Representatives from the marine and IT-industry have said that there will be fully remote controlled vessels in the Baltic Sea by 2020 and that autonomous commercial maritime traffic will be operating by 2025. One Sea is a partnership consisting of ABB, Cargotec (MacGregor and Kalmar), Ericsson, Meyer Turku, Rolls-Royce, Tieto and Wärtsilä. The association of Finnish Marine Industries is supporting the work and the Finnish funding agency Tekes has invested in the ecosystem. The One Sea project is being led by DIMECC (Digital, Internet, Materials & Engineering Co-Creation), whose CEO Harri Kulmala said that “our One Sea ecosystem is the natural next step in the digital transformation of the marine industry. Several new
business initiatives in the autonomous maritime traffic have already been started and can be expected in the future. The companies and organisations collaborating in One Sea are forerunners in their respective fields and the fact that our ecosystem is industry-driven separates it from many of the more or less academic exercises. One Sea ensures a well-researched, tested and highly capable autonomous shipping network”.
DIMECC said that the expected timeline for autonomous maritime traffic meant that regulators needed to increase the pace at which new regulations are being approved. “The technologies are advancing at such speed that the rules and regulations risk becoming obsolete”, DIMECC said.