Disclaimer: I'm the founder of blkSAIL (black sail) that builds AI and autonomy for ocean-going maritime ships. We are an MIT CSAIL spinoff. We started with an aim to become Uber for the waterways, then pivoted to large ships.
Many of the comments below touch on many key points: (1) most commercial ships have a crew between 8 to 20, (2) auto-pilot in ships exist since the GPS was invented, (3) when ship hits the fan, there's not much you can do.
(1) Autonomy in maritime is not to replace seafarers, the navigation crew is less than 30% of the crew. And crew is negligible OPEX compared to fuel etc.
(2) Because the industry is the backbone of global trade, it moves much slower in adopting technology for the sake of technology. However, when there's a simple reliable system that can clear benefit, the adoption happens. So given that there's few[1] lanes in the ocean, you can easily go from one waypoint to the next.
(3) Onboard a ship, there's no such thing as breaks. In most cases, you know about a collision or a grounding 12+ minutes in advance. The challenge is in getting the predictions right and abide by the rules of the road. Most advanced LIDAR have 1km range, which is too close, cameras don't see much neither[2].
[1]: there are quite few channels around ports to ease traffic that are one-way.
[2]: the resolution is too low to see far out. When using zoom, the stabilization is a nightmare.
The L3Harris Mk20 optical sensor supposedly has excellent stabilization when using zoom. But it's intended for warships and might not be suitable for civilian autonomous vessels.
Many of the comments below touch on many key points: (1) most commercial ships have a crew between 8 to 20, (2) auto-pilot in ships exist since the GPS was invented, (3) when ship hits the fan, there's not much you can do.
(1) Autonomy in maritime is not to replace seafarers, the navigation crew is less than 30% of the crew. And crew is negligible OPEX compared to fuel etc. (2) Because the industry is the backbone of global trade, it moves much slower in adopting technology for the sake of technology. However, when there's a simple reliable system that can clear benefit, the adoption happens. So given that there's few[1] lanes in the ocean, you can easily go from one waypoint to the next. (3) Onboard a ship, there's no such thing as breaks. In most cases, you know about a collision or a grounding 12+ minutes in advance. The challenge is in getting the predictions right and abide by the rules of the road. Most advanced LIDAR have 1km range, which is too close, cameras don't see much neither[2].
[1]: there are quite few channels around ports to ease traffic that are one-way. [2]: the resolution is too low to see far out. When using zoom, the stabilization is a nightmare.