Autonomous, zero emission cargo: Do we have full faith in autonomy yet?

While I applaud the need for zero emission vessels, the push for autonomous vehicles, ships, etc. is overboard in my opinion (no pun intended). Why is it ship builders are insisting on doing away with captains on board and relying on autonomous technology?

• Increased profits (fire the captain!)?
  
• Safer?

I'm still an advocate for trained captains at the helm of a vessel vs. remote control technology. Below is a snip of the Yara Birkeland, which labels itself as the first zero emission, fully autonomous cargo vessel.

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Ref: The first ever zero emission, autonomous ship | Yara International https://www.yara.com/knowledge-grows/game-changer-for-the-environment/

 

That is interesting question. When the manpower needed in relation to capital is so low it begs tovask what is there to be gained.

 

Its always about the profits.

What could possibly go wrong?

 

Putting the shoe on the other foot: If you were a captain would you rather:

A) Be on board the ship with the crew.
B) Be sitting in a remote location poking around on a computer/joystick. You can listen to ocean sounds on your smart phone play list.

 

C) Be on board as the single handed "Captain" (really systems' operator/maintainer) for weeks/months at a time alone. They also make movies about this that don't end well.

"B" is probably inevitable.

 

One area of concern is actually monitoring the ship systems. Cameras only go so far. Passing off responsibility to the crew to inspect critical systems without

You've got a good point. Human captains with inadequate support crew are an accident waiting to happen.

 

Autonomous ships and zero emissions are not necessarily related. Zero emissions is a claim by politicians, not based on facts. Any transportation mode will have some kind of emissions.

 

Not if its bulk or slow-boat cargo that goes by solar, sail, or even current. No crew, no daily wages or food costs. It doesn't matter if the passage takes 2 wks. or 2 months if the cargo and its customers don't care.

 

Well if you want to go to that level of detail, then yes it depends on how many servings of beans are served on board. Can you explain further? This vessel is supposed to be all electric and autonomous.