Autonomous Deep-sea Shipping - The Economist's View

Abstract

For the past decade, autonomous ships have been touted as the next revolution in maritime transport, on par with the switch from sail to steam. Yet, despite large research funding and effort, technological progress remain slow and commercial uptake is largely non-existent. In this paper we go through some of the key arguments for the introduction of autonomous ships in deep-sea trades and highlight some of the challenges in the business case for unmanned autonomous ships.