Yanmar

Last year, Yanmar announced that it was looking at developing a maritime system using hydrogen fuel cells from Toyota's Mirai production line. Now a passenger boat prototype has hit the water off the coast of Kunisaki in the Oita Prefecture in Japan.

Japanese Diesel engine manufacturer Yanmar has signaled its intention to bring hydrogen fuel cells to coastal vessels and work vessels in ports. The company will look at further expansion in later project phases depending on market requirements.

​Perhaps best-known for its diesel engines and robotic agricultural equipment, Japanese company Yanmar also makes personal watercraft. Its latest addition to the latter category is a little something known as the Wheeebo, which is kind of like an aquatic Segway.

​It was just this July that Japan's Yanmar Agri Corporation unveiled a line of driverless agricultural tractors. Now, as part of the same Smartpilot system, the company has announced an autonomous rice seedling-transplanter.

We've had autonomous cars, autonomous trucks, and autonomous buses, and now Osaka-based diesel engine manufacturer Yanmar is introducing a new line of robotic tractors that operate in autonomous and semi-autonomous modes.

Diesel has traditionally been the fuel of the maritime industry, which makes the absence of a diesel outboard engine even more puzzling. Production of the 50 hp Yanmar Dtorque 111 turbo-diesel has begun and the benefits over traditional outboard engines seem overwhelming.