A boat with no captain is about to set off across the Atlantic.
The high-tech boat, called the Mayflower Autonomous Ship (MAS), will complete the 5000km journey with no crew.
The ship will be controlled by Artificial Intelligence, meaning no humans will be onboard. Its aim is to get important scientific data about the ocean.
The ship gets its name from the Mayflower, a famous historical ship which set sail 400 years ago from the UK to the US.
Measuring in at 15m long it is made from lightweight aluminum. The ship can skim over the waves at more than 10 knots.
The ship gets its power from solar-powered batteries, and a back-up diesel generator. It uses an ‘AI captain’, which is an artificial intelligence system. This uses information from the ship’s cameras and sensors to look out for any hazards and tell the ship where to go next.
One of the biggest differences between the Mayflower Autonomous Ship and other boats, is that there are no bedrooms, bathrooms or a kitchen, because there are no crew on board.
4 Responses
cool bot weird
good idea but…
whats the point of sailing now it takes the fun out of it 🙁
thats kinda cool i guess
That’s is so cool