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主题：无人驾驶的货船是否比传统的货船好

1. Cost

Crew-less cargo ships will be cheaper to operate than traditional cargo ships. Hiring an onboard crew to operate a traditional ship can cost approximately $3,000 to $4,000 a day. However, crew-less ships can sail on their own. Various technologies on board replace the crew that normally operates and guides a ship. Without the expense of a crew, crew-less cargo ships will save companies money and perhaps lower shipping costs.

1. To begin with, these crew-less ships probably won't save companies. You see, crews are actually very valuable because they can perform maintenance on ships while they're out at sea. Whereas crew ish ships can only have maintenance done once they're in a port. So a crew-less ship has to spend extra time in port having maintenance work. And while it's in port, the ship can't earn money by shipping goods. So the ship's owner loses money.

2. Piracy

In addition, crew-less cargo ships will be less vulnerable to piracy. If pirates board a conventional ship, they can force the crew to give them control of the ship and allow them to steal the valuable cargo on board. A crew-less cargo ship, however, would not have a crew to intimidate and could be designed so that it would be very difficult to board at sea. Even if pirates did manage to get onto one of these ships, they would not be able to alter its course, as there would be no onboard controls that humans could operate.

2. Although it's true that there would be no controls on a crew-less ship for pirates to use. There would still be ways for them to steal these ships. While crew-less ships would be largely autonomous, capable of navigating without direct human intervention. The ships would still need to receive occasional transmissions from people on land. Such as software updates for the navigation technology. In the future, computer pirates known as cyber pirates could take advantage of this and find a way to take control of ships simply by transmitting alternate instructions to them. So they could steal a crew-less ship by forcing it to change course. Possibly without even being near it.

3. Accidents

Lastly, these crew-less cargo ships will be involved in fewer accidents than traditional cargo ships. Each year, hundreds of cargo ships around the world are damaged or destroyed in accidents— fires break out in engine rooms, and ships take on water and sink when they tip over or get their hulls damaged. Research indicates that these accidents are primarily caused by human error, often because of tired or distracted crew members. Crew-less cargo ships are not prone to such errors and will therefore be much safer than traditional cargo ships.

3. And finally, sure crews can cause accidents when they're tired or distracted. But they can also prevent accidents when technology fails. For example. Ships use sensor technology to avoid striking objects like other ships and icebergs. This technology can be disrupted by high winds and other weather conditions. IFA crew is on board. They can spot objects in their path. But a crew-less ship, unable to detect these objects under certain conditions. Might continue its course and cause a serious accident. Because crewish ships don't have people to rely on when technology fails, they could actually end up causing more accidents.