While autonomous vehicles are already a stark reality, there has not been much said of ships or aircraft becoming self-sufficient. Rumors are emerging that Rolls-Royce is betting on drone ships becoming commonplace in as little as a decade.
Will there be autonomous cars on the roads, drone ships and planes? Reality could become a science fiction flick quite soon if companies begin to get their way with their research.
Yes, the power systems and defense enterprise bearing the same name is swimming with the idea of autonomous ships, and soon. The reason for the decade holdup seems to be in the regulations arena, rather than technological readiness. The rules that govern the world’s oceans do not currently include guidelines for drone ships…much like an officer of the law would be quite aghast to pull over one of the autonomous Google cars and find the driver seat empty. That is a joke, by the way, because a driver is mandatory for the Google vehicles and an additional passenger to regulate. The car does drive itself, but people are essentially monitoring its maneuvers.