Science
Related: About this forumComing up next: robotic ships for maritime trade
The german organization DNV GL and the EU, respectively, are developing concepts for autonomous robotic ships for maritime trade.
http://www.unmanned-ship.org/munin/
http://www.dnvgl.com/news-events/news/revolt.aspx
Two core-concepts are electric engines and saving energy. Also, most maritime accidents result from human error so a switch to AI might curb that. The vessels would be slower to save energy, but without the necessities to comfort a crew, they could transport more cargo than normal ships of equal size.
safeinOhio
(32,686 posts)Feral Child
(2,086 posts)Downside would be loss of employment.
jeff47
(26,549 posts)And it's happened plenty of times before - Combine harvesters employ a lot fewer people as drivers and mechanics than the old crews of people with scythes, mules and such.
Back then, we dealt with it by having these newfangled "factories" that could employ the former farmhands. What makes it particularly challenging today is we don't have something similar to absorb the lost jobs. And it doesn't look like we will anytime soon.
We should probably start talking about concepts like "universal basic income". 'Cause we're going to need something like that.
Feral Child
(2,086 posts)Amused by the image of the seizures Wingers would have over supporting "lazy" people that won't work for a living, even though they'd be the ones putting "lazy-folks" out of work.
Mbrow
(1,090 posts)There is only about 3,000 of us left in the US who sail for a living. The big problem with this is i've never been on a new ship or an old one that did not have issues pop up all the time. Gaskets fail, water leaks, the wrong steel is used and rusts out, electronics fail on a regular bases, ETC. This is driven by profit margin as always. When I was working for a company that ran three ship on the South American east coast run and back, a friend in the office told me they were making about 90-100 million profit per year on the ships. They still complained about crew cost....
Feral Child
(2,086 posts)the ocean is a very hostile environment. Salt water is extremely corrosive to both ferrous metals and electrical components. I doubt it would be profitable to operate robotics in that environment. +, I think insurance companies would balk at coverage.
I think the economic realities would over-ride the desire to 86 pesky labor issues.