FYI: There's a human-less, AI robot Mayflower ship sailing from the UK to US right now A 15-metre-long autonomous human-free ship has begun a 3,000-odd-mile trip from the UK to the US to recreate the historic Mayflower voyage of 1620. The Mayflower Autonomous Ship (MAS), named after the 17th century vessel that took more than 100 passengers from England to the present day's Massachusetts in America, set sail …
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Well, it's solar powered. Including the propulsion apparently. And it's night in the Eastern North Atlantic. And www.ventusky.com indicates a large area of rain S of Iceland and W of Ireland in the general area they might be traversing. Even when the sun comes up, they may not be generating a lot of power. Perhaps they have fallen back to a power saving mode.
Yes, when I see a boat travelling across the ocean, my first thought is "damn, I need to invest more in IBM technology to help my business identify new challenges on the horizon".
I mean, I know the logic he is using in making that stretch, but the distance he has to reach for it it is almost as long as the journey being made by the boat.
I actually used to work in an office which was visited once a month by a telephone sanitiser. He sprayed the microphone and earpiece with foam cleaner, wiped and then moved on to the next telephone to ensure they all were equally contaminated.
Hell, I must be old...
Nah, this is a thousand times simpler in terms of object avoidance than similar terrestrial challenges, and while it has been trained to look out for specific dangers such as floating containers, I read no indication that it has the smarts to cope with anything unexpected. Like logs or killer whales. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-stoke-staffordshire-18877090
Not if it continues its present heading (1430 on Friday) - currently been heading back the way it came for some time now (assuming the tracking is accurate).
Perhaps a singularity has been achieved and the 'Mayflower' has decided "What the hell am I doing out here when I could be back partying dockside?"
Sea area Sole
North 5 or 6, becoming variable 3 or 4, then southwest 5 or 6 later.
Sea state
Moderate, occasionally rough.
Weather
Showers.
Visibility
Good.
Then the high seas forecast
North 5 or 6, becoming variable 3 or 4, then southwest 5 or 6 later.
Sea state
Moderate, occasionally rough.
Weather
Showers.
Visibility
Good.
Thank you Met Office
I suppose with no one to get seasick aboard but I wonder how it's (presumably) radar based anti collision stuff deal with sea and rain clutter.
Are you sure that the measure of skateboarding rhinoceri is correct? After all, just adding the average weight of a rhino to that of a skatebaord, isn't going to cut it. You're going to need to find the weight of a sufficiently strengthened and enlarged skateboard - which is likely to be significant. Thus it might only be 2.5skbr...
"What are the chances of it disappearing without trace, or mysteriously losing all of it's expensive tech?"
Why? Is it going through the Bermuda triangle?...or perhaps it will be targeted by Somali pirates somewhere near to the SE (ie Socotra Passage or the western side of the Indian Ocean?)
I see a huge airship with the Amazon logo on the sides swooping down and sucking it up into the cavernous hold. Naturally, the airship will be super stealthy and will simply disappear from satellite and other surveillance.
Next year Bezos's new mega-mega yacht will be launched and somehow all the cool tech that is on the robo ship.
By then... he will be so powerful and rich that he'll just buy all the outstanding US Government debt from his small change. He'll then close down DC and proclaim himself President Bezos for life.
Oh wait...
I've just exposed the plot to a future NCIS episode.
Only joking people.
@AC
I expect it would be used for military purposes. At a minimum to deliver the troops and supplies with reduced effort into the transport (comparatively large crew, crew provisions + sleeping spaces, etc). I expect eventually probably automated gun boats. Since some of the AA gear is already auto-targeting it could be wise to have automated cheap screen boats with defensive capabilities.
"This is a sail boat, ..."
That's what you'd expect. But I can't see any sign of (a) mast(s)/sail(s) in the pictures of the thing or in the drawings on the website. And it does have a rather conspicuous propeller. So I think it's probably a solar powered electric boat rather than a sailboat.
Came here to post similar - the heading has been showing as 063 for most of the morning. Either the dashboard is showing the reciprocal heading or she's reversing across the pond.
(update - checked again before posting 12:47BST)
She had been heading ENE for most of the morning, currently turning round.
(Edit) Just after I posted, she was turning again - 34 degrees of rudder. Now heading back E.
@Wade Burchette - if she was tacking then we'd see NW and SW zig zags, not NE.
Orcas seem to enjoy playing with small boats... small boats, not so much!
"From the Strait of Gibraltar to Galicia, orcas have been harassing yachts, damaging vessels and injuring crew"
'Killer whales attacked my yacht for 45 minutes'
The USA is actually getting much closer to that with each passing day.
With, all the anti-black voter repression laws, banning of teaching of Slavery in schools, talk of a 'new south' run by Q-Anon and everything else all hints at the sort of new Republic that many in the GQP want. Then they'll be able to achieve what the pilgrim's wanted.
Oh, and Texas has started building that wall again to keep the brown-skinned hordes out. No sign of Mexico paying for it though.
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