Saudi makes plans for autonomous vessels
Saudi makes plans for autonomous vessels
American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) signs collaboration agreement
#Saudi #autonomousvessels - Saudi Arabia's Transport General Authority (TGA), American Bureau of Shipping (ABS), and Zamil Marine have agreed to begin joint development of regulations, technical standards and operational frameworks for autonomous vessels. This was announced this week at the Sustainable Maritime Industry Conference (SMIC), in Jeddah.
SO WHAT? - The TGA is driving Saudi Arabia's plans to implement and regulate autonomous transport. Meanwhile, ABS has been developing maritime policy and technical frameworks that could help the Kingdom embrace autonomous vessels sooner, rather than later.
ABS is now a leading authority on autonomy and remote-control maritime initiatives and published a whitepaper last year on goal-setting and frameworks for the design, implementation and operation of autonomous vessels.
The TGA is already running a variety of driverless vehicle trials across the Kingdom, in partnership with global vendors and local campus or district owners.
In the case of maritime transport, the TGA is working closely with Mawani (Saudi Ports Authority), which is driving the digital transformation of the ports sector, and also the International Maritime Organization.
Zamil Marine both a ship builder and marine services provider, so is likely to also be investigating the potential of autonomous vessels.
ZOOM OUT - Mawani, the government agency that supervises all port development in Saudi Arabia, announced the start of a Smart Ports Initiative last year, with objectives to digitally transform the country’s ports. The Smart Ports initiative aims to automate Saudi ports, adopting 5G, AI, IoT and other emerging technologies with the aim of raising the efficiency of the operational performance of the port network.
Saudi Arabia aims to become a key global player in the logistics and transportation sector, a goal that was underscored with the announcement last month of a government master plan to develop 59 logistics centres across the Kingdom.
IMO - The new agreement between TGA, Zamil Marine and ABS is one of many Saudi collaborations with global maritime organisations. The collaboration with ABS could be pivotal, but progress is going to depend heavily on the ecosystem that TGA builds around autonomous and remotely piloted vessels, maritime traffic management (MTM), cybersecurity and policy development.
LINKS
D/L - ABS Autonomous Vessels Whitepaper - Download