The 99th session of IMO’s Maritime Safety Committee concluded on 25 May marking new steps and reviewing older developments towards a safer shipping industry on a wide range of topics. Autonomous vessels, piracy and armed robbery against ships, the Arctic shipping safety, as well as the Global Maritime Distress and Safety System, were key topics on the agenda.
First steps to autonomous ships
The Committee endorsed a framework for a regulatory scoping exercise, as work in progress, including preliminary definitions of Maritime Autonomous Surface Ships (MASS) and degrees of autonomy, as well as a methodology for conducting the exercise and a plan of work.
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