奧迪與中國BAT簽約合作
Audi, the luxury German carmaker owned by Volkswagen, plans to work with China’s three biggest technology companies to enhance its reputation for building connected cars.
大衆(Volkswagen)旗下的德國豪車製造商奧迪(Audi)計劃與中國三大科技公司開展合作，以增強其打造聯網汽車的聲譽。
At its annual summit in Shanghai on Sunday, Audi signed agreements with Tencent, Alibaba and Baidu, saying it will work closely with each in data analysis, internet-vehicle platform building and urban intelligent transport.
在上週日於上海舉行的年度峯會上，奧迪與騰訊(Tencent)、阿里巴巴(Alibaba)和百度(Baidu)簽署協議，稱將與這些公司在數據分析、互聯網-車輛平臺建設和城市智能交通等領域密切合作。
Audi’s move is the latest example of a traditional carmaker linking up with software specialists to avoid being left behind, as new entrants compete on self-driving vehicles and so-called internet of things connectivity.
在市場新參與者在自動駕駛汽車和物聯網上展開競爭之際，奧迪此舉是一家傳統汽車製造商與軟件專家聯手以免落後的最新例證。
In July, German rival BMW teamed up with Israeli sensor maker Mobileye to produce autonomous cars over the next decade.
今年七月，德國競爭對手寶馬(BMW)聯手以色列傳感器廠商Mobileye，擬在未來10年生產自動駕駛汽車。
China is the world’s largest car market for new cars, and while Audi lags behind BMW and Mercedes in the global luxury market, it has been China’s number one luxury car brand by sales since 1988 — when it established a joint-venture with partner Chinese First Automobile Works.
中國是世界上最大的新車市場，而儘管奧迪在全球豪車市場落後於寶馬和奔馳(BMW)，但它自1988年（那年豪迪與中國第一汽車製造廠(Chinese First Automobile Works)組建了一家合資企業）以來一直是中國銷量最高的豪車。
From January to July this year, Audi sold 336,580 cars in China, accounting for almost one in- three of the brand’s global sales.
今年1至7月，奧迪在中國的汽車銷量達到33.658萬輛，佔該品牌全球銷量近三分之一。
However, its rivals are catching up.
然而，它的競爭對手正在迎頭趕上。
Audi sales were only up 6.5 per cent, while BMW deliveries were up 8.5 per cent and Mercedes sales climbed 32 per cent, to 287,753 and 257,276 respectively.
奧迪銷量增幅只有6.5%，而寶馬和奔馳的銷量分別增長8.5%和32%，至28.7753萬輛和25.7276萬輛。
Maintaining the lead requires investing in internet-connected technology, analysts argued.
分析師們提出，保持領先要求投資於聯入互聯網的技術。
Arndt Ellinghorst, at Evercore ISI, said Chinese car buyers appear to be even more connected than people in the western world, in part because the average buyer is 36 years old — 10 years younger than in the US and 20 years younger than in Germany.
Evercore ISI分析師阿恩特•埃林霍斯特(Arndt Ellinghorst)表示，中國購車者似乎比西方買家的聯網程度還要高，部分原因是中國買家的平均年齡爲36歲，比美國年輕10歲，比德國年輕20歲。
In 2013, Audi opened a research and development centre in Beijing to develop technology that it will aim to monetise in China first, and then export globally.
2013年，奧迪在北京設立了一個研發中心，力求開發首先在中國投入商用、然後輸出至全球的技術。
The Chinese are early adopters.
中國人樂於嘗試新技術。
If you’re not here with the latest stuff, then you can’t win, said Martin Kühl, an Audi spokesman in Shanghai.
如果你在這裏拿不出最新的東西，那你是贏不了的，奧迪在上海的發言人馬丁•屈爾(Martin Kühl)表示。
Mr Kühl said Audi has already been successful developing technology in China and then deploying it elsewhere.
屈爾表示，奧迪已成功地在中國開發技術，然後將其推廣至其他地方。
Touchscreen technology developed in Beijing is now being used by engineers in Germany.
在北京開發的觸摸屏技術，如今被德國的工程技術人員採用。
Audi’s relationship with Alibaba already goes back a decade.
奧迪與阿里巴巴的關係可以追溯到10年前。
This year, the two companies have been working on 3D maps and traffic data technology that Mr Kühl said is high-resolution, providing almost real-life pictures of buildings.
今年以來，兩家公司合作研發3D地圖和交通數據技術；屈爾表示，這種高分辨率技術提供近乎真實的建築物圖像。
This kind of map material is not even available outside of China, he said. Alibaba has done a really great job and we’ve been the first to use this data, to use these maps.
這種地圖資料在中國以外根本無人提供，他說，阿里巴巴做了真正了不起的工作，而我們能夠率先利用這些數據，利用這些地圖。
It is not yet clear when the technology will made available in Europe but Mr Kühl said the interface can be linked with a different data feed, enabling Audi to link it with services from Google or HERE, the navigation software Audi joint-purchased with BMW and Daimler last year for Euro2.8bn.
尚不清楚該技術何時將在歐洲推出，但屈爾表示，相關接口可鏈接不同的數據饋送，使奧迪能夠將其與谷歌(Google)或HERE的服務鏈接；HERE是奧迪去年聯手寶馬和戴姆勒(Daimler)斥資28億歐元收購的導航軟件。
Audi’s relationship with Baidu began two years ago and, next year, it plans to introduce Baidu CarLife, a local competitor to Apple’s CarPlay, into its cars.
奧迪與百度的合作始於兩年前，明年它計劃在自己的汽車中推出百度CarLife，後者是蘋果(Apple) CarPlay的本地競爭產品。
This app includes free navigation software from the Chinese search giant as well as support for third-party apps.
這款應用包含來自百度這家中國搜索巨擘的免費導航軟件，並支持第三方應用。
Of course we also offer Apple CarPlay in China but there are more Chinese using the local services, Mr Kühl said.
當然，我們在中國也提供蘋果CarPlay，但是更多的中國人使用本地服務，屈爾表示。
With Tencent, Audi is working to integrate WeChat MyCar services for location sharing and music sharing.
至於騰訊，奧迪正致力於集成微信(WeChat) MyCar服務，用於地點共享和音樂共享。
The two companies started co-operating earlier this year.
這兩家公司是在今年早些時候開始合作的。
