Extra-Efficient Car Contest Attracts Global Attention
X Prize challenge aims to encourage unconventional thinking
华盛顿 -- 或许将可堪称为世纪之赛的一场汽车比赛已经起步，历时会长达两年之久。
Washington -- What may be the car race of the century is well under way and may take two years to finish. A $10 million award announced at the New York International Auto Show in March 2008 has attracted more than 60 teams, most of them from the United States but also from Australia, Canada, Germany, Finland, Switzerland, Turkey and the United Kingdom.
2008 年3月在"纽约国际车展 "(New York International Auto Show)上宣布的1000万美元X-大奖吸引了60多个参赛团队，其中大部分来自美国，但来自澳大利亚、加拿大、德国、芬兰、瑞士、土耳其和英国等国的团队也在跃跃欲试。然而，在轮胎踏路之前，参赛者必须首先设计和制造出他们的汽车，即耗油率必须达到每加仑至少100英里(3.8升/160公里)。这是由X-大奖基金会(X Prize Foundation )与进步(Progressive)保险公司共同宣布的进步保险X-汽车大奖(Progressive Insurance Automotive X Prize)的主要条件。
But before rubber hits the road, the competitors first must design and build their cars -- vehicles that can go at least 100 miles (160 kilometers) on a gallon (3.8 liters) of fuel. This is the main condition of the Progressive Insurance Automotive X Prize, announced by the X Prize Foundation and the Progressive insurance company.
根据这项挑战，无论是初创企业还是大型汽车制造商，都必须不仅设计出超高节能汽车，而且制订出实可行的生产方案，并在2009年开始的一系列测试与竞赛中证明他们的产品经久耐用，安全可靠。X-大奖基金会主席迪亚蔓蒂斯(Peter Diamandis)在宣布这项挑战时说："我们说的不是概念车。我们说的是近期内可以上市、而且消费者愿意购买的实实在在的车。"
The challenge invites both startups and major car manufacturers not only to build an extra-efficient car but also to develop a viable manufacturing plan and prove the mettle and safety of their vehicle during a set of tests and races to begin in 2009.
“We are not talking about concept cars,” said Chairman of the X Prize Foundation Peter Diamandis while announcing the challenge. “We’re talking about real cars that can be brought to market in the near term that consumers will want to buy.”
X-大奖基金会是一个非营利教育组织。它创设并管理各种奖金，旨在驱使创新者去解决世界上最紧迫的问题。它致力于通过调动公众兴趣、企业创新精神和跨专业努力等多方因素，实现技术和市场突破。
The X Prize Foundation is a nonprofit educational organization that creates and manages prizes that drive innovators to solve the world’s most pressing problems. It seeks to leverage the elements of public interest, entrepreneurial spirit and cross-disciplinary effort to bring about technological and market breakthroughs.
X-大奖是在1996年由太空商业化活动的先驱者迪亚蔓蒂斯设立的。2004年，为了表彰安萨里(Ansari)家族的巨额捐款而重新命名为安萨里X-大奖。[参阅"首位伊朗裔美籍穆斯林女性登上太空 "]
The X Prize was established in 1996 by Diamandis, a pioneer in the arena of commercial space. In 2004, it was renamed the Ansari X Prize to reflect a multimillion-dollar donation from the Ansari family. (See “American, Iranian Cultures Support Space Pioneer's Achievements.”)
X- 大奖基金会体现了20世纪早期的私人赞助传统，那些赞助对20世纪20年代和30年代美国航空业的迅速发展功不可没。例如，由旅馆业钜头奥泰格 (Raymond Orteig )提供的25000美元奥泰格奖(Orteig Prize)促成了纽约与巴黎之间的首次成功直飞。获得该奖的林德伯格(Charles Lindbergh)在1927年完成这一飞行。
The foundation follows in the tradition of early 20th-century privately funded prizes that are credited for the rapid growth of U.S. aviation in the 1920s and 1930s. One of those awards was the $25,000 Orteig Prize, offered by hotel magnate Raymond Orteig for the first successful nonstop flight between New York and Paris. The prize went to Charles Lindbergh, who covered the distance in 1927.
