中德聯手打造車聯網

A little-noticed agreement, signed on the sidelines of October’s Sino-German “joint cabinet” summit could help determine the shape of internet connectivity and autonomous driving – where vehicles do some of the thinking – in the world’s largest car market.

今年10月在中德“聯合內閣”峯會間隙簽署的一份不爲人注意的協議，可能會幫助確定全球最大汽車市場車聯網與無人駕駛的形態——在這種新形態中，部分思考工作將由汽車來承擔。

Deutsche Telekom, which agreed to build a car network with state-owned China Mobile, also hopes the deal will open a backdoor on to a previously closed market, illustrating the potential opportunities stemming from advances in connected cars.

德國電信(Deutsche Telekom)同意與中國國企中國移動(China Mobile)合建一個汽車網絡。德國電信還希望，該協議能爲一個此前封閉的市場開一扇後門，展現出車聯網技術進步帶來的潛在機遇。

The two companies will marry China Mobile’s nationwide 4G network to an operating system Deutsche Telekom currently uses for 2m German vehicles. China Mobile, the world’s largest cellular company, will have built the world’s biggest 4G network, with 500,000 base stations and 50m subscribers, by the end of this year.

這兩家公司將把中國移動覆蓋全國的4G網絡與200萬輛德國汽車目前所用的德國電信操作系統結合起來。作爲全球最大的移動電話公司，中國移動到今年底將建成全球最大的4G網絡，屆時將擁有50萬座基站和5000萬用戶。

Liu Xin, head of China Mobile’s data division, says Deutsche Telekom’s technology has been tested in the field, while his company is “confident that sometime early next year we’re going to reach 1m [4G base stations]”.

中國移動數據部總經理劉昕表示，德國電信在該領域的技術已得到驗證，而他的公司“有信心在明年早些時候建成100萬座（4G基站）”。

Internet connectivity in cars is becoming more common globally. Deutsche Telekom and China Mobile hope their 50-50 joint venture will become a platform, like Apple’s iOS or Google’s Android operating systems, which third-party application developers can build on.

車聯網在全球變得越來越普及。德國電信和中國移動希望，它們對半出資組建的合資企業，能發展爲一個像蘋果(Apple) iOS或谷歌(Google) Android操作系統那樣的平臺——第三方應用開發者可以該平臺爲基礎搞進一步的開發。

“Based on our infrastructure you can build entertainment, TV, insurance and repair services,” says Horst Leonberger, senior vice-president of the German company’s T-Systems division, responsible for in-car connectivity. While the system would allow other companies to develop apps, the two partners would hope to take a proportion of any transaction costs made over their network.

德國電信旗下T-Systems負責車聯網的高級副總裁霍斯特•萊昂貝格爾(Horst Leonberger)表示：“以我們的基礎設施爲基礎，你可以開發娛樂、電視、保險和維修服務。”儘管該系統將允許其他公司開發應用，但德國電信和中國移動肯定希望從在它們網絡上實現的銷售收入中得到分成。

They also want cars to talk to other cars through their operating system. Mr Leonberger says that if enough vehicles, were “meshed” together Chinese drivers could avoid jams in the country’s notoriously congested cities. He reckons that 10 per cent of cars need to join, “because then you can really use algorithms to predict traffic flows”.

這兩家公司還希望汽車與汽車之間能夠通過它們的操作系統實現“對話”。萊昂貝格爾表示，如果有足夠多的汽車實現互聯，中國的駕車者就能避免在該國出了名擁堵的城市中堵車。據他估計，需要有10%的汽車實現互聯，“因爲屆時你就可以用算法來預測交通流量”。

There are currently about 180m passenger vehicles on China’s roads with about 20m being added every year.

中國目前的乘用車約有1.8億輛，而且每年還會增加約2000萬輛。

“If you are driving a Volkswagen and I am driving a Mercedes, I would like to know when you are braking,” Mr Leonberger says. “Either the industry must standardise the exchange of data, which would take a lot of time, or we establish an open system that can. That is the role we would like to establish with this joint venture.”

萊昂貝格爾表示：“如果你開着一輛大衆(Volkswagen)、我開着一輛梅賽德斯(Mercedes)，我希望知道你何時會剎車。要麼汽車業必須實現數據交換的標準化——那將需要大量時間——要麼我們建立起一個能做到這一點的開放系統。我們組建這家合資企業就是希望建立起這樣的系統。”

A more distant prize is the ultimate creation of a network that will allow cars to drive themselves, one that is also being pursued by Google.

