Between GPS navigation and telepresence for more complicated tasks, this actually makes a lot of sense. Right now much of what the minimal crew on cargo ships does is spot and fix the minor things that can be fixed en route, and call for help if there's a more serious problem.
The main trick will be making sure that a ship knows when doesn't know something it should (e.g., it doesn't see any ships over there because its radar is futzing out, not because there are no ships). Eyeballs are also a lot better at spotting things than eyeballs-via-camera.
Still, I suspect this is the wave of the future (short of civilization collapse), and makes a more sense in and of itself than autonomous big rig trucks.
Originally shared by +George Wiman:
On the one hand, it's very difficult to believe that crew accommodations on a half-million ton ship would make that much difference in its efficiency. Could the real reason be that humans get drunk, have variable attention, and take shortcuts?
Rolls Royce to head up autonomous ship project | News | The Engineer
Rolls-Royce is to lead a new €6.6 million project that could help pave the way for autonomous ships.
