Singapore has claimed a head-start in the global race to deploy self-driving cars with the launch on Thursday of the world’s first public trial of a robo-taxi service.

新加坡在这场部署自动驾驶汽车的全球竞赛中抢得了先机。周四，该国启动了世界上第一次自动出租车服务公开测试。

The trial allows selected members of the public to use a smartphone app to hail a free ride in autonomous cars operated by nuTonomy, a US start-up that has been conducting trials of self-driving vehicles in Singapore since April.

这次测试允许被选中的公众成员使用一款智能手机app呼叫自动驾驶出租车，体验一次免费乘坐。这些车辆是由美国创业企业nuTonomy运营的。自今年4月以来，该公司一直在新加坡进行自动驾驶车辆试验。

The passengers, travelling either in a specially configured Renault Zoe or Mitsubishi i-MiEV electric vehicle, will be accompanied by one of the company’s engineers, who can take control of the vehicle if necessary.

在出行时，被选中的乘客会进入一辆经过特殊配置的雷诺Zoe或三菱i-MiEV 电动车。nuTonomy公司将派一名工程师陪同乘客，在必要时，工程师可以接管汽车。

The trial steals a march on Uber, which is expected to begin testing an autonomous taxi fleet with customers in the US city of Pittsburgh within weeks.

这次试验抢在了优步(Uber)前面。预计在几周内，优步将开始跟客户在美国的匹兹堡市测试一批自动驾驶出租车。

Uber and pioneers of the autonomous car industry including Google, Tesla and Volvo are already road-testing self-driving vehicles with varying success, but nuTonomy says it is the first to offer rides to members of the public in a real-world setting.

优步以及谷歌(Google)、特斯拉(Tesla)和沃尔沃(Volvo)等自动汽车行业先行者已开始进行车辆路面测试，并取得了不同程度的成功。但nuTonomy表示，它是第一家在真实世界里向公众成员提供自动驾驶体验的公司。

The trial, involving a fleet of six cars, will be conducted in normal traffic and includes both light and heavy traffic routes.

这次试验共出动6辆汽车，试验将在正常交通状况下完成，并包括顺畅和繁忙两种路线。

The pilot is being used to gather data on the performance of nuTonomy’s self-driving software, routing efficiency and the vehicle booking process ahead of the launch of a commercial robo-taxi service in Singapore, scheduled for 2018.

这次试验的目的是收集有关nuTonomy自动驾驶软件的表现、路线选择效率和车辆预定程序的数据。nuTonomy计划于2018年在新加坡推出一项商业化的自动驾驶出租车服务。