Crewless electric cargo ships may be on the horizon in Norway

SpaceX's 'drone' landing ships have proved that uncrewed vessels can handle some of the most dangerous jobs at sea. Now, two Norwegian companies are poised to deploy robo-boats hauling cargo down the fjord - one of the dullest tasks a mariner can contemplate.

Two Norwegian companies intend to construct a short-range, all-electric coastal container ship which will operate autonomousl, thus eliminating up to as many as 40,000 diesel truck trips per year. Th 'Yara Birkeland', will commence operations in 2018 with a crew, but it's expected to operate autonomously, without a crew, by 2020. Subject to "regulatory clearance' - of course.

The $25 million Birkeland—described as the "Tesla of the Seas"— is jointly developed by Yara International and maritime and defense technology firm Kongsberg Gruppen. The ship will initially be crewed from an on-board control center within a cargo container. Eventually, the container will be moved ashore, and the ship will be remotely operated. It will navigate autonomously by utilizing GPS and avoid collisions using a combination of sensors.

Birkeland will be a relatively small "feeder" cargo ship; its journeys will be short voyages down a fjord on Norway's Baltic Sea coast from Yara's factory to a larger port. Containers of fertilizer will then be loaded onto larger ocean-going ships. Currently, Yara transports these containers overland.

"Every day, more than 100 diesel truck journeys are needed to transport products from Yara's Porsgrunn plant to ports in Brevik and Larvik," Yara's president and CEO, Svein Tore Holsether, said in a statement issued by the two companies. "With this new autonomous battery-driven container vessel we move transport from road to sea and thereby reduce noise and dust emissions, improve the safety of local roads, and reduce nitrous oxide and CO2 emissions."