An electric blue Ford Fusion Energi pulls up to the corner of a Manhattan city block. With the touch of a couple of buttons, an iPhone is connected to the sedan’s Sync system, and the song ‘The Dead Sea’ by folk-rock band The Lumineers streams over the car’s speakers via Spotify. Opening the Songza music application with a tap, it is easy to select a “Lazy Summer” playlist and Van Morrison’s ‘Brown Eyed Girl’ plays in the car. 一辆蓝色的福特(Ford) Fusion Energi电动汽车在曼哈顿街区的一角停下。按下两三个按钮后，一部iPhone连接到了这辆轿车的Sync系统上，车内的扬声器中响起了由Spotify应用播放的民谣摇滚乐队The Lumineers的《死海》(The Dead Sea)。轻点一下打开Songza音乐应用，随手选中“Lazy Summer”播放列表，车中便又响起了范•莫里森(Van Morrison)的歌曲《棕色眼睛的女孩》(Brown Eyed Girl)。

The driver can alert a friend to the time of arrival at a destination by activating the Glympse service that shares real-time location information. Perusing the news is easy with apps that link to audio headlines from newspapers including USA Today and The Wall Street Journal. A last-minute romantic even can plan a date with the BeCouply app that accesses nearby activities or locations for a night out. 驾车者可通过激活Glympse服务、分享实时位置信息，来告知朋友自己会在多长时间后抵达某个目的地。想看新闻也很容易，只需点一下连接到《今日美国》(USA Today)和《华尔街日报》(Wall Street Journal)等报纸音频头条新闻的应用。心血来潮想要浪漫一下的驾车者甚至还能用BeCouply应用安排一场约会，该应用可找到附近的活动或好去处，供你玩上一整夜。

The Ford entertainment system in this new model of its hybrid sedan is just a taste of the internet-connected, in-car entertainment to come. Futurists predict that it is only a matter of years before self-driving cars take over the roads. 福特这款新型混合动力轿车配备的娱乐系统，只向我们展示了未来联网车载娱乐的一个雏形。未来主义者预言，自动驾驶汽车上路的那一天只需几年时间便可到来。

The trend has ignited a race among vehicle manufacturers and entertainment companies to develop the next generation of in-car entertainment for an audience of people who will not have to trouble themselves with the process of actually driving. 这一趋势已经引爆了一场竞争，汽车制造商及娱乐公司争相开发下一代车载娱乐系统，服务于那些坐在司机位子上却无需自己动手驾车的受众。

The same “connected-car” technologies that allow vehicles to drive themselves and send alerts between cars to prevent accidents can also enable new wave media. Features could range from WiFi hotspots that allow lightning-fast streaming of music and video, to marketing programmes that alert drivers when they drive past stores that they have previously searched for online. 依靠“联网汽车”(connected-car)技术，车辆不仅可以实现自动驾驶，还可向其他车辆发出警告、避免车祸的发生。除此之外，它还能催生新一波媒体。一些有特色的东西包括，能让音乐与视频实现闪电般速度传输的Wi-Fi热点，以及在驾车者经过他们以前在网上搜索过的店铺时发出提醒的营销应用。

“Wherever there are eyeballs, there will be entertainment and ads,” says Chad Stoller, managing director of IPG Media Lab, a unit within the Interpublic Group of advertising companies whose role is to spot technology trends. 广告公司埃培智集团(Interpublic Group)旗下部门IPG Media Lab的董事总经理查德•斯托勒(Chad Stoller)表示：“哪里有眼球，哪里就会有娱乐和广告。”IPG Media Lab的职责是辨别科技的发展趋势。

The number of so-called “connected cars” is growing rapidly. This year, 9m cars have already been shipped with cutting-edge navigation systems, multimedia streaming, social media tools and WiFi hotspots, among other technologies – a figure that will rise to 62m in five years, according to ABI Research. 所谓的“联网汽车”的数量正在迅速增长。ABI Research指出，在本年度，已有900万辆配有先进导航系统、多媒体流播放、社交媒体工具以及Wi-Fi热点等技术的汽车交货，未来五年这一数字将升至6200万辆。

