what does it take for the things you love  let's say your cell phone to go from its  

point of origin to finally residing in  your pocket it requires a boatload of  

well ships while we all benefit from the  current status of the global supply chain  

it is a dirty and complicated mess but could  all that change with the birth of a brand new  

all-electric all-autonomous cargo ship one company  norway's konsberg maritime is willing to test the  

waters to find out could electric autonomous ships  provide an avenue for not only reducing emissions  

but also solving some of the biggest  issues facing today's shipping industry  

come sail away with us as we explore these  questions and more today on two bit different

special thanks to hone health for sponsoring  this video find how you can fight back against  

father time with hone health the current status  of global shipping can be summed up in two words  

dirty and complicated maritime transport accounts  for roughly 940 million metric tons of carbon  

dioxide every year making up to about two and a  half percent of global greenhouse gas emissions  

and these numbers they're only expected to grow  anywhere from 50 to 250 percent by 2050 without  

major intervention according to the european  commission but the impact goes well beyond co2 oil  

spills water and air pollution not to mention the  impact on marine life researchers have discovered  

that the noise produced by marine vessels causes  chronic stress and a slew of other health problems  

for whales and other sea life a new fully  electric fully autonomous ship out of norway  

could kickstart a revolution in shipping and the  global economy the ship the yara birkeland will  

be the first fully electric fully autonomous ship  first imagined in 2017 the vessel was created by  

the tech firm kongsberg maritime and shipbuilder  vard the ship has a deadweight capacity of 3200  

metric tons and a cargo capacity of 120 teu that's  the number of 20-foot containers it can carry this  

is rather on the small side but it's a starting  point nonetheless equipped with a 7 megawatt hour  

battery with about one thousand times the capacity  of an electric car the ship can reach service  

speeds of six knots and max speeds of 13 knots  or between 7 and 15 miles per hour which is about  

average for a bulk carrier while the ship does not  carry the title of the first fully autonomous ship  

that goes to a ferry launched in finland back in  2018 it will be the first fully electric container  

ship in the world and that's bound to make a  pretty big splash the initial voyages will include  

human crew to handle loading and unloading but  the ship will handle moving discharging mooring  

operations and all other functions autonomously  still the ship will always be monitored remotely  

by three separate data control centers to ensure  safe travels and operation the ship will travel  

12 nautical miles between three ports in southern  norway an area that currently carries the majority  

of the norwegian coastal administration's ship  traffic the major headline is that this ship  

produces zero carbon emissions on its own the only  source of carbon will likely come from recharging  

using norway's current infrastructure which is  generated mostly by hydroelectric power and is  

one of the cleanest grids in the world electric  ships such as the yara will not only reduce the  

impact of shipping vessels but it will also help  move freight away from the roads and toward the  

sea the ship's engineers estimate that just this  one ship could replace 40 000 diesel-powered  

truck journeys annually while shipping makes up  between two and three percent of global emissions  

medium to heavy-duty trucks contribute somewhere  between eight and ten percent of global emissions  

electric vessels would also essentially eliminate  the threat of oil spills and other water pollution  

and whales well research suggests that the quieter  electric motors could help alleviate the issue of  

noise-related whale stress significantly if just  one electric ship could have this big an impact  

imagine what a whole fleet could do but benefits  don't stop there having a ship be not only fully  

electric but also fully autonomous could open up  a whole new world for maritime commerce before  

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and all of you for making this show possible  autonomous ships hold the potential to be  

significantly safer than human operated vessels  according to a report published by alliance a  

munich-based insurance company between 75 and  96 percent of marine incidents and accidents  

result from human error typically due to worker  fatigue remotely controlled autonomous ships could  

significantly reduce the risk of damage to vessels  and cargo and most importantly eliminate the  

risk of injury or death no crew could also mean  overhauling the entire design of these vessels  

to allow them to carry more cargo while also  increasing their travel efficiency not having to  

work accommodations and accompanying life support  systems for a crew into the design but possibly  

the biggest win of fully autonomous ships relates  to the convoluted and frankly decaying arena of  

the global supply chain today roughly 90 percent  of the world's goods are transported by sea  

over recent decades marine labor has seen a steady  decline while demand has continually increased  

the current worldwide population of seafarers  currently serving on international trading vessels  

is just over 1.6 million global demand however  is currently right around 1.5 million and growing  

experts expect the demand to begin outpacing  worker availability in the near future  

the global shipping supply chain is a very  intricate sensitive beast where one small  

hiccup could have catastrophic results remember  this ship driver's bad day back in march of 2021  

that blocked the suez canal and ended up costing  roughly 400 million dollars an hour for a total  

of six days and seven hours yeah you do the  math the global shipping industry was already  

working at near full capacity and then well we all  know what happened the coveted pandemic of 2019.  

