Just as regulation has helped increase fuel efficiency, cut exhaust smokes and introduce anti-slip equipment, so government involvement is needed to get the connected car on the road. It is beginning to happen. Earlier this year, Europe’s standards-setting agencies agreed a common set of agreements for cars and traffic infrastructure (基建) to communicate. Others should follow. Governments should then set firm deadlines for all new cars to be fully connected and capable of matching, and a date for existing cars to be re-improved with a basic locator beacon (定位器) and the ability to receive risky warnings.
If cars are to connect, new infrastructure will have to be built. Roads and parking spaces will need sensors to monitor them; motorways will need specific lanes for matching. But this will not necessarily be expensive. Upgrading traffic signals so they can be controlled remotely by a central traffic management system is a lot cheaper than building new roads.
The sooner these changes are made, and cars are plugged into a smart traffic section, the quicker Singaporean variable pricing — for parking as well as road use — can become the criterion. Motorists will then have the motive, as well as the ability, to avoid the busiest places at the busiest times, and the horrible death that roads take in human lives should start falling.
In the past, more people driving meant more roads, more jams, more death and more smokes. In the future, the connected car could offer mankind the pleasures of the road with rather less of the pain.
【小题1】What do governments truly expect of the connected car?| A．It’ll be standard-friendly. | B．It’ll get fully prepared soon. |
| C．It’ll be under command. | D．It’ll promote infrastructure. |
| A．More sensors are offered by the companies. |
| B．More special roads are needed by motorists. |
| C．The whole project is more economical to operate. |
| D．The whole society is crazier about the new cars. |
| A．Motorists. | B．Singaporeans’ pricing. |
| C．Road death. | D．Traditional traffic sections. |
| A．Positive. | B．Critical. |
| C．Objective. | D．Doubtful. |