For years, the car industry talked about the possibilities for dashboard technologies, such as mobile internet systems that provide real-time weather, digital radio, web search and navigation. But most dashboards remained stuck in the terrestrial radio and CD-player era. The price was too high and consumers did not want to pay an additional monthly fee for the services. 多年来，汽车业一直在谈论中控台技术的种种发展可能，例如提供实时天气、数字收音机、网页搜索与导航的移动互联网系统。但多数中控台依旧停留在地面收音机和CD播放器的时代。价格太高是一个问题，另外消费者也不愿为这些服务额外支付月费。

The fast adoption of smartphones is changing perceptions, says Dominique Bonte, vice-president at ABI Research. “The smartphone is bringing a new dynamic. The challenge now is not so much thinking about new types of apps, but it’s about how to bring those types of apps to the car.” ABI Research副总裁多米尼克•邦特(Dominique Bonte)表示，智能手机的迅速普及正在改变人们的观念。“智能手机正在带来新的变化。如今在很大程度上，挑战已不再是构想新型的应用，而是思考如何把这些类型的应用带到汽车里。”

Ford, for example, has thoroughly embraced the smartphone. While several rivals rushed to integrate digital media systems into the dashboard, the Detroit carmaker focused on the mobile phones that people were already carrying. Most vehicles take about three to seven years to get to market, so by the time the car hits the road the technology inside risks being outdated – seven years ago the iPhone had yet to be released. 以福特为例，该公司是全面围绕智能手机来打造系统。尽管数家竞争对手争相把数字媒体系统整合进中控台，但这家总部位于底特律的汽车制造商却致力于围绕人们已在使用的手机来实现相关功能。就大多数汽车而言，从研发到推向市场大约需要三至七年时间。因此，到一款汽车上路之时，内嵌的技术很可能已经过时——七年之前，连iPhone都还没问世呢。

Ford’s voice-activated Sync platform, launched in 2007, allows people to plug their phones into the vehicle and go. In 2010, the company launched a program that provides voice command and control of a series of mobile apps that now include Pandora radio, Scout navigation and NPR news. “Ford found itself a challenger brand. We embraced that challenge and moved very quickly,” says Jim Farley, the company’s chief marketing officer. 2007年，福特推出了声控的Sync平台，驾车者可把手机插到车上，然后专心驾驶。2010年，该公司推出了一个项目，让驾车者能够通过语音来操控一系列移动应用，如今这些应用包括Pandora电台、Scout导航与美国全国公共广播电台(NPR)新闻等。福特首席营销官吉姆•法利(Jim Farley)表示：“福特认为自己是一个勇于面对挑战的品牌。我们欣然接受了这一挑战，并迅速采取了对策。”

Now, Ford is developing partnerships with companies ranging from Facebook to start-ups. In January, Ford launched the car industry’s first mobile app developer program. This allows software developers to interact directly with the car to build apps Ford hopes will enhance the driving experience. One idea is a tool that turns maximising fuel mileage into a competition between friends. 如今，福特正与多家公司建立合作伙伴关系，比如Facebook以及一些初创企业。今年1月，福特推出了汽车业首个移动应用开发者项目。该项目允许软件开发者直接与汽车交互，以编写福特所希望的能够提升驾驶体验的应用。其中一个想法是设计一个工具，把驾车者最大限度提高燃油里程的努力转变为朋友之间的一场竞争。

“Cars were a step change in giving society the ability to stay connected and engaged with the people they cared about,” said Doug Frisbie, Facebook’s head of automotive vertical marketing, who was present at Mr Farley’s recent address to the New York International Auto Show. “The opportunity at hand today is not about phones or social software in cars – but about remembering that no matter the device, it’s the ability to connect that matters.” Facebook汽车垂直营销主管道格•弗里斯比(Doug Frisbie)表示：“在使人们能与自己所关心的人保持联系接触方面，汽车迈出了重要的一步。当前的机遇不在手机或车载社交软件上，而在于要记住，不管是什么设备，保持联网最关键。”弗里斯比出席聆听了法利最近在纽约国际汽车展(New York International Auto Show)上的演讲。

