的受害者，每一代新车型都不得不向买家呈现新东西，有时只是微不足道尚不成熟的“技术”（我想起了杂乱的第一代红外线夜视系统）。
This new car represents a genuine break with the past on several fronts, and they are, in descending order of importance: active safety; cabin materials and construction; in-cabin electronic functions and amenities. Indeed, the sheer weight of innovation in this car -- more than 2,000 patents flutter in its slipstream -- is itself theatrical, a message to consumers and competitors alike: A giant has awakened. Checkbooks, run for your lives.
这款新车型确确实实在几个方面都与过去的车型截然不同，按重要性从高到低排序，它们分别是主动安全性、驾驶舱的用材与构造、驾驶舱内的电子设备与方便设施。确实，这款车分量十足的创新性──它集2,000多项专利于一身──本身就十分引人注目，向消费者和竞争者传达出一条消息：巨人已经苏醒了。支票簿，赶紧逃命去吧。
It almost doesn't matter where you start. Would you like to know about the perfume injection integrated into the cabin air-filtration system, offering one of four fragrances (human-factors approved, I'm sure) held in a cut-glass reservoir in the glove compartment? German engineering meets John Waters's Odorama.
无论你着眼的是哪一方面，它几乎都无可挑剔。你想了解一下它驾驶舱空气滤清系统集成的香氛喷雾发生器吗？香氛精油盛放在手套箱中的雕花玻璃容器内，有四种香型可供选择（我敢肯定这个人性化因素会得到认可）。这可谓是德国工艺遇见了约翰・沃特斯(John Waters)电影的香氛卡。
Here's a fun one: Magic Body Control, which uses stereoscopic cameras integrated into the windshield header to read the road ahead, looking for shadow and contrast that might indicate a perturbation in pavement, so it can instantly adjust the air suspension in anticipation of the bump. The 'magic' part is that it seems to make speed bumps disappear.
它还有一个有趣的功能：魔力车身控制系统(Magic Body Control)。它利用前挡风玻璃上方的立体摄像头来扫描前方路面状况，寻找可能表明路面有障碍物的阴影和反差，以便预测颠簸从而立即调整气垫。其“有魔力的”一面是它似乎让减速带在它的轮下消失了。
Among other things, Mercedes is attempting to reassert its incumbency as the safest car in the world. To that end, a fully equipped S550 (figure $135,000) is like a freaking Awacs plane, with the aforementioned stereo cameras, long-range thermal imaging (Night Vision Assist with active pedestrian illumination), and a dozen or so ultrasonic and radar-based sensors that create a multi-wavelength, 3-D map of the world around the car.
除了其他方面，梅赛德斯还试图加强其作为全球最安全汽车的地位。为此目的，顶配版的S550（售价135,000美元（约合人民币82万元））就如一架配备了让人震撼的机载预警和控制系统(Awacs)的飞机，它配备了上文提到的立体摄像头和远程热成像系统（具主动识别行人功能的夜视辅助系统），以及大约十几个可将车辆周围环境绘制成多波长3-D地图的超声波或雷达传感器。
This 'sensor fusion' is fed into the car's driver-assist systems, including: Distronic Plus; active lane-keeping; all-speed adaptive cruise control ('Stop and Go Pilot') that follows the flow of congested traffic without driver intervention; and active lane-departure correction, which nudges the car back in a lane via asymmetric application of the front brakes. These technologies, which Mercedes collectively calls 'Intelligent Drive,' basically give the car situational awareness.
这一“传感器融合”技术被融入车辆的驾驶辅助系统，它包括限距控制系统增强版(Distronic Plus)，主动式车道保持技术，在堵车状况下无需驾驶员干预便可跟随前方车辆停停走走的全速段自适应巡航控制技术（停走向导(Stop and Go Pilot)），以及可在车辆偏离车道时通过前制动器的单侧制动使车辆移回原车道的主动式车道偏离纠正技术。这些技术被奔驰总称为“智能驾驶”系统，它使车辆基本上具备了情境感知能力。
Example: With its array of rear sensors, the car can detect the threat of an impending rear collision and react, by going into crash-hardening mode, cinching down the passenger seat belts, rolling the windows up, and locking the brakes, to reduce the delta-v -- the violence of the crash, in other words -- and minimize the risk of the car's being thrown forward into another vehicle or an intersection. In Euro-spec cars, the brilliant LED taillights strobe to alert the driver of the closing car (U.S. regs currently limit strobing lights to emergency and official vehicles).
