Self-driving "Roboats" ready for testing on Amsterdam's canals

AMSTERDAM, Oct 27 (Reuters) - Visitors to Amsterdam may soon spot a self-driving watercraft the size of a small car cruising silently through its ancient canals, ferrying passengers or transporting goods or trash. It will be the electric-powered "Roboat", a catchier name than "autonomous floating vehicle" for a project shortly due to start test journeys aimed at improving the crowded city's transport options. "We have a lot of road traffic and congestion, e-commerce, logistics cluttering the small streets in the city," said Stephan van Dijk, Innovation Director at Amsterdam's Institute for Advanced Metropolitan Solutions, which is designing and engineering Roboat with The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). "At the same time we have a lot of open water available in the canals ... So we developed a self-driving, autonomous ship to help with logistics in the city and also bringing people around." One of the first test applications of the craft will be for an unglamorous but important task: trash collection.