大千世界: 探祕寶馬的未來實驗室

You know BMW as a luxury automaker. But at a blocky, white facility off of Interstate 280 in Mountain View, Calif., the company is busily working on projects it hopes will keep its cars at the cutting edge of green technology. From parking lot charging stations to a shed full of lithium-ion batteries, BMW has its very own future lab, where it's plotting a future for sustainable luxury cars.

衆所周知，寶馬公司（BMW）是豪華轎車製造商。但在加州山景城280號州際公路邊的一棟白色小房子裏，寶馬公司的員工正在熱火朝天地工作，希望自己生產的汽車能夠跑在綠色科技的前沿。從停車場的充電站到裝滿鋰離子電池的棚子，寶馬已經擁有自己的未來實驗室，而且正在那裏此譜寫可持續豪華轎車的未來。

The lab master

實驗室的領導

Meet Peter Dempster, an advanced technology engineer at BMW in Mountain View. He's part of a team that's cooking up new ideas for BMW's next-gen cars. Dempster worked on the MINI E, an electric car that rolled out in 2008 and was a big hit among the company's more than 600 test-drivers. He's now using data from the MINI E project to help BMW meet the needs of a growing group of luxury consumers concerned with sustainability.

在山景城的寶馬公司，你可以見到高級技術工程師彼得•登普斯特。他就是寶馬下一代汽車創意孵化組的成員之一。登普斯特曾經參與開發MINI E。這輛電動汽車於2008年面世，在公司的600多名測試駕駛員中引起了轟動。如今，他將MINI E項目的數據用於幫助寶馬，以滿足日益增長的關注可持續性的奢侈品買家的需求。

Solar tree
太陽樹
At BMW's Mountain View campus, the company is experimenting with using alternative energy to fuel cars. This solar tree, Dempster says, produces enough electricity (in kilowatt-hours) to power one of BMW's electric vehicles. At the campus, the electricity from the panel helps power appliances in the building. In fact, the Mountain View team is working on ways to monitor all of its electricity use. Employees can view the energy used by the building's thermostat, solar chargers, refrigerator, solar tree, and other devices via one central gateway. BMW researchers are also developing an easy-to-read interface to manage all this data. Ultimately, Dempster hopes, the company could sell that interface to customers interested in monitoring their energy consumption
在山景城園區，寶馬正在嘗試使用替代能源來驅動汽車。登普斯特說，太陽樹能夠產生足夠的電力（以千瓦時爲單位）來驅動寶馬的電動汽車。在園區，太陽能板產生的電力能幫助維持建築物裏各種電器的運行。實際上，山景城的團隊正致力於監測所有電力的使用情況。員工可以通過一箇中心網關，看到建築中的調溫器、太陽能充電器、冰箱、太陽樹和其他設備的耗電量。寶馬的研究人員也在開發易讀的界面來管理這些數據。登普斯特希望最終能夠將這個界面出售給那些對監控能源消耗感興趣的顧客。

Red light, green light
紅燈，綠燈
Researchers are looking to figure out how to get BMW cars to communicate with stoplights. A team at Mountain View is trying to figure out which information from the stoplights to display to a driver to help improve safety and save fuel. Certain stoplight timing data -- like when a light will turn colors -- could help drivers make decisions that would improve the fuel economy of cars. Of course, Demptster says, it's important to fine-tune the formula so the display doesn't encourage drivers to gun it to beat a red.
研究人員正在研究解決如何讓寶馬汽車識別交通信號燈。山景城的一個小組正在嘗試提取信號燈信息，傳達給司機，以提高駕駛安全性，節省汽車燃料。特定的信號燈計時數據——比如燈會在什麼時候變色——可以幫助司機做出決定，從而節約汽車的燃料。登普斯特說，當然，調整計算公式也很重要，以免這些信息促使駕駛員在信號燈變紅前加大油門衝刺。

The battery shed
電池棚
In a shed in the parking lot, BMW keeps lithium-ion batteries after they've been removed from electric cars. There are all kinds of potential projects for these batteries, Dempster says. Someday, the industry could support an end-of-life lithium-ion battery market, depending on several factors, including the way we finance electric cars in the future.
在停車場的一個棚子裏，寶馬保存了從電動汽車上拆下來的鋰離子電池。登普斯特說，用這些電池可以開展許多具有潛力的項目。有朝一日，這些項目可以根據一些因素，包括我們未來購買電動汽車的方式，來支持一個廢棄鋰離子電池的市場。
Right now, the shed of batteries provides energy to some of the car chargers at BMW. Usually, a fast charger accounts for 50 kilowatt-hours of demand to the Mountain View facility's typical 30 kW load, Dempster says. "So if we can use the battery instead of just charging from the grid, it's a much more cost-effective system. We're investigating that."
如今，電池棚爲寶馬的一些汽車充電器提供能源。通常情況下，山景城的標準電力負荷是30千瓦，而一個快速充電器需要50千瓦時的電力。登普斯特說：“所以如果我們能利用這些電池，而不是僅僅通過電網充電，就能創造更有效益的系統。我們目前正在研究這個課題。”

Power up
充電
Many employees at BMW are already aboard the EV (electric vehicle) train. There are car-charging stations in the Mountain View parking lot for employees and visitors. "We strongly believe that workplace charging is going to really increase the demand for EVs," says Dempster. Already, the chargers have been a bit of a hit at Mountain View. Since the campus' three chargers were installed in 2012, they've been used for 584 charges and have dispensed 4,310 kilowatt-hours of power.
寶馬的許多員工已經開始使用電動汽車。山景城的停車場裏有供員工和遊客使用的汽車充電站。登普斯特說：“我們堅信在工作場所的充電服務會真正擴大電動汽車的需求。”這些充電器已經在山景城中引起了一些轟動。園區在2012年安裝的三臺充電器迄今已經充電584次，提供了4,310千瓦時的能量。