Skepticism is emerging in parts of the industry over the government's plan to jointly develop artificial intelligence (AI) autonomous navigation technology with shipbuilders. They say collaboration will be difficult because each company's technology level and research and development (R&D) direction for autonomous navigation differ.
According to the shipbuilding industry on the 24th, Koo Yun-cheol, Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs and Minister of the Ministry of Economy and Finance, appeared on the YouTube channel SarmproTV on the 18th and said, "We will push to develop AI autonomous navigation vessels in partnership with the three major shipbuilders."
In this regard, major shipbuilders such as Hanwha Ocean, HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering, and Samsung Heavy Industries have recently begun cooperating to collect data related to AI. They are carrying out a project to jointly collect and accumulate environmental data such as waves, wind, and currents; operational data such as AIS (Automatic Identification System), engine RPM; and radar information.
However, some industry officials say collaboration is unlikely to proceed as smoothly as the government expects, citing the fact that each shipbuilder's autonomous navigation development is already at an advanced stage. When the levels of autonomous navigation technology are divided by stage and "fully unmanned navigation" is considered the final stage 4, the industry assesses that shipbuilders have nearly reached stage 3, the level of "remote control of unmanned vessels."
Samsung Heavy Industries in September installed its in-house developed AI autonomous navigation system SAS (Samsung Autonomous Ship) on a 15,000-TEU (1 TEU equals one 20-foot container) container carrier operated by Taiwan's Evergreen and successfully completed a trans-Pacific demonstration.
HD Hyundai has applied "HiNAS Control," developed by its autonomous navigation subsidiary Avikus, to ships since 2023 and completed performance demonstrations showing a 15% reduction in carbon emissions and a 15% improvement in fuel efficiency.
Hanwha Ocean developed the autonomous navigation test vessel "Hanbi" and is pursuing technology development with the goal of securing stage 4 fully unmanned navigation technology by 2030.
Differences in the characteristics and directions of autonomous navigation technology development among shipbuilders are also cited as reasons that make collaboration difficult. For example, if company A focuses on optimizing real-time sailing routes based on environmental information such as wave height, wind, currents, and reefs, as well as GPS and other vessels' routes, company B may focus on data exchange with an onshore control center, leading to different development directions. Because priorities and interests vary, efficient collaboration is hard to achieve, industry officials say.
Some also take a dim view of jointly developing systems rather than building ships. From a shipbuilder's perspective, an operating system is a "sales specialization factor" that should be differentiated from competitors, making it hard to accept the government's request to develop it jointly.
An industry official said, "Autonomous navigation technology, like Autonomous Driving by finished carmakers, has been developed by each company through large-scale investments," adding, "Because it is clearly a trade secret, shipbuilders will find it difficult to accept a demand to integrate it into a single system."
Lee Hee-su, shipbuilding and marine PD at the Korea Planning&Evaluation Institute of Industrial Technology (KEIT), said, "For the government to succeed in joint development of AI autonomous navigation, it will need to present clear incentives so that shipbuilders can put forward and participate with technologies they have developed through massive investments."