Crewless ships on Mersey 'within 10 years'
With driverless cars yet to catch the public attention in the UK, could the first autonomous vehicles be seen not on the city’s roads but on the waterfront? Maritime experts at LJMU are helping draw up guidelines for the industry to ensure that ships can safely navigate busy commercial estuaries like the Mersey. We spoke to Associate Professor Chia-Hsun Chang who leads the €1.2m Horizon Europe FAVOR project which will feed into emerging global standards on Maritime Autonomous Vehicles (MAVs).
When will we likely see the first unmanned ship on the Mersey?
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.
How new is this technology?
Very new. The Yara Birkeland is widely considered the world's first MAV and was launched less than five years ago, in Norway. She was designed to transport fertiliser from a production plant to ports. Interestingly, her primary mission was environmental: to replace 40,000 diesel truck journeys annually, significantly cutting carbon emissions and road congestion.
How fast have we progressed from then?
Early milestones focused heavily on hardware and software, such as autonomous collision avoidance sensors. Today, the progress is much broader. 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.
What are the major obstacles to greater deployment of MAVs?
The major obstacles 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. 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.
While traditional seafaring roles will decrease, new shore-based job opportunities will emerge
Chia-Hsun Chang, Associate Professor in Maritime Logistics, Liverpool John Moores University
How much progress has been made towards global consensus or legislative steps to govern the new shipping?
The IMO is actively working towards a mandatory code by 2028. Currently, the industry is operating under interim guidelines. Reaching a true global consensus requires extensive evidence, and international academic consortiums including LJMU are actively feeding data into these regulatory bodies to help shape the new laws.
Shipping is one of the world’s largest polluters. Will these new ships help towards a cleaner industry?
Yes, but with a caveat. Yes, we can optimise routing and eliminate the energy demand of crew facilities onboard, directly reducing fuel consumption. However, true decarbonisation requires coupling autonomous technology with alternative marine fuels, such as green hydrogen or ammonia. We must assess the entire life-cycle to ensure carbon footprint is genuinely reduced and not merely displaced elsewhere in the supply chain. This is another of the tasks of our Horizon-funded project.
Like all human replacement technologies, MAVS could be seen as destroyers of employment. Is that a fair assessment or is it too early to say?
I will say it is more accurate to view this as a transition rather than a destruction of employment. 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. As part of our research, we aim to better understanding and managing the social acceptance of this transition.
One big issue is security, if hackers can pirate a ship? Is that a big concern?
It is a concern. While autonomous systems aim to reduce the 80 to 90 percent 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.
Does the UK have any players in the market?
Absolutely. The UK is at the forefront of this sector. We have pioneering companies like Ocean Infinity developing large fleets of robotic vessels, alongside world-class testing environments such as Smart Sound Plymouth. The UK is also a global leader in the academic research required to shape the associated maritime law, risk management, and human factor regulations.
- The FAVOR project, funded to £1.2m by Horizon Europe, starts on June 1 and will recommend new architecture for MASSs, including regulations, risk assessment, education and training, sustainability, labour force market, and human factors. LJMU’s Global Centre for Maritime Innovation partners University College London, University of Lisbon, İstanbul Teknik Üniversitesi, Chulalongkorn University (Thailand), Universiti Malaysia Terengganu (Malaysia), Dalian Maritime University (China), National Taiwan Ocean University (Taiwan) and Nanyang Technological University (Singapore).