更長遠的目標是，最終建立起一個支撐無人駕駛的網絡——這也是谷歌正在致力做的事情。

Competition to build a network that could one day enable cars to drive themselves in the world’s largest car market will be intense. “It’s a wide-open market,” says Mr Liu. “A lot of companies are attracted to the connected car business and all have their own view of how it is going to develop.”

有關各方將展開激烈的競爭，以求在全球最大汽車市場建立起一個有朝一日能支撐無人駕駛的網絡。劉昕表示：“這是一個完全開放的市場。很多公司都對車聯網業務感興趣，它們對該業務將如何發展都有自己的看法。”

“The main competitor is Google,” says Mr Leonberger. “That’s the real threat – if they can get access to enough cars. If the car manufacturers don’t do anything or don’t co-operate, then Google will win. They have already the Android platform and the biggest cloud-sourcing community out there.”

萊昂貝格爾表示：“主要競爭對手是谷歌。這是真正的威脅，如果他們能夠接入足夠多汽車的話。假如汽車製造商什麼也不做、或者不進行合作，那麼谷歌就會成爲贏家。在這方面，他們已經擁有了Android平臺和最大的雲包(cloud-sourcing)社區。”

However, Google faces big obstacles in China. In 2010, the company abandoned the country’s internet search market after deciding its famous “do no evil” ethos was incompatible with Beijing’s censorship regime.

然而，谷歌在中國面臨巨大障礙。2010年，谷歌放棄了中國內地的互聯網搜索市場，原因是該公司認定其著名的“不作惡”(do no evil)原則與中國政府的審查制度不相容。

China-based internet users are redirected to Google’s Hong Kong search engine, which is routinely blocked by Chinese censors, as are the California company’s Gmail services. Both can only be accessed via virtual private network (VPN) tools.

中國內地互聯網用戶被重定向至谷歌在香港的搜索引擎，該網站經常被中國審查機關屏蔽，就像這家加州公司的Gmail服務一樣。目前，中國內地互聯網用戶只有藉助虛擬專用網(VPN)工具才能使用這兩項服務。

The Chinese authorities would certainly prefer a joint venture involving the country’s largest mobile operator to pioneer future car-to-car networks and autonomous driving.

中國政府肯定更希望由中國最大的移動通信運營商來組建一家合資企業，率先發展屬於未來的車聯網和無人駕駛技術。

“We have to obey government laws and regulations,” says Mr Liu, a US-educated former IBM executive, when he is asked if the joint venture’s operating system will offer VPN services so bored teenagers in the back can access YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and other sites routinely blocked by government censors.

在被問及該合資企業的操作系統是否將提供VPN服務（這樣，坐在汽車後座無事可幹的青少年就可訪問YouTube、Facebook、Twitter等常被中國政府審查機關屏蔽的網站）時，在美國受過教育、曾任IBM高管的劉昕表示：“我們必須遵守政府法律法規。

“By doing that, I don’t think we’re going to reduce our ability to compete.”

“我不認爲這麼做會削弱我們的競爭力。”

It is no accident that China Mobile has decided to partner with Deutsche Telekom rather than, say, a US company such as AT&T.

中國移動決定與德國電信合作，而不是與AT&T等美國企業合作，這絕非偶然。

Germany is China’s closest western partner and both countries share a common disgust with the extensive US surveillance activities unveiled by Edward Snowden, the fugitive former US intelligence contractor.

德國是中國最親密的西方合作伙伴，兩國都對美國的大規模監聽活動感到厭惡。這些監聽活動是由目前仍亡命天涯的前美國情報機構承包商愛德華•斯諾登(Edward Snowden)曝光的。

The joint venture also gives Deutsche Telekom unique entry to a telecoms market – the world’s biggest – where foreign investors are effectively barred from offering fixed-line and mobile services, while being limited to 50 per cent stakes in companies providing value-added services.

該合資公司還將讓德國電信獲得一個特別通道，來進入這個全球最大的電信市場——在中國電信市場，外國投資者實際上不準提供固話和移動電話服務，而提供增值服務的企業，外資持股比例也被限定爲不得超過50%。

It was always unlikely that such an opportunity would be extended to a US or UK telecoms operator.

這種機會似乎永遠不太可能提供給美國或英國電信運營商。