When the Roman poet Catullus wrote about devouring the road, he meant it as a metaphor for journeying. The prospect of physically extracting energy from the roadway may just become a reality, though, if the U.K. government pulls off the test run of a promising new tool.
古羅馬詩(shī)人卡圖盧斯（Catullus）曾在詩(shī)中寫下“吞食道路”，作為旅行的隱喻。不過(guò)，如果英國(guó)政府對(duì)一項(xiàng)前景廣闊的新工具的試運(yùn)行成功的話，從公路汲取能量的想法或?qū)⒊蔀楝F(xiàn)實(shí)。

Off-road trials of “dynamic wireless power transfer” technology are expected to start later this year and run for 18 months, Highways England and Transport Minister Andrew Jones announced. The government will install the devices under test roads and in vehicles, and determine if the charging could work on Britain’s busiest roadways. Mobile charging would solve one of the biggest hurdles to electric vehicle use — staying charged on long drives.
英格蘭公路公司（Highways England）和英國(guó)交通部長(zhǎng)安德魯?瓊斯（Andrew Jones）近日宣布，“動(dòng)態(tài)無(wú)線電力輸送”技術(shù)的越野試驗(yàn)預(yù)計(jì)在今年晚些時(shí)候開(kāi)始，測(cè)試期為18個(gè)月。政府將在測(cè)試段公路路面下和測(cè)試車輛上安裝相應(yīng)設(shè)備，以確定在英國(guó)最繁忙的路面上能否獲得預(yù)期的充電效果。移動(dòng)充電將消除電動(dòng)車輛普及的最大障礙之一，就是在長(zhǎng)距離駕駛時(shí)保持電量充足的問(wèn)題。

The U.K. has already tested a bunch of different approaches to this technology and identified versions that work and are ready to manufacture. In basic terms, the system has power lines connected to coils under the surface of a road, which then transmit the electricity through the air to a receiver coil in a car. Simply driving down the stretch of road in a properly-equipped electric or hybrid-electric vehicle will power up the batteries.
英國(guó)政府已經(jīng)測(cè)試了應(yīng)用該技術(shù)的不同辦法，確定了其中行得通的方案，準(zhǔn)備投入生產(chǎn)。簡(jiǎn)單地講，這個(gè)系統(tǒng)將輸電線和路面下的線圈相連接，通過(guò)空氣將電能傳輸給汽車?yán)锩娴慕邮站€圈。安裝了相應(yīng)設(shè)備的電動(dòng)車或混合動(dòng)力車只需在這種路面上行駛便可為電池充電。

The power transfer could potentially work for all types of vehicles, the report notes, and since it goes under the road, it won’t require building any contraptions above ground that could increase risks of collision or electric shock. The wireless transfer is less cluttered and invasive than the overhead cables used for city trains, trolleys, and a prototype zero-emission highway in L.A.
報(bào)告中指出，這項(xiàng)電力輸送技術(shù)有可能適用于各種類型的交通工具，因?yàn)樗前惭b在地下的，無(wú)需在地面建設(shè)設(shè)施，這也就減少了碰撞和電擊的風(fēng)險(xiǎn)。比起城鐵、有軌電車以及洛杉磯的零排放高速公路原型使用的接觸網(wǎng)，這種無(wú)線傳輸更加整潔與安全。

If this works for the highways of Britain, it just might change the game for long-distance EV travel. A full charge of BMW’s i3, for instance, lasts 81 miles; it’s 84 miles for the Nissan Leaf and 38 miles gas free for the Chevy Volt. Those ranges are enough to cover most daily commutes, but insufficient for long road trips. Stopping for hours to charge up on the side of a highway isn’t going to make you feel much better about saving the earth. Picking up a charge without stopping, though, is one of the cooler things you could ask for from automotive refueling practices.
如果這一技術(shù)在英國(guó)的公路上得以實(shí)施，或?qū)⒏淖冸妱?dòng)汽車的長(zhǎng)途旅行。比如，一輛充滿電的寶馬i3可以跑81英里，日產(chǎn)聆風(fēng)（Nissan Leaf）可以跑84英里，雪佛蘭伏特（Chevy Volt）不用汽油能跑38英里。以上這些距離足以應(yīng)付多數(shù)日常通勤，但長(zhǎng)距離駕車旅行恐怕就不行了。為了充電停在公路邊上好幾小時(shí)，即便是節(jié)約了能源也并不會(huì)令你感到多好過(guò)。不過(guò)，說(shuō)到給汽車充電這件事，無(wú)需停車即可充電是你能期待的最酷的事情之一。

Charging roads could pair well with another developing technology: street surfaces that generate their own power with solar panels. The Dutch SolaRoad bike path does that for a few hundred feet; in the U.S., Solar Roadways technology is planning for tests in sidewalks and parking lots in Idaho. Perhaps the smart roads of the future will not just make their own energy from the sun but transmit it wirelessly to a zippy fleet of EVs.
充電公路可以與另一項(xiàng)開(kāi)發(fā)中的技術(shù)實(shí)現(xiàn)很好的配合，即通過(guò)太陽(yáng)能面板產(chǎn)生能量的路面。荷蘭有一條幾百英尺長(zhǎng)的太陽(yáng)能自行車道使用了該技術(shù)。在美國(guó)，太陽(yáng)能公路技術(shù)計(jì)劃在愛(ài)達(dá)荷州的人行道和停車場(chǎng)進(jìn)行測(cè)試?；蛟S在未來(lái)智能公路不僅可以轉(zhuǎn)化太陽(yáng)能，還可以將電力無(wú)線傳輸給一輛輛電動(dòng)汽車。

Vocabulary

devour：吞噬

coil：線圈

EV：電動(dòng)汽車（electric vehicle）

contraption：裝置

英文來(lái)源：CityLab

譯者：白潔

審校&編輯：劉明