2020 2021 was it one year was it 50 is it still  happening when you're watching this video anyway  

the pandemic served to exacerbate long-standing  issues with the global supply chain  

due in large part to the way it impacted  the already tight labor market having fully  

autonomous vessels that can handle every aspect  of the industry without any human intervention  

could be an absolute game changer you could have  ships running at every given time all year round  

unaffected by the labor market or even the  global pandemic after all robots don't need  

sick days well unless they're running windows  and catch bars sorry so will norway's quieter  

safer cleaner cheaper electric rebel ships inspire  other companies to build their own emissions-free  

ai armadas maybe but before we see more  proliferation of these ships experts see a handful  

of limitations that companies like kongsberg will  need to address for one thing for these ships to  

navigate successfully in large ports we'll likely  need to see bigger improvements to their ai  

rudy negenborn a maritime and transport technology  professor at the delft university of technology  

in the netherlands says that while he believes  full autonomous ships are indeed the future  

they'll need improved navigation systems at some  point these ships will have to start interacting  

with each other so they can exchange information  and create paths that are not conflicting he says  

he also added that without crews these ships  will need flawless onboard self-diagnosing  

systems with the capacity to not only detect but  fix any problems that may arise there are also  

concerns over international maritime regulations  questions remain about whether these ships  

could operate globally and who would carry  legal liability in the event of an accident  

and while these ships boast increased  safety for humans they do still carry  

the risk of piracy both in forms of high-tech  hacking as well as good old-fashioned analog  

pirating on a more practical level before these  ships will be ready for their high seas adventures  

they'll need to see major improvements in their  overall capacity right now vessels such as the  

yara birkeland can travel up to 80 kilometers  on a single charge the largest fully electric  

passenger vessel the ellen ferry operating in  denmark can undergo a round trip of 22 nautical  

miles it's not as if elon musk can build fast  charging ports in the middle of the ocean although  

who knows hybrid solutions have been investigated  where a ship would use diesel generators on  

board though this would increase carbon emissions  significantly and kind of ruin the whole point of  

an electric vessel won't someone please think  about the poor whales without the need for  

observation decks or other bits for us fleshy  humans we could even cover these boats and solar  

panels we might need some space for antennas  and satellites for communication but otherwise  

they could be blanketed bow to stern in solar  this would mean that these ships could charge as  

they travel theoretically if they traveled at slow  enough speed they could travel purely on sunlight  

just like with electric vehicles where companies  like tesla have taken aerodynamics to an extreme  

level of efficiency the same thing will happen  with ships if ships become electric turbulence  

in the water and hydrodynamics will become  a major factor and if battery density isn't  

quite there yet today might automated cargo ships  finally be the use case that propels hydrogen into  

the spotlight hydrogen is super gravimetrically  energy dense and its packaging challenges and  

lower volumetric energy density might be easier  to design around in the larger scale of a shipping  

vessel there's also the issue of deadweight  tonnage capacity china's first fully electric  

ship the young gang electric number one can  travel 80 kilometers and carry 2 200 tons of cargo  

most large cargo ships carry about 100 times  that much cargo still market research forecasts  

electric ships and autonomous ships seeing a  compound annual growth rate of 14.9 percent and 10  

respectively from 2021 to 2030. as yara birkeland  prepares to make its inaugural voyage before the  

end of 2021 we could be seeing these seminal steps  into a whole new world of global shipping but  

let us know what you think are you excited to see  such technology revolutions take over the shipping  

industry do you see any risk of having fully  autonomous ships sailing in the seven seas let  

us know in the comments below all right so that  is a look at the future of autonomous electric  

shipping vessels i think we've still got some ways  to go especially with energy density or might this  

finally be hydrogen's time to shine all right  that is a look and i'm not that sorry so huge

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and just remember i'm rick youtube davinci  and the future is going to be awesome