Unmanned ships
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Top 3 advantages of unmanned ships
There is too much confusion surrounding liability
Cyber security
Seafaring 2.0
Transferring the human factor
Industry preparedness
Cyber risks are acknowledged as an inescapable downside of deepening technological integration, however over 55% of respondents feel the risks are manageable. Attitudes towards investing in this management were skewed; some argued that the effort and cost involved in introducing adequate countermeasures against cyber risk might outweigh the benefits of new technology in the first place. Concern was expressed about the lack of clarity regarding liability should a vessel be involved in an incident as a result of a cyber attack. Questions were also raised about the effectiveness and appropriateness of voluntary standards and/or mandatory regulations to tackle the problem. Many identified human intervention as a primary risk to cyber security – be it pirates, hackers or crew members. The negative actors, whether drive-by hackers, organised cyber criminals, rogue nation states or others, will almost certainly be one step ahead. Thus, constant vigilance and defensive posture will be crucial to the successful implementation of new technology onboard ships. Today, crew - or, more specifically, the personal devices they bring onboard - are the source of many of the cyber intrusions that happen at sea. In response to expected incremental automation many are taking steps now to boost the IT competency of their sea- staff, particularly with respect to cyber risk management.
Respondents feel autonomous ships are more likely to alter jobs rather than eliminate them and that this, combined with the creation of new types of jobs, will lead to greater prosperity in the long run. Autonomous ships are likely to require constant vigilance and close oversight from a team who can ensure smooth operation, as well as anticipating and planning maintenance requirements. Concerns were voiced that a transition to autonomous vessels may be storing up problems for the future, in terms of skill erosion, as the finely tuned ’sixth-sense’ so often possessed by experienced seafaring engineers disappears over time. This is important as seafarers often go on to become shore based managers and inspectors. More positively, it was suggested that despite all the additional technology needed on unmanned vessels, they may end up more resilient to risk than conventional manned ships simply because there are no crew.
Unmanned vessels, by definition, promise to eliminate onboard ‘human error’. In reality, they may just shift the errors that formerly occurred on the ship to other parts of the shipping company, or elsewhere in the industry. Newly recruited shore based supervisors, for instance, are equally at risk of making mistakes as junior officers on the bridge. Overworked programmers or systems designers may forget a negative sign in a rarely executed section of code, which is only discovered, to disastrous effect, under a set of seldom encountered but safety- critical circumstances.
The lack of clarity on the timeline for both commercial availability of autonomous solutions and regulatory readiness means most shipping companies are yet to initiate concrete preparations for their introduction. Many are, however, keeping an open mind to the idea and are maintaining a watchful eye on developments. Some respondents indicated they are - or intend to - provide their staff with more training and skills development to build understanding of automated systems, in combination with education on cyber risk. Others alluded to taking the possibility of remote or autonomous operation into consideration in the planning of shore based fleet operations centres. While manufacturers - including a number of major OEMs such as Rolls-Royce, Wartsila and Kongsberg Maritime - are aggressively pursuing R&D programmes by designing, testing and building experimental autonomous and semi-autonomous vessels or the systems that will enable such vessels, the technology is not yet commercially available. Moreover, there are still plenty of regulatory hurdles to be overcome, although here too maritime authorities and policymakers - at national, regional and global levels - are taking the idea seriously, with considerable work underway to investigate what existing rules need to be modified or what new rules might be required. The assumption seems to be not whether autonomous vessels will one day set sail, but when.
Reduced health and safety risks Reduced risk of human error Costs savings in overall operations including personnel
Disagree
Agree
There is too much confusion surrounding collision regulations
77 % 77% believe ports and port authorities are unprepared for unmanned ships
Disagree
Agree
It will be difficult to respond to an emergency or failure
78 % 78% believe unmanned ships will result in crew reductions and job losses
Disagree
Agree
It is unclear how insurers will treat unmanned ships
Disagree
Agree
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