Autonomous Cargo Ship

kev_rm said:

Automating away most of the people who operate transportation vehicles in the supply chain is not going to take a single lifetime from now, not even half of one.

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kthoennes said:

I don't know. I took a trip recently. After spending tens of millions of dollars, the airport in Minneapolis can't keep the driverless concourse shuttle running reliably back and forth in a straight line over a few hundred yards. The people mover conveyor belt at the Amsterdam airport was out of order. We got stuck in Rome for an extra day because Delta's computer network crashed. Two of my credit cards didn't work in Rome (even though we registered the travel plan) because security algorithms failed. Four of the elevators failed on the brand new Majestic Princess cruise ship (although otherwise it was a marvel of engineering I'll admit). I live in the Midwest near a forest of million dollar wind turbines. Some of them are always out of order. I work in a courthouse, we can't get reliable vending machines in the jury waiting room. I'm skeptical about the Gee Whiz stuff.

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CaptTom said:

I like to look at it from a different angle. Currently, cargo ships are so short staffed that they may as well be unmanned anyway. It's entirely possible that having them controlled from a home office shoreside is safer. They're more likely to follow company protocols and procedures, more likely to have gotten enough sleep, and more likely to actually be on duty.

I'd prefer a manned "bridge" with an alert operator, thousands of miles from the ship, over an unmanned bridge or sleeping operator, which I suspect is often the case now.

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kthoennes said:

I can see it now, I hail the ship on VHF and I just get a disembodied Siri voice...

World's First Autonomous Cargo Ship Will Launch Next Year

"Alexa, the COLREGS say I'm the stand on vessel, please don't chop me up in your propellers!"

"I'm sorry, I don't have anything about gold rugs in my database."

"No, not gold rugs, I said COLREGS, Collision Regulations! You're supposed to -- aiieee #&!@*....glub glub glub...

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kthoennes said:

Thank for that link. Boy that Rolls Royce video on the other thread is - unsettling. I tend to think it's going to be a long, long time before that Gee Whiz Star Wars stuff is reality though. Like all the media attention about trips to Mars in the near future. Cool to think about but it's not going to happen for a few lifetimes yet. We can't even get a zero maintenance toilet on recreational boats yet.

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