例如，因车辆后部安有一批传感器，所以它能侦测到逼近的追尾威胁并做出反应，进入抗撞击模式，拉紧乘客的安全带、拉上车窗、锁定刹车，以降低速度变化率(delta-v)──也就是撞击的强度──并将车辆被向前甩到另一辆车上或十字路口中的风险降至最低。在欧洲版的车型中，明亮的LED尾灯会频闪以提醒逼近车辆的驾驶员（美国目前的规定只限急救车和公务车使用频闪灯）。
I know what you're thinking: Who knew you could be this fascinated and bored at the same time? But the degree to which all this approaches a reliable, robust, autopilot feature -- Mercedes goes so far as to use the phrase 'semiautonomous' -- makes the S-class historically significant. Daimler has invested heavily in driver-assist and crash-avoidance/mitigation-systems research over the past decade, as well as advanced research in human factors engineering. Now the company is beginning to commercialize these investments.
我知道你们心里在想什么：谁知道你会不会在如此着迷的同时又感到厌倦呢？不过，所有这些技术已经达到的可靠强劲的自动驾驶程度──奔驰甚至使用了“半自动驾驶”一词──赋予了S级轿车以重要历史意义。过去几十年间，戴姆勒(Daimler)在驾驶辅助与避撞/碰撞缓解系统研究、以及人性化设计的前沿研究中投入了大量资金，现在该公司开始将这些投资商业化。
Take note of the moment: Mercedes is the original, the ultimate old-established firm, with a lot of stakeholders, stepping into relatively unknown territory with new technologies of high criticality. The company already has fully autonomous prototype vehicles in hand, using technologies that in some cases have yet to be approved by safety regulators in Europe and North America. For example, the S-class's Adaptive High Beam Assist can pinpoint the position of an oncoming vehicle and activate tiny shutters built into the headlamps to block, in real time, the portion of high-beam that would otherwise shine on and blind the other driver. This system outpaces current U.S. headlight regulations, which require a separate switch setting for high and low beams.
请注意这一刻：奔驰是最早的顶级老牌汽车制造商，拥有大量股东，现在它凭借极其关键的新技术迈入了一个相对未知的领域。奔驰已经开发出全自动驾驶原型车，而且采用了一些某些情况下尚需欧洲与北美的安全监管机构批准的技术。例如，S级轿车的自适应远光灯辅助系统能确定迎面驶来的车辆的位置，启动前大灯中的小遮光片，以实时阻止发出可能会照着对方车辆驾驶员并使其眼花的远光灯光束。该系统超出了美国当前对前大灯的管理规定，它要求远光光束与近光光束要有单独的开关操控。
But whether it's five years or 10, commercially available autonomous automobiles are coming, and Mercedes has made the strategic decision to lead the way.
不管是五年还是10年，可投入市场的自动驾驶汽车终归会出现，而奔驰做出了引领发展方向的战略决定。
Pity about the styling. Formal, ceremonial, heavy, a preemie Maybach. This thing isn't within 10,000 kilometers of 'pretty.' But it's worth noting that the smooth-skinned S-class achieves a 0.24 coefficient of drag, making it more aerodynamically efficient than a Toyota Prius. And that's with the S-class's new grille, which is 30% bigger than the previous grille and the largest as a percentage of the vehicle's frontal area among all cars in this category, according to Mr. Wagener. I knew it was 30% more something.
