And So It Begins

World's first autonomous, 7MWh electric cargo ship to make voyage with zero crew onboard https://electrek.co/2021/08/25/worlds-first-autonomous-7mwh-electric-cargo-ship-to-make-voyage-with-zero-crew-onboard/?fbclid=IwAR3CNkV9sp9mJq7prvMOZ1EepwTemaGXGpR8xt6kvbahRXKhoTIx3r4P6eo

 

Who takes responsibility when it collides with something?

 

Wouldn't that be the boat owner?

 

Can a person login to the ship and take control of the vessel?
If they can, then it could be a terror risk. or the cargo could be stolen.

 

Captain of the other boat, because he's probably at fault.

 

That already happens on a daily basis. Try standing in the server room on an autonomous ship with a gun, and threatening to shoot the monitor. Probably have more luck with your gun to some living guy's head.

 

All a massive waste of resources. The carbon involved in transporting by ship is a microscopic speck as a percentage of total emissions. The environmental impact of mining the minerals to make the power pack is almost certainly far greater than the shop might save during it's operating life. And how long does it need to be at dock to recharge? How is the power generated at that point?

Autonomous, on the other hand. That makes sense.

 

I disagree 100%. Using a variety of fuels reduces the market power of a single source (oil) provider.

For years, we had a quiet policy of use their oil first. Drill baby drill was quietly forgotten after each election.

Now, with the advent of hydrogen and electric cells, that is all less certain, but jet fuel is still the same base.

I love to see a full spectrum of power options. Otoh, I don't enjoy China's toxic lake. But that sort of thing needs to be fixed in trade agreements.

I don't believe in a fully autonomous ship. There are too many things to program. If any spec of the programming is missed or in error, the result could be loss of life which happens even in human operating environments. My wife's Tesla is a prime example. We were on one of those exits with two lanes and the vehicle next to us was hogging inside as expected in the turn. The Tesla was programmed to center the lane. The pickup got within 6" of us when he crossed the centerline a bit. Had I been driving, I'd have been cheating to the inside. Of course, I was the passenger and got to see the fly **** on the guys mirror. Later, Tesla changed that code pretty sure. But I still hate when my wife lets it auto drive and something odd happens and she says, they gotta fix that in the program. Think train whistles..the car doesn't hear them last I knew...could be wrong. Point is...cargo ships could have an issue. Perhaps pilots within 5 miles make sense...etc.