[cesarb]

> Like trains, autonomous ships fundamentally doesn’t seem to make any sense.

Autonomous trains already exist, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_driverless_train_syste... for a long list of places where it's been implemented. The related article at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_train_operation#Adva... has a list with six advantages of autonomous trains. Many of these advantages would probably also apply to autonomous ships (and other kinds of vehicles).

[ghaff]

In spite of the intro, those seem to pretty much be all people-mover/metro systems. They're not long distance transport in potentially unpredictable conditions.

[GauntletWizard]

And none of them are without support crew; The crew just doesn't need to ride on the train itself, but rather waits in stations or in depots along the tracks.

[seanmcdirmid]

I’m not sure why container ships couldn’t be piloted remote if drones are. It’s just that it is cheap to hire a bunch of sailors from the Philippines so automation isn’t really necessary.

[ghaff]

You probably want at least some on-site supervision. And most of your sailors are probably cheap anyway.

[ghaff]

Right. You don't always need to have a driver potentially doing nothing 99% of the time. But you probably have remote and station staff a lot of the time.