The first standalone ship in the world Yara Birkeland of the Norwegian company Yara will launch in 2018, and is expected to be fully autonomous in 2020.
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 δολάρια, που είναι περίπου τρεις φορές πιο πολλά 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 Birkeland ship with a capacity of 100 containers has been developed by the agricultural company Yara International and the technology company Kongsberg Gruppen jointly. It is scheduled in late 2018 to begin transporting fertilizer from a production facility in the port of Larvik, about 37 miles away.
Yara head 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."
