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 it will use GPS, radar, cameras and sensors to navigate between other vessels in busy ports and arrive at docks by itself. It is expected to cost around $25 millions 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, annual operating costs should drop by as much as 90 percent. 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.
Head of Yara Petter Ostbo, told The Wall Street Journal, that the company will look to invest in larger ships, capable of longer journeys, as soon as international regulations for autonomous ships are set. "Maybe even to transport our fertilizer from the Netherlands all the way to Brazil."
