Welcome to UCL Autonomous Shipping

The UCL Autonomous Shipping Project is pleased to announce that Dr Melis Özdel, the Project Leader, has been cited in an article posted on the news and opinion website Vox. The article, by Rebecca Heilweil, is entitled “The unsinkable potential of autonomous boats” and can be read by clicking on the following link: https://www.vox.com/recode/23270179/sea-machines-mayflower-self-driving-boats-autonomous-ai.

The shipping industry is preparing for a revolution from labour-intensive to autonomous shipping. The world has already witnessed a number of prototypes undergoing trials so that the commercial operation of Maritime Autonomous Surface Ships (MASS) can one day become a reality. The progress reached so far suggests that we are no longer looking at the distant future. The International … Continue reading Autonomous ships and their legal implications

The UCL Autonomous Shipping Project is pleased to announce that it will be hosting, in collaboration with the Institute of International Shipping and Trade Law of Swansea University), a Conference exploring the ‘Public International Law Aspects’ of the autonomous shipping revolution. It will take place on 6 April 2022. This Conference follows from the success … Continue reading Second Autonomous Shipping Conference – Public International Law Aspects

In The Economist of 4 September 2021, an article was published under the title ‘ Is a self-driving car smarter than a seven-month-old?’.  If you guessed, from the way the question is phrased, that the answer was ‘no’, you would have been entirely correct. Ultimately, the article (intentionally or not) puts out an implicit message … Continue reading ‘Is a self-driving car smarter than a seven-month-old? Or, how to ask the wrong question to get to an irrelevant answer.’ by Dr Frank Stevens