Idea of drone cargo ships floated, but problems load up
While the technology is within sight, touted cost benefits are queried and regulatory snags loom
In an age of aerial drones and driver-less cars, Rolls-Royce is designing unmanned cargo ships.
Rolls-Royce's Blue Ocean development team has set up a virtual-reality prototype at its office in Alesund, Norway, that simulates 360-degree views from a vessel's bridge. Eventually, the London-based manufacturer of engines and turbines says, captains on dry land will use similar control centres to command hundreds of crewless ships.
Drone ships would be safer, cheaper and less polluting for the US$375 billion shipping industry that carries 90 per cent of world trade, Rolls-Royce says. They might be deployed in regions such as the Baltic Sea within a decade, while regulatory hurdles and industry and union scepticism about cost and safety would slow global adoption, said Oskar Levander, the company's vice-president of innovation in marine engineering and technology.
"Now the technology is at the level where we can make this happen, and society is moving in this direction," Levander said last month. "If we want [the company's marine division] to do this, now is the time to move."
Can you imagine [it]? You get in enough trouble with crew on board
The European Union is funding a €3.5 million (HK$37.2 million) study called the Maritime Unmanned Navigation through Intelligence in Networks project. The researchers were preparing the prototype for simulated sea trials to assess the costs and benefits, which would finish next year, said Hans-Christoph Burmeister at the Fraunhofer Centre for Maritime Logistics and Services in Hamburg.
Even so, maritime companies, insurers, engineers, labour unions and regulators doubt unmanned ships could be safe and cost-effective any time soon.
