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Re:Rolls-Royce Drone Ships Challenge $375B Freight Industry by lifeisstillgood on Tuesday February 25, 2014 @12:39PM (#7299063)
I think the major problem is that piracy has always, till now, had someone to "repel boarders".

Now it is a matter of climbing on board and breaking the locks. (And no I don't think automated guns will be an acceptable solution. I can't see the NY port Authotirty being happy about armed computers sliding into view.

(Why am I thinking of the Matrix cartoon / prequels now?)

Re:Rolls-Royce Drone Ships Challenge $375B Freight Industry by gk1 on Tuesday February 25, 2014 @01:34PM (#7299455)
> till now, had someone to "repel boarders"

Not really. The standard procedure to "repel boarders" is to:

1. Try to outmaneuver the pirate boat. 2. If that fails, point and blast fire hoses at pirates.

Crews don't [usually] carry firearms because of insurance liabilities. If there's no crew on board, then more robust defense mechanisms can be used.

Re:Rolls-Royce Drone Ships Challenge $375B Freight Industry by DaveLond on Tuesday February 25, 2014 @12:46PM (#7299117)
Assuming you get boarded by pirates, what happens next? Why would you need a bridge that could command the ship? Even if you did, turn it off unless you can remotely switch it on again. How much damage can pirates do to an empty ship? Plus, no hostages, so there wouldn't be much stopping armed forces going in guns-blazing.
Re:Rolls-Royce Drone Ships Challenge $375B Freight Industry by matznerd on Tuesday February 25, 2014 @12:58PM (#7299201)
Disable the ships communications with jamming device. Tow it to port, hold ransom for % of cargo, or sell cargo in the local market.
Re:Rolls-Royce Drone Ships Challenge $375B Freight Industry by emgeee on Tuesday February 25, 2014 @02:17PM (#7299763)
Is "towing it to port" really something that is that easy to do? These are big ships that are probably not easy to make disappear. Also, without hostages, using armed forces to take the ship back would probably be a lot easier.

Finally, depending on the cargo and location, I would imagine selling off the cargo would be a simple matter.

Re:Rolls-Royce Drone Ships Challenge $375B Freight Industry by dragonwriter on Tuesday February 25, 2014 @02:25PM (#7299808)
> These are big ships that are probably not easy to make disappear.

The ship itself is often the drop location for ransoms; piracy doesn't generally require hiding the ship.

> Also, without hostages, using armed forces to take the ship back would probably be a lot easier.

This is a significant point.

Re:Rolls-Royce Drone Ships Challenge $375B Freight Industry by baddox on Tuesday February 25, 2014 @02:04PM (#7299665)
Still sounds better than doing the same thing, but with a crew on board.
Re:Rolls-Royce Drone Ships Challenge $375B Freight Industry by icebraining on Tuesday February 25, 2014 @12:51PM (#7299155)
Did the crews really had the training and instructions to repel boarders? That seems risky both to them and the company that may face liability.

In any case, it seems ships already use sonic weapons against assailants, maybe those could be remote controlled.

Re:Rolls-Royce Drone Ships Challenge $375B Freight Industry by drpgq on Tuesday February 25, 2014 @12:50PM (#7299146)
If there's no steering wheel, what do the pirates do?
Re:Rolls-Royce Drone Ships Challenge $375B Freight Industry by thedrbrian on Tuesday February 25, 2014 @12:56PM (#7299191)
Disable the computers and run the steering hydraulics manually
Re:Rolls-Royce Drone Ships Challenge $375B Freight Industry by phazmatis on Tuesday February 25, 2014 @10:07PM (#7302606)
This thing will have exposed wires, of course!
Re:Rolls-Royce Drone Ships Challenge $375B Freight Industry by matznerd on Tuesday February 25, 2014 @12:58PM (#7299207)
Tow the ship, assuming they had powerful enough boats...
Re:Rolls-Royce Drone Ships Challenge $375B Freight Industry by baddox on Tuesday February 25, 2014 @02:04PM (#7299674)
I highly doubt they have boats anywhere near that powerful.
Re:Rolls-Royce Drone Ships Challenge $375B Freight Industry by TeMPOraL on Tuesday February 25, 2014 @01:51PM (#7299573)
> Tow the ship, assuming they had powerful enough boats

Or just disable propulsion and then tow the ship. They'll probably figure out some cheap ways like "throw a fishing net into the turbine".