Robot Boats Leave Autonomous Cars in Their Wake

But while the original Mayflower bore 102 passengers to Plymouth Rock, this one will ply the seas for about two weeks next spring with no living souls aboard. Promare, a U.K. ocean-research nonprofit, in partnership with International Business Machines Corp., will unveil this new, fully autonomous Mayflower on Sept. 16 in Portsmouth, the same seaside English town from which its namesake set sail in 1620. The symbolism of sending a crewless, autonomous ship across an ocean in 2021--as automation accelerates the economic divide among American workers--might be a little on the nose, but its creators insist autonomous ships aren't about replacing people. Instead, this technology is intended to serve where crewed voyages are deemed too expensive--or too risky. This is a common refrain among firms building autonomous ships: For the 70% of the Earth's surface covered by water, there are far too few humans and vessels, despite a pressing need for oceanographic data, scientific research, naval patrols and new means of transporting goods.