Norway, Finland, Singapore, and China may be on their way to developing independent shipping vessels, free from human navigators. By 2020, a 237-foot electric ship will set sail from a shipyard in Norway. However, the popularity of these marine technologies is spreading as Finland has plans for a automated ferry, China has defined a testing area for autonomous ships, and Japan has planned to create over 200 remote-controlled cargo ships. Sean T.Pribyl, a maritime attorney has described the global competition of creating unmanned ships, saying, “It’s kind of a space race.” The idea of instituting technology in the shipping industry has come by surprise because of the many obstacles of implementation, including the lack of sectioned ocean space to run tests, heavily-trafficked paths, and regulations. Google has recently paired with Rolls-Royce to help engineer the machine learning technology necessary to bring the designs to life. Some advantages to the ships would be safety, environmental sustainability, and lower shipping costs, since there would be no need to pay the costs associated with a crew.
I think the idea of ships sailing without a single person onboard is a really interesting technological development. These projects are so huge that I am curious to see how the ships will fare when sent out on their own. The concern that I have for the ships are the same concern I have for self-driving cars. What if they lose the connection to the ship? I am wonder if it would be easier for others to usurp control of the ship and steal the cargo.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/global-race-to-develop-self-navigating-ships-leaves-us-behind/ar-AAwiiPj
I found this post interesting, especially with self driving cars becoming more common today. Self driving cars have already stirred up controversy over whether or not they are reliable without any driver intervention. Tesla’s are a popular self driving car becoming more common on roads today. There have been some crashes with these self driving cars due to errors in the vehicles sensors. Although the ocean is much more open and less prone to collisions than busy roads, I feel as though there are many other problems that can occur. For example the ship may lose power or run out of fuel and become stranded somewhere far from shore. Money would have to go into rescuing stranded ships at sea or ships that have gone off course. Although this is a good idea in concept, I think the technology involved to have these ships sail themselves should be perfected before relying on these ships to deliver many products overseas.