Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by xattt 1697 days ago
The argument for easier piracy assumes that a self-driving ship would have a standard "people accessible" format. There's no reason for packaging of the vessel to remain the same.

Consider patrol drones. They look nothing like something an individual can get into.
1 comments
salawat 1697 days ago
This was already addressed. Most of it would still have to be human accessible for maintenance/emergency purposes. If you're going to have to potentially service the thing underway, there is no point redoing the packaging.

Besides which, an automated ship is about a trio of tugs, a computer replacement, and a buncha fuel away from anywhere.

link
Retric 1697 days ago
In terms of maintenance you can put the access below the cargo which significantly increases what it takes to hijack a ship. However for hijacking’s the simplest approach is to simply scuttle the ship remotely. If they get nothing then it’s rather hard to get people to hijack the next ship.
link
kayodelycaon 1697 days ago
> scuttle the ship

You mean deliberately sink a $10 million ship, causing a massive environmental disaster. Not to mention being a hazard to other shipping if the water is shallow enough or the ship breaks apart.

Do you blow up a grocery store because someone attempts to steal a jar of pickles?

link
Retric 1697 days ago
Ships sink all the time, unless it’s an oil tanker they really aren’t an environmental disaster. As to cost, if someone’s hijacking a ship you already lost the ship now it’s just an insurance question.

The question for an insurance company isn’t just about this ship, but the cost of paying out future hijackings. On top of this there is the rather more interesting option of refloating the ship.

link
salawat 1697 days ago
...so you just hand out an instant logistical DDoS button to any sufficiently motivated group? What also makes you think insurance is going to pay out for you sinking your own ship. Moral hazard much?
link
Retric 1697 days ago
Every rocket launch a range safety officer (RSO) keeps track of the trajectory and is ready to hit the self destruct button if needed. Insurance pays out if you hit it as that’s been agreed to ahead of time, the same would apply here or you wouldn’t sink the ship.

As to DDoS, sinking isn’t any more of a risk than someone taking over control of your self driving boat and aiming it at the coastline. From a pure safety standpoint you need some method of remotely disabling the ship.

link