底特律车展谍影重重

    当然咯，高管们往往带着随从，因此，他们四处探访对手的车会显得比较扎眼。但设计师却能独来独往，在对手不经意间完成探究。

    这周的底特律车展上，这些兼职“间谍”们手里的iPhone大显身手，成了拍摄新车型的利器。少数人会用成像效果更好的相机拍摄后备箱、仪表板、前格栅和全新的触屏。还有一些人则在西装外套下藏着小笔记本电脑。

    位于密歇根州安阿伯市的汽车研究中心（Center for Automotive Research）分析师格雷戈•施罗德说：“其实我们没把这种做法看成是间谍行为，它就是一种调查研究。”周三是估量竞争形势的大日子，因为各家厂商都会在这天进行预展。施罗德称，工程师们当天“几乎要钻到车底下”去弄清各种新车到底做了哪些改进。

    北美国际车展（North American International Auto Show）向车企员工、赞助商和特别嘉宾一共发放了3万张参观券。这样一来，在车展面向公众开放前的这段时间里，他们的人数可能会是媒体人士和博主的六倍。

    新车正式亮相前，厂商可能会用布把它们罩上，盖住一些主要特征，从而避开对手的耳目。《连线》杂志（Wired）报道称，福特汽车（Ford）这次就专门请了一位全职的伪装专家来保护自己的新车。

    当然，公司之间的这种间谍活动有时候会踩过线。据称，有位工程顾问从杜邦公司（DuPont Co.）窃取了商业秘密并以2900万美元的价格把它们卖给了一家中国公司，现在正面临阴谋罪的指控。据联邦调查局（FBI）称，非法间谍活动及盗窃商业机密每年会给美国公司造成高达130亿美元的损失。不过在行业展会上不太可能发生这种事，毕竟展会上的新产品都是公开展览的。

    在消费电子展上，各家公司一般只会展示他们希望在未来六个月内卖给消费者的产品。高德纳咨询公司（Gartner）的研究总监安吉拉•麦金泰尔表示，如果这些公司带来了一些可穿戴技术的初级产品，它们也会把这些专利产品藏在展会附近的酒店套间里，只邀请特定客户参观。

    不过竞争对手公开展示自己打前站的产品也确实能给同行带来诸多好处。在本周一举行的梅赛德斯奔驰新闻发布会上，大众的两个团队听得十分入神。会后，福特的两个经理从观众中一路挤到前面，想和厂方尽快接触一下。现场观众中不乏来自本田（Honda）、奥迪、保时捷（Porsche）、斯巴鲁（Subaru）、丰田（Toyota）、沃尔沃（Volvo）和起亚的代表。

    想要进一步深入研究对手汽车的人可以联系Midway集团（Midway Group），它专为其他汽车厂商提供法拉利和奔驰这样的高端车辆，供他们数天或数月研究之用。有些厂商会直接买下对手的车，还有些则采用租的方式。Midway集团在底特律车展上负责拜访汽车厂商的副总裁戴维•小史密斯说：“我们会把这些车给他们运去，直接运到技术中心。”

    通用汽车有一支竞争标杆分析团队，它会用3D扫描技术找出对手汽车的优劣所在。实际上他们会把一辆车大卸八块，找出其他厂商召回的原因，或是了解各种配件的生产方式和改进之道。

    这种高级侦探就需要全职工作了，不是在车展上晃荡几天就能搞定的。（财富中文网）

    译者：清远

    Top executives, of course, travel with an entourage, so it's noticeable when they visit a competitor's cars. Designers can swoop in solo.

    At the Detroit auto show this week, these part-time spies made good use of their iPhones to photograph new models. A few had higher-quality cameras to document trunks, dashboards, front grills, and new touchscreen displays. Some slipped tiny notebooks into their suit jackets.

    "We don't really look at it as spying. It's research," said Greg Schroeder, an analyst with the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Mich. The biggest day to size up the competition is Wednesday, the industry's day to preview vehicles. Engineers are "almost crawling under the cars" to see what has improved, Schroeder said.

    The North American International Auto Show gives out 30,000 credentials to auto staffers, sponsors, and special guests, so they may outnumber media and bloggers six to one in the days before the event opens to the public.

    Before the new models debut, automakers may wrap them in fabric and mask features to keep them from competitor's eyes. Wired reported that Ford (F) employs a full-time camouflage specialist to protect its new vehicles.

    To be sure, corporate espionage can cross the line. An engineering consultant faces conspiracy charges for allegedly stealing trade secrets from DuPont Co. (DD) and selling them to a Chinese company for $29 million. Illegal spying and theft of trade secrets costs U.S. companies $13 billion a year, according to the FBI. But that's not likely to take place at trade shows, where new products are on open display.

    At the Consumer Electronics Show, companies typically only show products they expect to sell to consumers within six months. If they bring early-stage models of some wearable technology, they will stash those proprietary items in private hotel suites nearby and invite only select customers, said Angela McIntyre, a research director at Gartner.

    The public display of competitors' advances certainly offers business benefits. At the Mercedes-Benz press briefing on Monday, two groups of Volkswagen staffers listened intently. After the event, two Ford managers elbowed their way through the crowd to get a quick close up. Representatives of Honda (HMC), Audi, Porsche, Subaru, Toyota (TM), Volvo, and and Kia also were spotted in the crowd.

    Those who want a more thorough look at competitors' vehicles can call on Midway Group, which supplies high-end vehicles like Ferraris and Mercedes to other automakers to study for a few days or months. Some buy competitors' cars outright, and some lease them. "We deliver it to them, their technical centers," said David Smith Jr., a Midway vice president who was visiting automakers at the Detroit show.

    General Motors has a competitive benchmarking team that uses 3-D scanning to search for the good and bad in competitors' cars. They literally tear apart a vehicle to see what led to another automaker's recall or how components were manufactured and improved.

    That kind of advanced sleuthing requires full-time work, not a few days' wandering around an auto show.