Finnish water transport: autonomous, electric and on demand

#NordicNews on destinations and Finland

Helsinki relies on autonomous boats on call

In the beautiful Helsinki archipelago, the City of Helsinki has launched a pioneering project involving autonomous on-demand boats for passenger transport.

In collaboration with local company Callboats, these autonomous electric boats travelled a set route connecting the islands of Kotiluoto, North Villaluoto and Malkasaari in East Helsinki last summer. Much like popular ridesharing platforms like Uber and Bolt, passengers could conveniently order these on-demand water taxis via a mobile app.

This pioneering pilot project aimed to address two crucial aspects of Helsinki's maritime strategy: improving the accessibility of the archipelago and reducing emissions from water transport. Current legislation in Finland requires all boats to have at least one human operator on board during operation, which poses challenges for the water transport sector.

The pilot study revealed that the lack of available boat captains and the associated costs have become significant hurdles. Autonomous water transport proved to be a possible solution, as Peter Ostberg, CEO of Mente Marine, the company behind Callboats, pointed out: "Up to 60-70 per cent of the costs for archipelago transport are related to captains' wages. Thanks to autonomous operation, one captain could supervise five callboats, which would lead to more profitability and cheaper fares for passengers in the short season."

Pekka Koponen, Senior Specialist at Forum Virium, the City of Helsinki's innovation company, confirmed this view, saying, "Autonomous on-demand boats would be a more agile, environmentally friendly and cost-efficient way to transport passengers to small islands compared to traditional ferry services. Switching to autonomous boats could reduce costs and enable investment in new vessels, as Helsinki's average 50-60 year old water buses will need to be replaced in the near future."

More on the autonomous boats in Helsinki.

Header: © Veikko Venemies Unsplash