According to media reports, a consortium of 40 Japanese shipbuilders, shipping companies and tech firms have gathered to produce self-navigating shipping vessels. Development of the AI piloting technology is expected to cost tens of billions of yen, so the shippers including Mitsui OSK Lines, NTT, and Nippon Yusen are working with shipbuilders like Japan Marine United to share both costs and expertise. ResearchAndMarkets.com’s Autonomous Ships Market – Growth, Trends, and Forecast (2020-2025) predicts that autonomous navigation will help reduce the maritime emissions, enable massive fuel savings, and save about 20 percent of the cost incurred for the shipping operators. (Source)
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It’s funny, but I read such news for a very long time, they were planned back in 2020, it seems. Although Japan inspires confidence in itself, let’s see how things turn out. Now I was interested in dhl delivery, and it seems they already have good conditions without autonomous ships
As for now, autonomous navigation hasn’t been introduced even for cars. And marine vessels have even more factors to consider, like strong winds, rough seas, waves, and fishing boats appearing sporadically. To handle these, you need a really powerful combination of AI and IoT, not to mention image recognition technology.