Autonomous Shipping May Take Its Time Before Becoming New Maritime Reality

by Ship & Bunker News Team
Wednesday May 9, 2018

The rise of autonomous shipping is no foregone conclusion and may take longer to become a reality than first supposed, a new survey has found.

The survey, conducted by seafarer organisation Nautilius International, uncovered a more cautious take on the rate of introduction of autonomous vessels into the shipping industry.

Some "80% of maritime professionals believe autonomous or remotely controlled ships will not be in service by 2020 and fewer than 40% of serving seafarers consider that commercially viable unmanned ships will be in widespread service within the next 20 years".

This percentage contrasts with a European Union-funded survey, Project Munin - Maritime Unmanned Navigation through Intelligence in Networks, which found that 97% of maritime professionals believe autonomous ships will be introduced within the next ten years.

Among the factors cited by participants in the Nautilus survey as slowing the march of fully computerised shipping were equipment reliability and regulatory constraints.

"A significant number of respondents suggested that problematic issues such as legal and regulatory hurdles, equipment and system reliability, security, and cost factors will lead to the very slow introduction of autonomous ships – perhaps not until the middle of this century, if at all."

Autonomous shipping will not take hold in shipping sectors at the same rate with deepsea shipping trade mostly likely to see the innovation ahead of other sectors.

"Almost three-quarters of respondents considered that – if inevitable – autonomous shipping operations are most likely to take place on deepsea services," the survey found.

But only "20% considered this to be the case for coastal waters and inland waterways, and less than 7% believed autonomous operations are inevitable within ports and pilotage areas".

One of the arguments in favour of autonomous shipping is lower fuel costs from efficiency gains.

The Nautilus Federation report, which was published earlier this year, was based on a survey completed by almost 900 maritime professionals from more than 12 different countries.