Many experts believe that autonomous ships could bring the shipping industry into an era of unprecedented technological innovation by the end of the decade.
According to a report published by market research firm MarketandMarkets, the autonomous ship market was worth $5.8bn in 2020 and is expected to reach $14.2bn by 2030, at an annual growth rate of 9.3%.
In the UK, this growth could be hindered by a lack of government understanding and regulation, as legislation has traditionally been framed with the assumption that seafarers will always be fundamental for ship operation.
In 2018, the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) established the Maritime Autonomy Regulation Lab (MARLab) to create a point of contact between the UK Government, academia and the shipping industry, which is asking for guidance to facilitate testing and operations of maritime autonomous surface ships (MASS).
MARLab was funded by the UK Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy through its Regulators’ Pioneer Fund. The programme received £1m to develop new regulations that would be fit for MASS and smart shipping while working on new industrial technologies.
Running from November 2018 to September 2020, MARLab was divided into two areas. Some of the project’s stakeholders worked on reviewing key legislation that could be a barrier to MASS testing, whilst others gathered information on how to support the industry’s innovation from a government perspective.
Removing barriers and updating legislation
At the regional, national and international level, regulatory bodies still see autonomous shipping as a challenge and continue to write legislation assuming there will always be crews on board…