令人遗憾的是这款车的外型。它看上去正式、庄重、庞大，犹如早产的迈巴赫(Maybach)。这家伙与“帅气”一词相差十万八千里。然而，值得指出的是，车身线条流畅的S级的风阻系数仅为0.24，因此它在空气动力方面的表现要好于丰田(Toyota)的普锐斯。瓦格纳称，S级车型的新进气格栅相较上一代增大了30%，它在车辆前脸所占的比例是这一类型所有车辆中最高的。我知道这个比例要高于30%。
A cynic would take one look at the chromic effrontery of the S-class's new grille and think: China. The Middle Kingdom is now the world's largest car market, and the luxury audience there has a measurable preference for big grilles. But that is to discount Mr. Wagener's own orientalism, his love of material richness, evocations of tradition and electronic ornament. It's this aesthetic that has shaped the S-class's sculptural cabin, with its breaking waves of burled walnut and French-stitched leather flowing into the doors, pulls and integrated grab handles. The central band of wood, shaped like an archer's recurve bow, is perfection, and the details just keep coming: the lustrous aluminum switchcaps, the polished-metal air vents (note the delicate 'click' as you move the vanes to center), the console-mounted, central rotary-controller knob.
愤世嫉俗之人会看一眼S级新进气格栅的铬合金装饰条，心里想到：中国。这个中央之国如今是全球最大的汽车市场，而那儿的奢侈品追随者明显偏爱大进气格栅。然而，这一想法却低估了瓦格纳本人对东方风格的偏爱，他对材料的豪华程度、传统的再现以及电子装饰的喜爱。正是这种审美造就了S级雕塑感的驾驶舱，才出现了波浪形的瘤纹胡桃木木饰，以法式缝线缝制的真皮则见于车门、拉手以及一体式扶手上。木饰的中段形似弓箭手拉出的反曲弓，非常完美，各处细节也是可圈可点，比如光亮夺目的铝质调节旋钮、抛光金属出风口（注意将叶片拨到中间时细微的“口哒声”），以及中控台上的中控调节旋钮。
The S-class cabin deploys more than 300 LEDs -- according to Mercedes-Benz, this is the first passenger car since Edison that uses no incandescent light bulbs -- allowing the designers to paint the cabin with light, gathering it in gentle pools for illumination. Drivers can choose one of seven ambient lighting schemes. I like tangerine, myself.
梅赛德斯-奔驰称，S级车型的驾驶舱安有300多个LED光源，这是自爱迪生(Edison)发明电灯以来第一辆未使用白炽灯泡的乘用车。这使得设计师能够以光线来装饰驾驶舱，采用温和的光线为驾驶舱照明。驾驶员可在七种氛围照明模式中挑选自己喜欢的一种，我喜欢的是橘色。
Well, does it even have an engine? Indeed it does. U.S. buyers will first see the S-class as the S550, with a twin-turbo, 4.6-liter, 449-hp V8 under the hood and a seven-speed automatic, in either rear-drive or all-wheel-drive configurations. Globally, the car will be available in short- and long-wheelbase configurations (North America, LWB only), with a variety of powerplants, from the screaming, AMG-built 5.5-liter, 577-hp biturbo V8 to a thrifty diesel hybrid. I'll be driving some of these cars in the coming year, with more thorough road testing to come. For the moment I would describe the S-class as a sumo ninja, moving through the world with agile heft and great stealth.
说了这么多，难道它没有发动机吗？当然有了。美国消费者最早看到的S级轿车会是S550，它配备了最大输出功率为335千瓦的4.6升双涡轮V8发动机，后轮驱动与全时四轮驱动款均配备七速自动变速器。该款车的短轴距型与长轴距型在全球范围均会有售（北美只售长轴距型），而且提供各种马力的配置，既有由AMG制造的动力十足、最大输出功率达430千瓦的5.5升双涡轮V8发动机，也有节油的柴油混合动力发动机。明年我会试驾其中部分车型，届时会奉上更详尽的路测报告。就眼下而言，我认为S级车型好比一名有着相扑身材的忍者，体型虽大，却能灵敏并悄无声息地行动。
Perhaps after a few more turns at the wheel, I, too, could pronounce the S-class the best car in the world. For now, I can say for sure, it's certainly good enough.
或许在多驾驶几次之后，我也会宣称S级是世界最好的汽车。目前来看，我可以肯定地说，它显然已经足够好了。