A self-driving boat? Doesn’t that kind of take the fun out of it? Or am I just tilting at windmills, denying the future of boating?
In any event, several startups in the Boston area, often joining with scientists at MIT, are developing boats that can drive themselves. More precisely, they operate in an “autonomous driving mode,” meaning people can control them from their laptops nearby.
Take a look at the Steadfast, pictured above. Scientists from Sea Machines Robotics, Inc., a three-year-old Boston startup, bought the former Coast Guard RIB in May for $90,000 at a government auction. According to Bloomberg, they ripped out one of the four seats in the cabin to make room for a computer, installed bow and stern cameras, a radar and GPS and now they can drive the boat around Boston Harbor at 12 knots. Read more: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2017-09-18/robo-boats-are-setting-sail-in-boston
