Japanese shipping company Nippon Yusen Kaisha (NYK) has ordered a new car carrier from Shinkai Toyohashi Shipbuilding, equipped with an advanced autonomous navigation system.
The vessel is scheduled for delivery in March 2026 and has been designed to enhance navigational safety and operational efficiency on board. The new technologies will be tested during actual commercial voyages to verify their performance in real operating conditions.
The navigation system to be installed on the vessel will automatically help prevent collisions and grounding, improving the safety of navigation while remaining under the supervision of the crew at all times.
According to NYK, the system will support:
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information gathering,
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situational assessment, and
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collision-avoidance planning,
helping to reduce the workload on the watch officer and further strengthen safety.
The solution combines AI-based image recognition and automatic radar target analysis to build an overview of the surrounding environment, visualize collision risks, generate avoidance plans and execute automatic control of course and speed. At any time, control can be switched back to conventional manual steering by the crew.
To reduce the risk of issues caused by severe rolling, such as cargo shifting, the vessel will also be equipped with a large-motion reduction system. This system simulates the ship’s motion using real-time onboard data and wave information, then recommends the optimal course and speed to minimize rolling.
The 199.95-meter-long car carrier will also feature Wi-Fi access points installed throughout the vessel to improve connectivity and onboard living conditions for the crew.
