Englisch BHS, Maturatraining mit Audio-CD

24 Reading The driverless car Read the text about a ride in a driverless car. Parts of the text have been removed. Choose the correct part (A–L) for each gap (1–9). There are two extra parts that you should not use. Write your answers in the spaces provided. The first one (0) has been done for you. 08 Road-testing the driverless car For months Google has been testing a small £eet of modi–ed cars on public roads near their oŒces in Mountain View, California. is week I became one of the –rst Britons (0) the company’s new ‘driverless’ car. Like anyone else who –nds the prospect of a computerised driver slightly worrying, I am comforted by having one of the team’s so ware engineers, Priscilla Knox, on our drive, ready (1) should anything happen. And if it does, like every good robot, the car has a big red ON/OFF button, which quickly switches it over to manual. Knox assures me they have never had to use it. ‘AUTODRIVING’ announces the friendly female voice from somewhere inside the car’s dashboard as we turn on the ignition. is is not the satnav speaking but our driver for today. She is called ‘ e Chau†eur’ and she is clever enough (2) round the streets of Silicon Valley without human help. Knox programmes in our destination – a supermarket 15 minutes away – and tells the car (3) what will be the quickest route there. Sitting next to her is a colleague, Jared, who is holding a laptop. On its screen we see the car’s view of the world: a virtual street dotted with coloured boxes that denote cars, pedestrians and cyclists. A green path shows our intended route. e team has spent the last few months mapping every single junction, traŒc light, stop sign, speed bump, roundabout and zebra crossing in the town (4) with the tools to navigate itself. But our car will need more than GPS mapping to make the journey safely. Real streets are, a er all, full of an endless number of variables. e –rst few seconds of the drive are slightly nerve-racking as Knox waves her arms around (5) that she is no longer in control. I –nd myself deducting points like a driving test examiner when the car hesitates at an empty intersection, or when it has (6) for a group of cyclists still some way ahead. ere are also occasional jerks as the car processes what is going on and decides how best to respond to it. But for the most part the ride is smooth and con–dent. A er a while, I begin (7) the Chau†eur shows more intelligent thinking and forward planning than most drivers I know! Just minutes later the car shows my intuition to be correct. A vehicle in front fails to spot a jogger crossing the street and comes very close to hitting her. We are all too busy watching the drama unfold (8) for our own jaywalking jogger ahead. Luckily for us humans, our driver was not distracted and stopped in the nick of time. e ultimate aim of the self-driving project is (9) . “ e Chau†eur doesn’t fall asleep, text or drink on the job” says Knox. “She is the most conservative driver on the road, as we have programmed her to drive defensively. In all of our trials, there has only been one accident, and that was down to human error. A few problems remain to be solved, but I’m sure it is a matter of when, not if, driverless cars are let loose on our highways.” Nur zu Prüfzwecken – Eigentum des Verlags öbv