Yara Birkeland: The first autonomous ship will sail next year

Yara Birkeland's first independent ship in the Norwegian company Yara will launch 2018, and 2020 is expected to be fully autonomous.

According to Wall Street Journal, the Norwegian construction Yara Birkeland will use GPS, radar, cameras and sensors to move between other boats in busy harbors and reach the quays on its own. It is expected to cost about $ 25 million dollars, which is about three times more money than a typical container ship of the same size. But investors say that, without the need for fuel or crew, the annual operating cost should be reduced to as much as 90 per cent. The ship will become autonomous in stages, Yara said.

"Yara Birkeland will initially work as a manned boat, will be running 2019 with remote control and is expected to be able to perform fully autonomous trips from 2020," the company said in a post on the website her since May.

The Birkenand tonnage vessel 100 containers has been developed by the agricultural company Yara International and Kongsberg Gruppen together. It is planned at the end of 2018 to start fertilizer transport from a production plant to the port of Lavik, about 37 miles away.

Yara Petter Ostbo, head of The Wall Street Journal, said the company will look to invest in larger ships capable of longer journeys as soon as international regulations for autonomous ships are set. "Perhaps even to transfer our fertilizer from the Netherlands all the way to Brazil".