Lessons learned from the trial operation of an autonomous urban passenger ferry

Abstract

Cities worldwide consider autonomous passenger ferries a sustainable way of transporting passengers across and along waterways. Since 2016, a university-led effort to develop autonomous urban passenger ferry prototypes has been underway in Trondheim, Norway. The work culminated in what is considered the world’s first trial operations of an autonomous urban passenger ferry open to the public, where the ferry milliAmpere2, over three weeks, completed almost 500 trips and transported more than 1500 passengers over a 100-meter crossing. During the trial period in September and October 2022, several quantitative and qualitative data samples were collected to understand passengers’ and safety operators’ perceptions of trust and safety onboard autonomous ferries. This article briefly presents the autonomous ferry and its autonomy system and provides details about the trial operation, the area of operation, and the data samples collected. It concludes with lessons learned from the trial operation that can be useful for other researchers who study autonomous ferries and their interplay with operators, passengers, and other stakeholders.