Audi, the luxury German carmaker owned by Volkswagen, plans to work with China’s three biggest technology companies to enhance its reputation for building connected cars.

大众(Volkswagen)旗下的德国豪车制造商奥迪(Audi)计划与中国三大科技公司开展合作，以增强其打造联网汽车的声誉。

At its annual summit in Shanghai on Sunday, Audi signed agreements with Tencent, Alibaba and Baidu, saying it will work closely with each in data analysis, internet-vehicle platform building and urban intelligent transport.

在上周日于上海举行的年度峰会上，奥迪与腾讯(Tencent)、阿里巴巴(Alibaba)和百度(Baidu)签署协议，称将与这些公司在数据分析、互联网-车辆平台建设和城市智能交通等领域密切合作。

Audi’s move is the latest example of a traditional carmaker linking up with software specialists to avoid being left behind, as new entrants compete on self-driving vehicles and so-called internet of things connectivity.

在市场新参与者在自动驾驶汽车和物联网上展开竞争之际，奥迪此举是一家传统汽车制造商与软件专家联手以免落后的最新例证。

In July, German rival BMW teamed up with Israeli sensor maker Mobileye to produce autonomous cars over the next decade.

今年七月，德国竞争对手宝马(BMW)联手以色列传感器厂商Mobileye，拟在未来10年生产自动驾驶汽车。

China is the world’s largest car market for new cars, and while Audi lags behind BMW and Mercedes in the global luxury market, it has been China’s number one luxury car brand by sales since 1988 — when it established a joint-venture with partner Chinese First Automobile Works.

中国是世界上最大的新车市场，而尽管奥迪在全球豪车市场落后于宝马和奔驰(BMW)，但它自1988年（那年豪迪与中国第一汽车制造厂(Chinese First Automobile Works)组建了一家合资企业）以来一直是中国销量最高的豪车。

From January to July this year, Audi sold 336,580 cars in China, accounting for almost one in- three of the brand’s global sales.

今年1至7月，奥迪在中国的汽车销量达到33.658万辆，占该品牌全球销量近三分之一。

However, its rivals are catching up.

然而，它的竞争对手正在迎头赶上。

Audi sales were only up 6.5 per cent, while BMW deliveries were up 8.5 per cent and Mercedes sales climbed 32 per cent, to 287,753 and 257,276 respectively.

奥迪销量增幅只有6.5%，而宝马和奔驰的销量分别增长8.5%和32%，至28.7753万辆和25.7276万辆。

Maintaining the lead requires investing in internet-connected technology, analysts argued.

分析师们提出，保持领先要求投资于联入互联网的技术。

Arndt Ellinghorst, at Evercore ISI, said Chinese car buyers appear to be even more connected than people in the western world, in part because the average buyer is 36 years old — 10 years younger than in the US and 20 years younger than in Germany.

Evercore ISI分析师阿恩特•埃林霍斯特(Arndt Ellinghorst)表示，中国购车者似乎比西方买家的联网程度还要高，部分原因是中国买家的平均年龄为36岁，比美国年轻10岁，比德国年轻20岁。

In 2013, Audi opened a research and development centre in Beijing to develop technology that it will aim to monetise in China first, and then export globally.

2013年，奥迪在北京设立了一个研发中心，力求开发首先在中国投入商用、然后输出至全球的技术。

The Chinese are early adopters.

中国人乐于尝试新技术。

If you’re not here with the latest stuff, then you can’t win, said Martin Kühl, an Audi spokesman in Shanghai.

如果你在这里拿不出最新的东西，那你是赢不了的，奥迪在上海的发言人马丁•屈尔(Martin Kühl)表示。

Mr Kühl said Audi has already been successful developing technology in China and then deploying it elsewhere.

屈尔表示，奥迪已成功地在中国开发技术，然后将其推广至其他地方。

Touchscreen technology developed in Beijing is now being used by engineers in Germany.

在北京开发的触摸屏技术，如今被德国的工程技术人员采用。

Audi’s relationship with Alibaba already goes back a decade.

奥迪与阿里巴巴的关系可以追溯到10年前。

This year, the two companies have been working on 3D maps and traffic data technology that Mr Kühl said is high-resolution, providing almost real-life pictures of buildings.

今年以来，两家公司合作研发3D地图和交通数据技术；屈尔表示，这种高分辨率技术提供近乎真实的建筑物图像。

This kind of map material is not even available outside of China, he said. Alibaba has done a really great job and we’ve been the first to use this data, to use these maps.

这种地图资料在中国以外根本无人提供，他说，阿里巴巴做了真正了不起的工作，而我们能够率先利用这些数据，利用这些地图。

It is not yet clear when the technology will made available in Europe but Mr Kühl said the interface can be linked with a different data feed, enabling Audi to link it with services from Google or HERE, the navigation software Audi joint-purchased with BMW and Daimler last year for Euro2.8bn.

尚不清楚该技术何时将在欧洲推出，但屈尔表示，相关接口可链接不同的数据馈送，使奥迪能够将其与谷歌(Google)或HERE的服务链接；HERE是奥迪去年联手宝马和戴姆勒(Daimler)斥资28亿欧元收购的导航软件。

Audi’s relationship with Baidu began two years ago and, next year, it plans to introduce Baidu CarLife, a local competitor to Apple’s CarPlay, into its cars.

奥迪与百度的合作始于两年前，明年它计划在自己的汽车中推出百度CarLife，后者是苹果(Apple) CarPlay的本地竞争产品。

This app includes free navigation software from the Chinese search giant as well as support for third-party apps.

这款应用包含来自百度这家中国搜索巨擘的免费导航软件，并支持第三方应用。

Of course we also offer Apple CarPlay in China but there are more Chinese using the local services, Mr Kühl said.

当然，我们在中国也提供苹果CarPlay，但是更多的中国人使用本地服务，屈尔表示。

With Tencent, Audi is working to integrate WeChat MyCar services for location sharing and music sharing.

至于腾讯，奥迪正致力于集成微信(WeChat) MyCar服务，用于地点共享和音乐共享。

The two companies started co-operating earlier this year.

这两家公司是在今年早些时候开始合作的。