The UK’s Royal Navy will soon take delivery of its first autonomous minesweeper
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF The future of warfare, and more broadly security, is autonomous and different parts of the military apparatus are already becoming autonomous (not just automated). Love the Exponential Future? Join our XPotential Community, future proof yourself with courses from XPotential University, read about exponential tech and...
A major US led drone fleet is finally coming together in the Middle East
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF There’s no way that traditional military ships can patrol the vast areas of the Red Sea so countries are building the world’s first drone fleet. Love the Exponential Future? Join our XPotential Community, future proof yourself with courses from XPotential University, read about exponential tech...
The Mayflower becomes the first autonomous ship to cross the Atlantic
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Slowly but surely companies are developing the technology they need to eliminate many of the operating crews on board ships and this is yet another step towards that goal. Love the Exponential Future? Join our XPotential Community, subscribe to the podcast, future proof yourself...
Hyundai’s giant autonomous cargo ship just completed a trip across the ocean
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF This is the first time a large cargo ship has autonomously traversed an ocean, and even though it had some help it’ll soon become the industry’s future. Love the Exponential Future? Join our XPotential Community, subscribe to the podcast, future proof yourself with courses...
Japan to trial new energy tankers to transport energy from deep sea wind farms
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Energy that is generated and stored offshore needs transporting, just like we transport oil today, so Japan have created a new breed of “Energy tankers.” Love the Exponential Future? Join our XPotential Community, future proof yourself with courses from XPotential University, read about exponential tech...
SpaceX to build floating spaceports for rockets to the Moon and Mars, and hypersonic Earth travel
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Elon Musk is inventing numerous industries and has ambitions to create the first human colony on Mars, and he’s getting closer to realising his goals. Interested in the Exponential Future? Join our XPotential Community, future proof yourself with courses from our XPotential Academy, connect, watch a keynote, or browse my blog....
DARPA hands the world’s first fully autonomous drone warship to the US Navy
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF The Sea Hunter is the world’s first fully autonomous warship, and it’s just passed trials – next stop official duty. After just under a year at sea DARPA has finally completed the sea trials of the world’s first fully autonomous warship, Sea Hunter, a...
Maritime regulator gets set to allow autonomous ships on the high seas
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF As new autonomous ship technologies race ahead we mustn’t forget that nothing happens unless the regulators allow it, but now the dam’s bursting. It can be said that the majority of people and companies normally see change coming well before it arrives, take the...
World’s first autonomous cargo ship to enter service in 2018
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Faced by “cratering profits,” low margins and bankruptcy, shipping companies are starting to look at ways they can roll out autonomous cargo ships faster than planned. Last year the CEO of Rolls Royce announced his company’s grand plan to create fleets of “Ghost ships,”...
World’s first GPS Spoofing attack puts 20 ships 32km inland at an airport
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF New technology keeps lowering the bar for criminals and nation states that want to cause mischief and harm, and now the makers of autonomous vehicles have something new to worry about. Recently there have been reports of satellite navigation problems in the Black Sea...
Companies are racing to fill the seas with autonomous drone ships
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF It seems like every mode of transport is going autonomous these days, and that’s because it is, and cargo ships of every kind are no exception. Forget Uber’s itsy bitsy diddy self-driving cars, and Otto’s self-driving semi-trucks, if you want a robot to haul a...
US Navy’s autonomous submarine hunter begins operational trials
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Many navies around the world are going all in on autonomous boats, ships and platforms, the Sea Hunter will be the first of many such systems that enter service after 2017. Main contractor Leidos has announced that it is starting operational trials of the...
Capable of full autonomy, we go inside the stealth destroyer USN Zumwalt
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Invisible, smart, deadly and loaded with AI – the new autonomous-capable USS Zumwalt. The look of the new 600 foot, $4 Billion USN destroyer Zumwalt, official designation DDG-1000, is easy to explain. The ship is designed to be stealthy and all of its sharp...
Autonomous Roboats to sail the canals of Amsterdam
Cities might have a monopoly on driverless cars but Amsterdam has driverless ships The idea of self-driving cars cruising our roads may not be a new idea, but a plan to release autonomous boats into the canals of Amsterdam would be the first of its kind. The Amsterdam Institute for...
The world’s first fully autonomous warship aces sea trials
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF The US Navy’s trials of their first autonomous warship platform have been wildly successful. The US Navy’s new unarmed Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) Continuous Trail Unmanned Vessel (ACTUV) Sea Hunter has completed its first round of sea trials and it aced all of its tests for speed, manoeuvrability,...
America launches the worlds first fully autonomous submarine hunter
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF We are entering the age of fully autonomous warfare and inevitably, one day, humans will not be in the loop The US military have launched their first experimental, fully autonomous self-driving warship, dubbed Sea Hunter, and representing a major advance in robotic warfare, which...
