Leading Liverpool-based maritime expert and academic says there is likely to be autonomous container or cargo ships, with no crew, operating on the Mersey within the next decade. Tony McDonough reports
Autonomous container or cargo ships with no crew on board could be operating on the River Mersey within a decade.
That’s the view of Professor Chia-Hsun Chang of Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU), who says the final legal and insurance frameworks to allow widespread use of autonomous commercial vessels across the world should be in place by 2028.
Prof Chang is also leading the €1.2m Horizon Europe FAVOR project which will feed into emerging global standards on maritime autonomous vehicles (MAVs).
Back in 2021, Port of Liverpool owner Peel Ports piloted small autonomous survey vessels but that is very different from a large container or cargo vessel steaming into the Mersey without any captain or crew.
There are around 15,000 shipping movements in and out of the Mersey Estuary each year with both commercial and passenger vessels operating 24 hours a day, 365 days of the year. There are multiple docks including at Seaforth, Liverpool, Birkenhead, Garston and Bromborough.
And Mayor Steve Rotheram’s plans for a £7bn power-generating barrage across the Mersey would add further complications as ships would have to navigate a lock system.
In an interview published on the LJMU website, Prof Chang said: “The River Mersey is a busy, tidal commercial waterway, which currently has no autonomous testbeds. That said, we are likely to see the first commercial ships arriving within a decade.
“The technology is currently undergoing rigorous testing and will be first used for cargo transport, hydrographic surveying and navy purposes.
“The International Maritime Organisation should have global legal and insurance frameworks in place by 2028, after which time some shipping lines will run unmanned vessels on their routes.
“As one of the UK’s most critical maritime gateways, the Port of Liverpool will naturally be a prime option.”
Prof Chang offered an example of a successful MAV operating in Norwegian waters in the past five years. Yara Birkeland was designed to transport fertiliser from a production plant to ports.
“Early milestones focused heavily on hardware and software, such as autonomous collision avoidance sensors. Today, the progress is much broader,” he added.
“The industry is actively developing shore-based remote operation centres and exploring how human operators will supervise fleets from afar, shifting the focus towards the complete operational ecosystem.”
He said the major obstacles to MAVs are no longer technological – they are socio-technical, which is where the FAVOR project comes in.
“Barriers include the lack of a unified regulatory framework, concerns around cybersecurity, and the human factors,” he explained.
“We must secure social acceptance, and plan how it impacts workforces and education and training before widespread deployment of fleets. The project FAVOR is seeking the solutions for these challenges.”
He acknowledged any growth in MAVs would see a reduction in traditional seafaring roles, perhaps a sensitive issue in Liverpool which has a seafaring tradition stretching back centuries. But he added new shore-based job opportunities will emerge.
“I will say it is more accurate to view this as a transition rather than a destruction of employment,” he said. “While traditional seafaring roles will decrease, new shore-based opportunities will emerge, particularly in remote control centres.
“This shift requires significant upskilling but also presents a unique opportunity to improve work-life balance and gender parity in a historically male-dominated industry.”
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And Prof Chang also acknowledged cyber security was a concern, adding: “While autonomous systems aim to reduce the 80 to 90% of maritime accidents currently attributed to human error onboard, they introduce completely new vulnerabilities.
“Cybersecurity threats, spoofing of navigation signals, and remote equipment malfunctions require completely new systemic risk analysis models to ensure the vessels remain safe and resilient. Our project also aims to look more into this.”