mooseman
I think *security* would be the most difficult challenge. Ships with no-one on board would be a very tempting target for pirates. You'd surely need to monitor them remotely with CCTV systems on board the ship. Maybe have electrified railings all around the ship to discourage boardings at sea too. All in all, seems like a recipe for more piracy.
Australian
@mooseman Given crews are largely unarmed, they usually represent an opportunity rather than a deterrent. Having automated shipping could potentially give pirates far less opportunity and would reduce the cost of international freighting accordingly. Having effective systems, redundancy and inherent drive and control security would be essential.
MattII
A couple of problems with this: * Who's going to do all that docking stuff like getting mooring ropes from ship to shore without a gangplank? * What if something goes wrong?
Mel Tisdale
As Todd Humphreys demonstrates in this video:
https://www.ted.com/talks/todd_humphreys_how_to_fool_a_gps
there are difficulties with this idea.
Perhaps what is needed for a really precise (as good as, or better than military grade GPS) inertial navigation system to be developed and for that to provide secure back up should the GPS signal be jammed, or hijacked.
Perhaps the motor industry and Project MUNIN (together with DARPA, who will almost certainly be interested) could combine their efforts and develop such a system. That way we can have some confidence that road vehicles can have lane adherence, ships can have sea-lane adherence and drones, cruise missiles, ballistic missiles can have precise aiming (if you favour such a thing).
BigGoofyGuy
I think that is really cool.
I would not make it totally autonymous. I think a small crew would be a good idea incase something happens.
Slowburn
How is all the routine maintenance going to get done.
CliffG
"Another problem is safety with human error contributing to an estimated 75 percent of maritime accidents." Does the author forget that the programs to control these unmanned ships would be written by humans?
Bob Flint
So a pirate scenario as an autonomous freighter is being buzzed buy smaller would-be pirate boats; A. Freighter ignores and carries on even tough pirates have boarded and have no control.
B. Freighter maneuvers or slows to avoid smaller craft, and then is halted, and boarded again no pilot house or control access. After a set time freighter continues on set route, with or with-out pirates.
C. Freighter self arms and awaits illegal boarding, destruct sequence initiates, and takes all pirates down within a predetermined & designated blast area.
RichDragon
I used to be a Marine Engineering Officer on very large crude carriers and even in ships only a few years old the 'automation' did not work 85% of the time. A ful complement of Crew back in the 70s would consist of around a dozen people. The times we were boarded and that was many many times was by Nationals from their own Countries trying to sell carpets etc. Sadly even in the 70s we were regularly put on watch to keep an eye out for unfriendlies placing limpet mines on the hull of the vessel. Two weeks on board ha ha ha more like 6-9 months and I bet the humans are still cheaper than all the automation that they'd have to have to install. I reckon laser guns to repel thieves from stealing the cargo, but I'm sure some bright spark will invent an App that will do all that's necessary-hope it can strip a centrifugal pump down daily and rebuild a compressor or a diesel engine to name just a fraction of what needed to be done.
Nelson Hyde Chick
You have to love and hate technology when it gives one man the abilities of a thousand men and then burdens the Earth with the thousand men it just made obsolete.