Wired.com has a pretty funny article on automate drone cargo ships. I foresee a few hurdles for them, but whatever, no doubt they’ll have those up and running in no time.
[QUOTE=mariner244;132000]Wired.com has a pretty funny article on automate drone cargo ships. I foresee a few hurdles for them, but whatever, no doubt they’ll have those up and running in no time.
Yup, coming in no time now. Oughtta be here any day. Guess we should just quit now and take shore jobs, save all our companies the trouble of laying us off.
[QUOTE=Emily Mainzer;132282]Ghost ships! I’m saddened by how much opposition there is against these drone technology and ships.[/QUOTE]
Perhaps you should consider that the opposition you read here comes from people who have spent many years operating, maintaining, repairing, and managing the very complex systems that must function perfectly for a successful voyage (one that does not end up on the rocks in front of your beachouse) so therefore understand very well how much can and does go wrong nearly every day that only instant human hands-on intervention can prevent from becoming an economic or environmental disaster.
Sure NASA can automate a package delivery to the space station but at a cost of several million dollars per pound. Consider that the naysayers have had a long and very thorough education on how and why ship owners operate and how they are very happy to divert maintenance dollars to profit. See how many of them are willing to operate robot ships if they were personally, financially, and criminally responsible for the results of the disaster that will inevitably occur with no human intervention available.
I won’t say it will never happen but I doubt if it will be in my lifetime (and I hope to live a l-o-n-g time). If anything I would expect to see drone cargo flights (UPS, FedEx, and the like) before ships were ever attempted.
[QUOTE=Emily Mainzer;132282]Ghost ships! I’m saddened by how much opposition there is against these drone technology and ships.[/QUOTE]
I’m not philosophically against the idea, but I think that there might be more hurdles to overcome than most people have considered. This project will be up against many technical and regulatory hurdles, making it more complicated than just programing a computer and engine to drive from point A to B. As has been pointed out, drone cargo flights are more likely in the near future. The technology for this is already in place, with planes that can takeoff, navigate and land all on autopilot. Yet this isn’t being done in practice.
Perhaps you could elaborate on your view on this topic?
I don’t see this as a big threat. All of us know who work in this industry that you need people to run these boats. There is no replacement for a lookout and collision avoidance and a trouble shooting engineer on site. Anyone knows that crew salaries are not the big cost in running a ship. Hell have you seen the cost for paint. Well, one huge collision or grounding and this would be gone. I can see the use of drones in combat. One American pilot life is worth a few million but doing it to save a few million on operating costs. Not worth it. The insurance would cost as much. That’s just my thoughts.