It will follow that up with autonomous automated boats.

British owned Rolls-Royce isn’t just happy with autonomous vehicles on the road, the company wants a share of the sea traffic too: it has outlined its strategy for deploying its remote controlled autonomous cargo vessels.

It is currently working on a system wherein land-based crews can control every aspect of a ship, which will be replete with VR cameras and drones to monitor virtually every spot of the ship. This in human terms is almost impossible.

According to Rolls-Royce its boats are one of a kind: humans will never have to board it even once. Albeit, land based humans will do the steering. If all goes according to plans, cargo crew shortages will be history.

According to the company, a crew-free ship has loads of advantages: not only will there not be any need for a bridge or living quarters the whole set up is likely to become more efficient and safer since there won’t be any human errors to add to the mix. Furthermore, in the event of rough weather or attack from sea-borne pirates, lives will not be at stake.

On the down side however, this system will eat into the number of available jobs. However, land loving crews will not be overwhelmed by hands-on complex tasks on ships.

This design isn’t just theoretical: one of its ships, Stril Luna, has already been equipped with a smart Unified Bridge system which will coordinate all movements of equipment.

Rolls-Royce wants to be the first to launch remote controlled autonomous cargo ships by 2020. It wants to follow that up with autonomous boats in the next two decades.

The next time you head out to sea, it looks like our job will be restricted to relaxing and soaking in the sun.