Japanese shipping giant planning to start autonomous cargo ships by 2025

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It seems that kids these days just aren’t that interested in a life on the high seas anymore. Combined with the generally declining population, it’s a big problem for the shipping industry in Japan.

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So the largest company of this kind, NYK Line, has embarked on a project to begin converting their huge fleet of roughly 800 ships to autonomous vehicles. Working with a team of 30 major companies such as telecom giant NTT, the necessary equipment has already been developed and is expected to be put into practical use by 2025.

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Experienced sailors will still be needed to plot safe and efficient routes for the ships to take, and the craft will all have a manual override in the event of an emergency. However, a full crew, which has become increasingly hard to gather, will no longer be necessary.

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Readers of the news, however, wondered how these ships would be protected against the ongoing problem of piracy.

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“They should lay booby-traps all over the place.”

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“Wouldn’t it be safer to avoid pirates by making flying drones instead?”

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“They are uploading the Luffy protocol now.”

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“Waves are really powerful and hard to predict. I wonder if a machine can really handle them.”

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“Put one of those Boston Dynamics killbots on board to patrol.”

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“Ghost ships?!”

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“It looks like it’s open season for pirates.”

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“Do trucks next.”

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Also, as police in Japan have been experiencing with automobile thefts recently, cybersecurity will become a crucial aspect of protecting unmanned cargo ships once they hit the oceans.

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Perhaps they will learn more about how to implement it all after a trial run which will use this new system in the field for the first time. That’s scheduled to take place in February 2022, and during this experiment a container ship will run from Tokyo Bay to Ise Bay, over 300 kilometers away.

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Security concerns aside, this will be a necessary step to adapt to the changing human resources landscape in Japan.

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Source: NHK, Otaku.com

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Read more stories from SoraNews24.

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