Who’s at Fault When AI’s Driving a Cargo Ship?

It’s 2035 and a maritime court has convened to determine who’s at fault when a seagoing vessel made an error in passage planning – a safety exercise that maps a voyage from start to finish, including harbour navigation and docking.

Good passage planning helps ships reduce insurance losses by avoiding collisions, groundings and other incidents that damage cargo and the vessels themselves.

Standing in the court’s witness dock, where judges are accustomed to seeing sea captains or marine engineers, is a software engineer.

That scenario was described by Sir Nigel Teare, chairman of the Association of Average Adjusters, which promotes professional principles in the adjustment of marine claims, during a recent speech in London.