Well, golly, fully autonomous boats or ships.
The first principle in asset management is: All physical objects will fail. The question is how to manage that failure. In spite of the 'cyber' label, electronic systems and computers exist in the physical world.
The second principle is: Electricity, including electronic systems, and the
salt water environment equal green gunge. That means a much higher failure rate at sea than in test environments on shore.
There is more to standing watch than driving the ship. One, maybe archaic value today, is responding to and rescuing others in
distress. This is a very long standing tradition in seafaring. Maybe that is now super-ceded by the desire to maximize profits by removing the last few crew on a ship? Not to mention automation creating unemployment.
The oceans are not "a wide open space." Yes, in some passages we don't see anyone for days. But, in a
passage from
Hawaii to
Oregon in 2010 we found ourselves in the median space between east and west bound
shipping. Think LA to
China and back. The optimal
route is the same for every ship. A ship every two to three hours. One moment four ships were visible, that is within 6 nm, and the
deck officers were talking to each other on
VHF as to how to avoid this tiny 35' sailboat. The
deck officers were very professional and attentive.
Take a look at this:
https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais...ry:28.4/zoom:4
Give it a moment to load...
Tiny autonomous drones for SAR may be advantageous. But any vessel large enough to damage you or sink you? Think the 30,000 ton freighter down to the 30 ton itinerant
fishing boat. Probably not a great idea.
Automated systems may be more reliable, hour after hour, than humans: Until they fail. But, humans are much better at creative problem solving in a unique situation. Do you believe that
software programmers have fully evaluated all situations that may arise at sea? Do you believe that "Armchair captains in a
remote operation center could be monitoring several ships at a time, sitting in a room with 360-degree virtual reality views" can fully understand the
environment around them? Especially if the 'armchair captain' is responsible for more than one vessel?
AIS has been a great addition. I can now call the ship within a defined CPA and TCPA by name, on
VHF 16. That gets their attention right now. With an autonomous ship, sure the VHF call may be routed to an 'armchair captain', assuming all systems are working correctly. In order to ask them if they see me, and please do not hit me. You draw the critical dependency diagram. So, in essence I am placing a VHF ship-to-ship call to a 'help center' in ... where?
Best of luck.