
Rolls-Royce and Google Cloud attempt to make autonomous ships a reality - pmulv
https://www.rolls-royce.com/media/press-releases/yr-2017/03-10-2017-rr-joins-forces-with-google-cloud-to-help-make-autonomous-ships-a-reality.aspx
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steve19
They will fail not because it cannot be done, but no union member will load
these ships nor unload them. The real problem is not going to be technical, it
will be political.

The only way it could be done now is create non union ports on both ends of
the route and never have your ships dock at unionised ports, where they would
be blacklisted for ever going to a non unionised port and might even suffer
sabotage.

Stevedore unions around the world cooperate with each other and are all
corrupt, have rampart theft and use violence to bully members and non members
into submission. You seen The Wire?

I worked in the shipping industry. Never again.

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rak00n
Isn't the union for loading and unloading different from union for shipping
crews? Why'd these two unions cooperate?

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steve19
"Workers of the world, unite!"

You are correct that the stevedore unions are different from the seafarers
unions.

The issue is that they cooperate legally or illegally. They also cooperate
internationally.

Its the brotherhood above all else.

(and I use the gendered language intentionally because I have never come
across a more misogynistic group of people in my life)

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DannyB2
Will robot ships be more attractive to pirates? Or can the ships autonomously
use lethal force to repel pirates?

What about if they encounter another ship in distress?

Or people in the water in distress?

Who then turn out to be a pirate ruse?

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ceejayoz
> Will robot ships be more attractive to pirates?

I'd guess not. They typically attack ships to ransom the crew. No crew, no
ransom. No crew to _threaten_ either, and no user-accessible controls.

> What about if they encounter another ship in distress?

Relay the call. They could potentially carry deployable life rafts,
retractable ladders, stocked rescue shelters too.

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sien
Does anyone have an idea of how much the cost of staff is for a container
ship?

With crews of ~15-25 per ship and most of the staff coming from low wage
countries is it significant?

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steve19
Crews are unionised and paid a lot of money. This would not replace all crew
members. You would still need ship engineers to maintain the ship and
electrical engineers to monitor and repair refrigeration containers (they will
attempt to fix them at sea if they mulfunction). So you would still need a
cook to feed them.

So maybe you cut the crew in half, and significantly reduce risk of accidents,
piracy, etc.

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user5994461
That's probably not possible to cut in half if there are already as little as
15 people.

There should be a requirement for a big ship to have a few people awake and
ready at all time. It's gonna take about that much people just to have a 24/7
rotation.

