In the race to build in-car information systems, Google may be destined for the checkered flag for one simple reason: It has the killer map.在开发车载信息系统的角逐中，谷歌公司(Google Inc.)可能会成为赢家，原因很简单：谷歌拥有地图这个杀手锏。

At the International CES show last week, Google and several car makers, including General Motors, launched the Open Automotive Alliance. This is a plan to establish Google's Android operating system as a common platform for apps in the connected car.在上周举行的国际消费电子展(International CES)上，谷歌和通用汽车(General Motors)等汽车企业宣布成立开放汽车联盟(Open Automotive Alliance)，计划把谷歌的安卓(Android)操作系统打造成联网汽车的应用公共平台。

That opens a new front in Google's battle with Apple, which announced plans last year to integrate its devices into car makers' dashboard control panels, and Microsoft, which developed in-car voice-activated and touch-screen technologies with Ford Motor.至此，谷歌与苹果公司(Apple)和微软(Microsoft)之间的竞争进入了一个新的领域。苹果去年宣布计划将其产品集成到汽车仪表盘内，而微软也与福特汽车(Ford Motor)合作开发车载语音控制和触屏技术。

Given rivals' earlier moves, Google could be seen as having a late start. But the open nature of Android has obvious appeal. The ability for a company to customize Android persuades even Google's rivals to use it; Amazon.com, for example, tweaked the software for its own Kindle reading device. Given vehicle development's long lead times, these are important considerations.与竞争对手早已行动相比，谷歌可能起步较晚。不过，安卓系统的开放性具有明显的吸引力。由于企业可以对安卓系统自定义处理，这一点甚至让谷歌的竞争对手也使用该系统；比如亚马逊(Amazon.com)，该公司就在其Kindle阅读器中推出了自己的定制版安卓系统。鉴于汽车的开发周期很长，这方面是一个企业需要考虑的重要因素。

More important may be Google's map expertise. Having sent cars with cameras all over the world to develop its Street View capabilities, the company has created maps that are extremely accurate and up to date where others aren't. Think of the apology Apple had to issue in 2012 following criticism of a new version of its own Maps app, which was designed to replace Google's.更为重要的或许是谷歌在地图方面的经验。谷歌在全球各地派出取景车提供街景(Street View)服务，其地图的精确度和更新速度为其他竞争对手难以企及。在这一方面，不难联想到苹果2012年为自己的地图应用向用户道歉一事，当时该公司尝试推出自己的新版地图应用以替代谷歌地图，但并没有获得用户认可。

The popularity of Google's maps for devices running Android and Apple's iOS creates a network effect. The more people who use Google Maps, the more information Google has on factors such as traffic, and the more appealing the product becomes. Such was the logic behind Google's purchase of Waze, a real-time traffic-information app, last year.谷歌地图在搭载安卓和苹果iOS操作系统的设备上的受欢迎程度产生了网络效应。使用谷歌地图的人越多，谷歌获取的交通等信息就越丰富，其地图服务的吸引力就越大。这也是谷歌去年收购实时交通信息应用Waze的思路所在。

And don't forget a big reason for Google's interest in cartography is its autonomous vehicle program. A crash means something quite different for a car compared with a smartphone. To minimize the potential for error, a must from both a regulatory and product-liability standpoint, a self-driving car needs a painstakingly accurate map.此外，谷歌之所以对地图服务感兴趣，一个不容忽视的重要原因是其自动驾驶汽车项目。系统崩溃对汽车的意义与智能手机完全不同。就自动驾驶汽车而言，无论从监管角度还是产品可靠性角度来看，要想把可能出现的错误降到最小程度，精确的地图不可或缺。

With a gaggle of companies demonstrating autonomous and semiautonomous vehicle technology at CES, and likely at this week's auto show in Detroit, the day when commercially available self-driving cars cruise U.S. roads looks less a futurist daydream and more a rapidly approaching reality. 'With U.S. drivers driving 75 billion hours a year, autonomous cars are also poised to have a much greater impact on society as a whole than most people give them credit for,' Morgan Stanley said in a recent report.许多公司都在此次消费电子展上展示了全自动和半自动汽车驾驶技术，而这也可能成为本周底特律汽车展上的一大热点，由此看来，美国公路上出现商用自动驾驶汽车似乎已不再是不切实际的空想，而越来越成为指日可待的现实。摩根士丹利(Morgan Stanley)在最近的报告中表示，美国人一年驾驶汽车的时间为750亿小时，自动驾驶汽车对整个社会产生的影响要比多数人预期的大得多。

Google's autonomous-car program is a big reason the concept is being taken so seriously within the automotive industry. It isn't hard to envision the company licensing the technology for car makers just as right now it provides its Android operating system to smartphone manufacturers.谷个的自动驾驶汽车项目也是汽车业如此重视这一概念的重要原因。不难想像，未来会有一天谷歌向汽车企业提供自动驾驶技术的授权许可，就像现在其向智能手机制造商提供安卓系统授权许可一样。

At the least, car companies may want to tap Google's map technology for their programs. But Google's wider product offering means they may see it as being in their best interest to build a closer relationship with it over the long term.至少，汽车企业可能希望在自己的程序中使用谷歌地图技术。不过，鉴于谷歌的产品种类较广，汽车企业与谷歌建立更紧密的长期合作关系可能符合这些厂商的最大利益。

All of which gives Google an advantage over the likes of Apple as the autonomous age arrives and Detroit and drivers venture into unfamiliar territory without a map.

综上所述，随着汽车自动驾驶时代来临、汽车企业和驾驶员尝试这一陌生领域，谷歌相比苹果等公司具有更大优势。