Autonomous Boats Will Be On the Market Sooner Than Self-Driving Cars (vice.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Motherboard: In the autonomous revolution that is underway, nearly every transportation machine will eventually be self-driving. For cars, it's likely going to take decades before we see them operating freely, outside of test conditions. Some unmanned watercraft, on the other hand, may be at sea commercially before 2020. That's partly because automating all ships could generate a ridiculous amount of revenue. According to the United Nations, 90 percent of the world's trade is carried by sea and 10.3 billion tons of products were shipped in 2016. According to NOAA's National Ocean Service, ships transported $1.5 trillion worth of cargo through U.S. ports in 2016. The world's 325 or so deep-sea shipping companies have a combined revenue of $10 billion.

Startups and major firms like Rolls Royce are now looking to automate the seas and help maritime companies ease navigation, save fuel, improve safety, increase tonnage, and make more money. As it turns out, autonomous systems for boats aren't supremely different than those of cars, beyond a few key factors -- for instance, water is always moving while roads are not, and ships need at least a couple miles to redirect. Buffalo Automation, a startup in upstate New York that began at the University at Buffalo, just raised $900,000 to help commercialize its AutoMate system -- essentially a collection of sensors and cameras to help boats operate semi-autonomously. CEO Thiru Vikram said the company is working with three pilot partners, and intends to target cargo ships and recreational vessels first. Autonomous ships are an area of particular interest for the International Maritime Organization (IMO), which sets the standards for international waters. It launched a regulatory scoping exercise last year to analyze the impact of autonomous boats. By the time it wraps in 2020, market demand may make it so that we already have semi-autonomous and unmanned vessels at sea.

Comments

Sigh

[Anonymous Coward]

'In the autonomous revolution that is underway, nearly every transportation machine will eventually be self-driving.'

No, they won't. If any of this comes about at all, it'll be restricted to vehicles in remote or controlled places (like the middle of the sea or closed driving areas) and it will likely only go about as far as autopilot on commercial jets. No more deaths would be tolerated under any circumstances in any kind of test. This is really no different than what the military in terms of R & D did in the 20th century, they just did it in private. They were rarely successful and not much of what they experimented with ever saw the light of day.

Speculation and wishful thinking do not state fact or even eventuality. The tunnel vision and lack of critical thought in these pieces, which are pure editorialization, is astounding. They certainly do nothing to defy the notion that most engineers are on the spectrum. Not gonna happen.

Ain't gonna happen

[MatthewWalker]

I spent 20 years going to sea. All during that time, the companies were trying to cut back on the crew. And, they pretty much have done it. The only people on board now are a skeleton crew to keep the ship moving. But, they can't cut down any more.

The problem is not that the technology is bad. The problem is that going to sea is much more complicated than non-seagoing people think. And, the sea is terribly unforgiving of any mistakes, incapacity or inattentiveness. We have gyrocompasses but we do check them against the magnetic compass. We have wonderful tracking radars with gyro stabilized displays. But, we still have lookouts for the things that radars do not pick up (like small boats). Satellite navigation provides us with accurate fixes, 24 hours a day. But, I still brought my sextant, and was expected to use it.

The engine room has a similar situation. Having engineers to maintain and repair the equipment is imperative. There are no repair crews when you are in the middle of the ocean.

A completely automated ship is even less likely than an automated airliner without a pilot.

Re:Why all these 'driverless' vehicles?

[NicknameUnavailable]

Call me stupid if you must, but I have a hard time understanding the trend towards the 'driver-less' vehicles - from cars to vessels to perhaps, airplanes

A few reasons:

-Automating them would put a lot of highschool educated males out of work, which is a lot of money for the people doing the automating.
-They could reduce (but not eliminate) the number of deaths with automation in order to ensure 99% of auto fatalities are political dissenters.
-They can make people more accepting of giving up control over things if they trust their lives on a daily basis to such a system.
-The cars themselves are very deep spyware.
-The cars could be remotely controlled to ensure only the people running the system can successfully undertake criminal activity.
-That second point is the prime motivator.

Semi-autonomous anyway

[DrYak]

Of these, only 3 or 4 are directly involved in steering the ship: The captain, and a couple of deck officers, all of whom have other duties as well.

And the article mentions that the current systems are only semi-autonomous.

Means you won't be completely replacing the whole 3-4 guys steering the ship.
The captain will still be around, probably at least one of the deck officers, in order to overwatch the semi-autonomous system whenever it requires human supervision.

Compared to all the money involved in shipping cargo on huge container ship, the difference of salaries will barely register.