The world's first autonomous ship Yara Birkeland of Norway companyYara will launch in 2018, and is expected to be fully autonomous in 2020.
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.
"The Yara Birkeland will initially operate as a manned vessel, it will move remotely control in 2019 and is expected to be able to run fully autonomously tripa 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 planned at the end of 2018 to start the transfer of fertilizers from a unit partreatments 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."