X-大奖基金会与前辈一样，希望鼓励相对大公司和研究试验室而言，那些比较小规模、比较个体化、并且更富冒险精神的创新方式。该基金会在网站上表示："我们认为，一小批对某一事业怀抱满腔热忱的人能取得从未取得的成就。这就是我们组织竞争向最重要的问题展开挑战的道理。"
Like its predecessors, the X-Prize Foundation wants to encourage a smaller, more individualistic and more adventurous approach to innovation than practiced by large corporations and research laboratories.
“We believe that a small group of people with passion for a cause can achieve that which has never been attained. This is why we stage competitions that challenge issues that matter most,” says the foundation on its Web site.
2004年，1000万美元安萨里X-大奖(Ansari X Prize)被授予了研造出"太空船一号"(SpaceShipOne)的莫哈韦航空风险公司(Mojave Aerospace Ventures)，这是进入海拔100公里亚轨道的第一架民间造飞船。
In 2004, the $10 million Ansari X Prize was awarded to Mojave Aerospace Ventures for the flight of SpaceShipOne, the first privately built vehicle to reach space, defined as a suborbital altitude of 100 kilometers. (See “NASA Administrator Congratulates the SpaceShipOne Team.”)
在"太空船一号"成功之后，该基金会决定将重点转回地面。迪亚蔓蒂斯在基金会网站的视频声明中说："基金会的几乎所有人都表示：'我们需要推出一项汽车X-大奖。我们需鼓励发明新一代汽车，阻挡外国石油潮，帮助研制节能、实惠、受欢迎、低成本、可制造的汽车'。"
After the SpaceShipOne achievement, the foundation decided to come back to earth.
“Most everybody in the organization said: ‘We need to do an automotive X prize. We need to provide the incentives to build a new generation of cars that can stem the tide of foreign oil and help bring about cars that are efficient, that are affordable, desirable, low-cost, manufacturable,’” said Diamandis in a Web video statement.
一些已登记的竞争者在纽约车展上展出了模型。其中一组来自费城的高中生在老师瓦格(Simon Huager)的指导下，制造出取名为"袭击"(Attack)的生物柴油改装跑车，他们计划再将之改造成生物柴油与电能混合动力车。
Some of the registered competitors exhibited their prototypes at the New York auto show. Among them is a group of high school students from Philadelphia who, together with their teacher, Simon Huager, have built the biodiesel hot-rod Attack, which they plan to convert into a biodiesel-electric hybrid.
竞争者中还有六位加拿大工程师，他们制造了名符其实地以油蒸气为动力的三轮跑车(ale)；而一家洛杉矶的公司则正在研制流线型窄体汽电车"冒险一号"(VentureOne)，这种车将能像摩托车一样侧曲。
The list of competitors also includes six Canadian engineers, the builders of alé, a three-wheeler that runs on -- literally -- fuel vapors, and a company from Los Angeles working on a narrow, aerodynamic gas-electric vehicle called VentureOne that would lean into curves like a motorcycle.
迪亚曼蒂斯说："我不知道哪种技术会获胜──是纯电动、混合动力、还是我们今天发动机的某种翻版。但是我知道，X-大奖的鼓励能够为美国消费者带来最广泛的选择，也希望由此产生我们都喜欢开而又有利于环保的新一代汽车。"
“I don’t know what technology is going to win -- pure electric or hybrid or a version of the engines that we have today -- but I do know that an incentive X Prize can bring U.S. consumers the widest choice and, hopefully, give us a new generation of cars that we all love to drive and that are great for the environment,” Diamandis said.
For more information, see the Progressive Automotive X-Prize Web site.
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