No Hands on Deck: Dawn of the Crewless Ship
December 26th, 2013Automation, lower costs, you know the routine.
The monkey wrench in the gears appears further down in the piece.
Via: Financial Times:
Remote-controlled ships used to come wrapped up as presents under the Christmas tree, but if European researchers and one of the world’s best-known engineering groups have their way, full-size versions will start replacing much of the tonnage afloat on the high seas in the coming years.
There are plenty of compelling reasons to switch to crewless ships. But the main driver for Oskar Levander, head of marine innovation at Rolls-Royce, is cost.
A ship that does not have to accommodate a crew for weeks on end can dispense with many if not all the life-support systems needed by humans, from the galley to the sewage treatment system, the accommodation area and the deck house.
Removing these would not only leave more space for cargo but would also mean lighter ships, holding out the prospect of big savings on fuel bills, which account for about half of a ships total operating cost. Mr Levander says crew expenses vary but can range between 10 and 30 per cent of operating costs.
He envisages a shore-based team of qualified captains working in a replica 3D bridge, similar to the simulators used for training today, that could operate a fleet of a dozen ships at the same time.
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But Peter Hinchliffe, secretary-general of the International Chamber of Shipping is more circumspect. He says the highly complex collision avoidance rules would have to be rewritten to allow autonomous ships to operate in the same environment with crewed ships, a change that could take decades to implement.
Automation is all well and good, as long as you address the other half of the equation. The main thing these capitalist tools neglect when they implement automated systems, is their moral responsibility to see to it that the poor workers being replaced are retrained and employed in a worthwhile pursuit elsewhere. But then, that’s the root cause of everything that is wrong with the neo-liberal philosophy: A complete lack of morality. As a child of the `60s-`70s, I grew up with the influence of The Jetsons. The promise of technology in that show was that it would make EVERYONE’S life better. We would have more time for quality pursuits like education, creative arts, family life, and would be less likely to indulge in self-destructive behavior. Instead, we get technocrats who dream of building little empires for themselves by enslaving everybody else, and to hell with the consequences. Evolution has taken a wrong turn and humanity is doomed. Happy New Year!
I have trouble seeing how this makes any sense in the context of the merchant marine. Those vessels run skeleton crews as it is – just a handful of officers (who are not very highly paid) and a crew of VERY low wage, typically foreign labourers, all in fairly spartan accomodation. Given the enormous operational costs of those big ships (fuel, insurance, financing etc) I have a hard time seeing how labour costs and the attendant necessities can have much of an impact. On the other hand, military vessels need a crew of hundreds, if not thousands, of highly-skilled and expensive sailors that I’m sure they’d like to eliminate at some point. I wonder if this is just the tip of it, a trial run, given the reference to maritime law.