One app that was developed through a similar partnership with Ford was the BeCouply iPhone app, which suggests ideas for dates, from brunch to bowling. Another is Roximity, which sends drivers real-time alerts for nearby discounts on pizza, oil changes or other local deals. The Roximity app was part of a developer challenge at a Disrupt Hackathon conference for the TechCrunch tech blog. 通过与福特建立类似的合作伙伴关系，iPhone应用BeCouply被开发出来。这款应用能为约会提供各种建议选择，从吃早午餐到打保龄球。还有一款应用是Roximity，它会实时向驾车者发送附近比萨饼打折、油价变化或其他本地交易的提醒。Roximity应用参与了科技博客TechCrunch举办的Disrupt Hackathon大会的一项开发者挑战赛。

Ford is not the only carmaker exploring more entertainment offerings. Others are producing connected systems that link with apps or offer new media capabilities straight from the dashboard. 福特不是唯一一家探索提供更多车载娱乐的汽车制造商。其他制造商正在生产联网的系统，这些系统能够连接应用，或者使中控台直接具备新媒体能力。

BMW, for instance, recently announced a series of new integrations with mobile app Glympse, which allows drivers to share their location in real time; with Audible for books; and Rhapsody and TuneIn Radio for music. The German carmaker also unveiled a portable LTE hotspot adapter that allows passengers to connect to WiFi at fast speeds. 例如，宝马(BMW)最近宣布了一系列新整合举措，比如整合移动应用Glympse，该应用使驾车者能够实时分享自己所在位置；在图书方面整合了Audible；在音乐方面则整合了Rhapsody和TuneIn Radio。这家德国汽车制造商还推出了便携式LTE热点适配器，借助该适配器，乘车者能在车辆高速行驶时连接到Wi-Fi。

Given the amount of time people spend in the car, entrepreneurs are dreaming of the next big advertising and media market opportunity. San Francisco-based Joyride, for instance, is building a voice-controlled smartphone platform for games, entertainment and education. “For years it was all about how do you get into the dashboard. Now, it is all smartphones, and the barrier to entry is so much lower,” says Seth Goldstein, a serial entrepreneur who is backing Joyride. “I don’t need the permission of Chrysler to build a social network that sits across dozens of cars.” 考虑到人们会在车中度过大量时间，创业者对广告媒体市场的下一个重大机遇充满期待。例如，总部位于旧金山的Joyride正在构建一套用于游戏、娱乐和教育的智能手机声控平台。连环创业者、Joyride投资人塞斯•戈尔茨坦(Seth Goldstein)表示：“多年来，困难一直在于如何进入中控台。而现在，全部努力都围绕智能手机展开，进入门槛要比以前低得多。我无需得到克莱斯勒(Chrysler)的许可，也能搭建用于数十辆汽车的社交网络。”

The developments in this field prompt fresh digital privacy and safety issues. The vehicle manufacturers and apps could use location data to track a person’s daily whereabouts. Such data could be valuable to insurance companies, for instance, that want to monitor their customers to alter the rates they charge. And before self-driving cars become widely available, the more the distractions inside the vehicle, the less the driver pays attention to the road ahead. 这一领域的发展引发了新的数字隐私及安全问题。汽车制造商以及应用能够利用位置数据来追踪人们日常所在的地方。举例来说，这类数据对保险公司可能具有很大价值，因为保险公司想用这些数据来监控客户，以调整收取的保费。此外，在自动驾驶汽车普及之前，车内分散注意力的东西越多，驾车者对前方道路的关注就越少。

“Currently, there is a big concern with driver distraction,” says Mr Bonte of ABI Research. “We might imagine that in five to 10 years that will be taken care of with automatic driving.” ABI Research的邦特表示：“目前而言，人们很担心驾车者的注意力会被分散。我们或许可以设想，五至十年后，这一问题会因自动驾驶的出现而得到解决。”