Norway Takes Lead in Race to Build Autonomous Cargo Ships
Source: WSJ
The Yara Birkeland, slated for launch late in 2018, will make short trips delivering fertilizer
By Costas Paris
July 22, 2017 7:00 a.m. ET
OSLOTwo Norwegian companies are taking the lead in the race to build the worlds first crewless, autonomously operated ship, an advance that could mark a turning point in seaborne trade.
Dubbed by shipping executives the Tesla of the Seas, the Yara Birkeland now under development is scheduled in late 2018 to start sailing fertilizer 37 miles down a fiord from a production facility to the port of Larvik. Using the Global Positioning System, radar, cameras and sensors, the electric ship is designed to navigate itself around other boat traffic and to dock on its own.
The vessel will cost $25 million, about three times as much as a conventional container ship of its size, but its backers say without need for fuel or crew it promises to cut annual operating costs by up to 90%. The 100-container ship is scheduled to be in the water toward the end of next year, though initially it will be tested with a human at the controls.
The Birkeland is being jointly developed by agriculture firm Yara International ASA and Kongsberg Gruppen AS A, which builds guidance systems for civilian and military uses...................................
Read more: https://www.wsj.com/articles/norway-takes-lead-in-race-to-build-autonomous-cargo-ships-1500721202?mod=trending_now_5
Using GPS, radar, cameras and sensors, the Yara Birkelandshown in renderingis designed to navigate itself around other boat traffic and to dock on its own. Photo: Yara
Bernardo de La Paz
(49,047 posts)Plus keeping the US beside Liberia and Burma retaining the non-metric system of measurements.
forgotmylogin
(7,539 posts)Lose communication with that thing, you've got a heavy floating obstruction and potential loss of cargo.
cstanleytech
(26,334 posts)someone hacking it and using it to ram and destroy a major bridge for example.
cloudbase
(5,525 posts)The dog will keep intruders away.
The person will feed the dog.
Get ready to shut down the Merchant Marine Academy.
SCantiGOP
(13,874 posts)He said 30 years ago that the factory of the 21st century would have two employees - a person and a dog. The person would watch the dials, and the dog would bite him if he tried to touch anything.
Sunlei
(22,651 posts)cloudbase
(5,525 posts)by an engineer on my ship regarding the oil rig of the future.
SCantiGOP
(13,874 posts)Not sure when he wrote that. but he lived through almost all of the 20th century. He was Austrian, and some of his earliest books were burned by the Nazis. He didn't die until 2005.
He is often called the Father of Modern Management, and is most noted for his early analysis of how manufacturing was going to change with technology and replace the large manufacturing workforce with 'knowledge' workers and robots. He didn't idealize this, he merely saw it as inevitable.
rickford66
(5,530 posts)Metal sails looking like Venetian blinds. For non-perishable cargo, it would be very profitable, except for the hijacking threat. You could always have an armed skeleton crew just for security. It must have been in Popular Science or similar mag.
Sunlei
(22,651 posts)USA needs needs to use our waterways for public transportation and cargo shipping- if the Republicans won't allow high speed rail.
I dream of a water highway south to north and back again.
Follow, use the Mississippi, to great lakes, across Canada to the NW passage.
EX500rider
(10,881 posts)The Missippi moves a lot of cargo, about 100+ million tons a year.
http://midamericafreight.org/rfs/network-inventory/waterways/top-commodities-by-waterway/
Sunlei
(22,651 posts)no more fuel in my world.
Owl
(3,645 posts)Sunlei
(22,651 posts)greyl
(22,990 posts)I didn't see it right away, either.
More info on the YARA Birkeland at these links:
https://www.km.kongsberg.com/ks/web/nokbg0240.nsf/AllWeb/4B8113B707A50A4FC125811D00407045?OpenDocument
http://newatlas.com/autonomous-electric-shipping-container-vessel/49477/