Finnish startup Forum Virium Helsinki has developed what it claims is the first on-demand autonomous boats by a commercial operator to transform the city’s massive maritime transportation sector to carbon neutral.
Additionally, the on-demand water transportation could help Helsinki solve its shortage of captains that transport passengers to the city’s 300 islands by offering remotely controlled, autonomous boats.
Dubbed Callboats, the project is made of electric boats that can be hailed by passengers via a mobile app similar to automotive services like Lyft or Uber.
Passengers are able to book transportation for a vacation on an island or to take children living in the city central to other areas of the city. Helsinki, Finland, chose Callboats to operate the first regular route to the islands of Kotiluoto, North Villaluoto and Malkasaari in East Helsinki at a cost of 50 euros.
Cheaper to operate
“As much as 60–70% of the costs of archipelago transport come from the captains’ wages,” said Peter Ostberg, managing director of Mente Maritine. “Thanks to the autonomous operation, one captain could operate five callboats, which would offer more profit within the short season and lower prices for consumers.”
The city of Helsinki plans to promote the Callboats to reduce emissions from water transport as part of its overall maritime strategy.
“Autonomous on-demand boats would be a more agile, eco-friendly and cost-efficient way of transporting passengers to small islands, compared to ferry transport,” said Pekka Kopone, senior advisor to the project from Forum Virium Helsinki.
Kopone said the project will also help Helsinki to achieve its carbon neutrality goal in public water transportation. Moving to Callboats would reduce costs and allow for further investment into electric boats as the current water buses are 50 to 60 years old on average and will need to be replaced soon.
Safer transport
According to Forum Virium Helsinki, as many as 80% to 90% of accidents at sea may be due to human error. Autonomous on-demand boats would come equipped with various safety systems combined with sensors, cameras and artificial intelligence the Callboats will be able to create a more accurate situational picture than the human eye.
Also, the aluminum drawbridge used for the Callboat attaches to the pier so risk of accidents is lower than conventional attachment with ropes.
“It’s often forgotten that even lifts used to have human operators until we learned that autonomous operation is just as safe,” said Ostberg said. “The captains who control the boat remotely have better visibility than they would aboard the boat. There is a large camera on top of the callboat, and the captain observes the sea on a large screen.”
The next steps
The first autonomous carrier ship was launched in Norway and self-navigating ferries have been testing in the fjords.
Autonomous water transport in Finland was first tested in 2018 and with the testing continuing through 2023. In the summer of 2024, the Helsinki plan is to test the autonomous navigation of the Callboats developed by Turku University of Applied Sciences of Finland.
“Autonomous callboats could increase the attraction of the Helsinki archipelago even in the eyes of tourists,” Ostberg said.
