Piracy made easy.
Ships once they leave port cruse by computer and digital charts to the next port already.
I would prefer a remote-controlled government, devoid of crooks, Marxists, and lying politicians instead. It would do far less damage to America and be a representation of the people who are supposed to be represented by it.
Is this Rolls-Royce or BMW?
Superyacht Owner Lets College Kids Hack and Hijack $80 Million Ship in Name of Science
http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2013/08/01/superyacht_owner_lets_college_kids_hack_80_million_ship.html
Prototype Drone Boat Gets Upgraded for an Epic Atlantic Crossing
03.15.13
http://www.wired.com/design/2013/03/fishpi-year-one/
Transatlantic Drone Takes to the Sea
http://makezine.com/magazine/transatlantic-drone-takes-to-the-sea/
BMW purchased the rights for the name for nothing years ago for somewhere around 66 million.
Great until something goes wrong.
Yes, there are a couple of hoops. A vessel at sea that is abandoned is up for salvage grabs. You’d probably want to close that little loophole first.
Seems like the answer to piracy would be to have a rapid response security team that would fly in and kick butt whenever a piracy attempt was detected.
cargo ships have been sailing the seas with automatic pilot for years and many a smaller craft has been struck and sunk as they had no one awake to see aboard the cargo ship.
Why not go to remotely piloted ships using satellite data links.
That’s how we operate long range drones now.
It would be lots cheaper than a physical crew aboard and it places an actual captain in command.
I can envision adversaries utilizing submarines to sink the drone vessels without any compunction or fear of getting caught.