Autonomous cargo ship

According to a study conducted by Allianz in 2018, it is estimated that between 75% and 96% of maritime-related accidents are caused by human error such as employee fatigue, personal judgement errors, negligence and inadequate training. Human error caused a reported 2,712 casualties in 2018, costing $1.6B in losses from 2011 to 2016 with cargo ships accounting for 56% of all vessels lost.[10] Working on deck, for example during mooring operations, is estimated to be 5 to 16 times more dangerous than jobs onshore.[11] Several argue that by introducing fully autonomous and semi-autonomous ships, it will reduce the amount and severity of these accidents due to both a lack of crew on-board and the better performance that autonomous systems delivers.[1][12]

According to a study carried out by the Technical University of Denmark, it is estimated that an onboard crew member costs in the form of salaries, insurances and on-board provisions around 1 million DKK or $150,000 annually,[13] with crew costs typically accounting for around 20–30% of the total cost for a cargo ships journey. Semi-autonomous or fully autonomous ships can potentially reduce and eliminate these costs, creating an incentive for shipping companies who strive for cost reduction in an increasingly competitive market. Autonomous ships may however increase onshore costs in the form of large upfront investments and upkeep of control and operations centers, sensors, data servers and communication assets such as high-bandwidth satellites.[14]

The removal of human crews would allow the construction of ships without ship facilities needed for human operation such as the bridge or for human livability such as sleeping quarters, plumbing, mess hall and electrical wiring, reducing weight and increasing reliability. This would allow autonomous ships to be built lighter and use less of its size for the crew, reducing fuel consumption and environmental impact.[15]

Rolls Royce have argued that low-tech piracy activities aimed towards ships and their crews will reduce as a result of ships becoming autonomous. Ships can be constructed so that it will be difficult to board them, with cargo access and manual controls being made unavailable. In the case of a piracy event, control centers can immobilize the ship or having it sail a specific course until naval authorities can reach it. Without the presence of a crew to hold hostage and ransom, the cargo ships are argued to be less valuable targets for pirates.[16]

Currently most crews on board commercial cargo ships primarily consist of navigational officers and engine crews who maintain the ship's propulsion machinery, auxiliary machinery, generators for procuring electricity, separators, pumps, cooling system. These systems are often quite complex and require regularly maintenance. Increasing redundancy is seen as the solution, either by having two engine systems or by using different propulsion methods that contain fewer moving parts such as electricity on MV Yara Birkeland.[17]

International regulation is seen as one of the biggest challenges facing autonomous ships. Rule 5 in the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea (COLREG) requires there to be a lookout present in order to avoid collisions and the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) require ships to be able to assist in search and rescue operations, such as picking up survivors in case of a shipwreck. Without any human on-board autonomous vessels, it will be a difficult task to comply with these regulations. The IMO has begun work to review the portions of the treatises that affect autonomous shipping,[18] yet some argue that work is going too slow as advanced are being made and autonomous ships already being prepared to be launched.[19]

Cyber attacks have become an increased threat in maritime shipping, where hackers have managed to compromise systems such as AIS, using cheap jammers to spoof GPS signals and hacking into the servers of container terminals in order to get shipping manifests.[20] The maritime industry has been criticized for not being able to keep up with technological innovation, lagging 10–20 years behind other industries and leaving computer networks insecure and open for intrusion by organized crime and state actors.[21]

Due to the increased reliance on information and communications technology in semi- and fully autonomous ships, cyber security becomes an even more serious issue that companies would need to address. On-board ship controls and data might be compromised and vulnerable to cyber attacks as the autonomous ships require a constant connection to allow monitoring and control. The complexity of a ship design with various components from different providers can make it hard to detect and stop cyber attacks from occurring. If an autonomous ship would come under cyber attack, regaining control of the ship can become difficult because the lack of on-board crew that can take control manually. Specific systems and risk assessments for autonomous ships are proposed order to address this problem.[22]

Another problem is that due to increased data transmission needed to be sent back and forth between ships and onshore command centers, it increases the chances of "data swamping," where vast amounts of raw data will be produced and transmitted. To achieve more efficient use of storage and communication capacity, smart pre-processing and compression schemes are needed in order to reduce the chances of "data swamping."[1]

Autonomous ships might improve safety by reducing human errors in the long run, but during a long transition phase to autonomous ships, these will operate alongside ships steered by humans. How these will interact with each other can create difficulty, in regards to who is to act if the ships are on collision course or how smaller vessels such as low-tech fishing ships may interact with autonomous ships.[23]

If an accident would occur with an autonomous ship, finding out who would be liable creates a difficult challenge, as several parties such as the company, the software provider, hardware provider or the onshore monitoring stations might be at fault. Historically, captains are assumed to be in overall command of the ships and are the first to put under scrutiny if anything does happen. Without a clear leader in charge, it is the role of international regulation to determine who is ultimately responsible for any incidents involving autonomous ships.[24]