And, as per the image, dry bulk carriers seems smarter, at first, than tankers or passenger ships.
From Yahoo Finance:
Massive crewless cargo ships plying the world's oceans may sound far-fetched, but Rolls-Royce has been working on the idea for a number of years now. In fact, the company says it expects the first remotely controlled vessels to sail into operation by 2020.
While most of us associate the Rolls-Royce name with luxury cars and jet engines, it also has strong links to the marine sector where it designs vessels and integrates power systems.Separate from the car business, Rolls-Royce Holdings has for some time been researching the idea of autonomous and remotely controlled cargo ships that it says could take to the high seas as early as 2020.The futuristic-looking vessels can be monitored remotely by a “captain” stationed at a base anywhere around the world, Oskar Levander, the company’s VP of marine innovation, explained recently at the Autonomous Ship Technology Symposium in Amsterdam.Adamant that autonomous shipping is just around the corner, Levander said, “This is happening. It’s not if, it’s when. The technologies needed to make remote and autonomous ships a reality exist … we will see a remote-controlled ship in commercial use by the end of the decade.”Tests of a simulated autonomous ship control system are already underway in Finland, and trials of sensor arrays in different operating and climatic conditions are also being carried out, the company said.Despite its confident claim that the ships will be plying the world’s waters in the next four years, Rolls-Royce admits there’s still much work to be done, including navigating regulatory hurdles and careful examination of the safety and security implications of operating remotely operated ships....MORE
And from gCaptain:
Coast Guard: Oil Tanker Hit Sailboats AND Ran Aground – Here’s Incident Video
MT Chem Venus (former Golden Venus). Credit: MarineTraffic.com/Les Blair
The U.S. Coast Guard is trying to determine how exactly a 477-foot oil tanker lost control and collided with three sailboats before running aground Wednesday at the Maine-New Hampshire border.
A new video of the accident shows the MT Chem Venus hit at least two moored sailboats before a large crash can be heard, presumably from the ship hitting bottom or some other object.
The incident occurred at about 4 p.m. Wednesday on Piscataqua River near the Portsmouth, New Hampshire and Kittery, Maine border. The Coast Guard said the ship struck three moored sailboats and ran aground near Goat Island Ledge. The sailboats were unmanned at the time and no injuries were reported.
Salvage divers arrived Thursday afternoon to assess the extent of the damage to the Chem Venus and found a tear measuring 3 feet by 10 feet in the bow of the tanker, according to the Coast Guard.
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