现实版“变形金刚”来了

The fantasy car / robot / pal you've dreamed about since childhood is real, and it's sitting under lock-down in a Japanese warehouse.

自儿童时代起，你梦寐以求的“变形金刚”终于问世了，目前正静静地待在日本某公司的仓库里。

J-deite RIDE is a working, transforming robot that can change between a humanoid form and a functional car. Basically, it's the closest thing you'll find to a functional, real-life Transformer anywhere this side of Cybertron.Unveiled in Japan last week, the latest prototype you can see here stands almost 4 metres tall in its imposing robotic form, before morphing groundwards into its chunky vehicular configuration.

它名为“J-deite RIDE”，是一款真实可用的变形金刚，能够在人形和汽车之间转换形态——呈机器人形态时，它高约4米;呈汽车形态时，它真的能开。上周，最新样品在日本亮相。

(J-deite RIDE)

J-deite RIDE – a joint venture between three separate robotics and machinery companies – has been in development since 2014, and its makers are now ready to show it off at Japanese exhibitions, plus the IAAPA Attractions Expo 2018 in Florida in November.

自2014年以来，由三家机器人及机械公司联合经营的合资企业开始研发J-deite RIDE。如今，它即将参加日本各大展览，并于今年11月前往美国佛罗里达州参加“2018年国际游乐园及景点设备展览会”。

While we love everything about J-deite RIDE's manga-esque style – inspired by Transformers (of course) and drawn up by legendary mechanical designer Kunio Okawara of Gundam fame – this changeling has a few shortcomings compared to the alien hybrids we know from cartoons and movies.

J-deite RIDE的灵感来源于《变形金刚》，由传奇机械设计师“高达之父”大河原邦男参与设计。不过，尽管J-deite RIDE深受人们的喜爱，但相较于卡通和电影里的变形金刚，它还存在几个缺点。

In a nutshell: speed.

简而言之：速度。

Compared to the almost instantaneous transitions made by the original Transformers – to say nothing of the almost unwatchably quick transformations seen in the Michael Bay movies – J-deite RIDE is something of a slouch.

在原始动漫里，变形金刚几乎能够瞬间变身;在迈克尔·贝的电影里，变身速度更是快得看不清。相比之下，J-deite RIDE显得有些笨拙。

(J-deite RIDE)While this giant robot can indeed transform its shape, let's just say if it were an Autobot, there'd be virtually no chance of saving the day from the evil Decepticons.It takes J-deite RIDE a whole minute to change from a robot into a car (or vice versa), and if you think that's a little on the slow side, we haven't even touched on its walking speed.

它在机器人和汽车之间转换形态需要花费整整一分钟时间。你可能觉得这听起来有点慢了，但我们还没说到它的走路速度呢。

On wheels, J-deite RIDE's engineers say it has a 'theoretical' driving speed of 60 kilometres per hour (37 miles per hour), and the same wheels enable the robot to roll along at half that speed.(J-deite RIDE)When the robot walks, though, it's almost comically slow: 100 metres (328 ft) per hour, which is so much slower than Usain Bolt, well… we're not even going to bother calculating the difference.Let's just say we're talking about tortoise velocity here, folks.

工程师表示，呈汽车形态时，它的“理论速度”应该有60公里/小时;然而，它的实际速度只达到理论速度的一半。它的走路速度更是慢得滑稽：100米/小时——这简直是龟速嘛。

But that doesn't mean we love J-deite RIDE any the less. This awesome-looking robot can do all of its amazing transformations while carrying two people inside it, and the best bit of all is, you might even get to be one of those people one day.

不过，这些缺点丝毫不影响人们对J-deite RIDE的喜爱程度。它在进行变身和移动的同时，内部可以装载两个人。更棒的是，你将来或许有机会坐在里面。

The robot's makers – Asratec, Sansei Technologies, and Brave Robotics – say that once their prototype is fully developed, they're intending to commercialise the technology for use at amusement and theme parks.

制造商表示，在开发完毕后，他们打算进行商业推广，将它用于游乐园和主题公园。

So no, it won't defeat Decepticons. But it's guaranteed to drop a few jaws, and make an awful lot of people happy.

没错，它无法战胜霸天虎，但却能够为人们带来欢乐。