The trend is clear, higher level of automation is entering all sectors of transportation and it stretches from searching for natural resources and all the way in to our homes. Shipping vessels and the shipping industry is changing rapidly. The world’s first smart ship with shore-based monitoring and controlling “I-Dolphin” will be keel laid September 2016 built in China1 and delivered 2017. US DARPA2 is about to launch a 130-foot long remote controlled surface vessel with high level autonomous features and Boeing3 a 51-foot unmanned undersea vehicle (UUV); both are designed for months of service in combination of remote controlled and autonomous modes. There are several different ways forward and they may all be as valid as the other (not restricted to these scenarios): - Smart vessels – manned vessels with higher level of automation giving the officers Sense and Decision making assistance. - Hybrid solutions with remote operated vessels, vessels in convoy, what the automotive industry calls “Platooning” the first lorry in a convoy of lorries send its acceleration/retardation data to the following lorries, enabling them to slip stream and thereby save fuel and exhaust emissions to the air. In a nautical setting there is a manned “Shepard”-vessel guiding several unmanned vessels in a convoy, using Vessel 2 Vessel communication. - Short manned vessels with 12hrs of manned watch and 12hrs with supervision/control delegated to a Shore Control Centre (SCC), and under certain conditions have some delegated responsibilities/possibilities to take specific actions. - Vessels that are manned out to a point and then they are remote operated until they reach a point close to the arriving port and again they are manned the final part of the voyage. - Unmanned Remote operated vessel from a Shore Control Centre 24x7 from port to port. - Fully Autonomous Vessels that handles the planning and execution of the complete voyage from port to port. Only monitored from a SCC with the ability to invoke only if deemed necessary. A “Google”-approach would be to go for this, the unmanned goal, directly.