Crewless cargo? Autonomous shipping aims to overcome safety, trust concerns to reach mainstream

A cargo tanker off the coast of Norway completed a 13-hour journey last year — but it wasn't a regular ship. 

The voyage was a test of an autonomous ship under AUTOSHIP, an EU-funded program to develop new technologies for navigating large vessels.

The consortium brought together entities from academia and industry, including Kongsberg Maritime, the Norwegian giant that has been conducting deep research and development (R&D) on autonomous shipping.

The trip marked a pivotal advancement in developing autonomous technology for shipping, which still faces many hurdles before it is ready for primetime.

Markus Laurinen, growth and solutions director at Kongsberg Maritime, said that autonomous shipping as well as remote operating centers are possible, but there are external factors at play that will influence the acceptance of the tech, from gaining customer trust to securing regulatory clearance.

"We are doing this step wise. We have a road map where we are role by role moving the functions to the remote operating center," Laurinen told CNBC.

"This enables all the stakeholders involved to also learn and adapt in this big change that is happening. This is concerning a big amount of stakeholders, the freight owners, the ship owners, operators, the regulatory bodies and even the technological development bodies."

Convincing national and global maritime regulators to get on board is the biggest obstacle for autonomous or remote shipping, said Ville Vihervaara, Kongsberg Maritime's VP of remote and autonomous solutions.

"It really much depends on regulation, how the different countries and maritime regulators, how soon they will allow unmanned or uncrewed vessels at sea."

Tests like those carried out by Kongsberg in Norway aim to sway