Abstract
Autonomous ships will introduce a new paradigm in automation: Actual cooperation between humans and automation, instead of automation as a tool for teh human. This in turn requires trust in automation and enough time for humans to safely take over control when automation cannot any longer handle the situation. This will also require automation to reliably know when it is necessary to alert the human to take over. Autonomous ships, contrary to autonomous cars, have properties that can make such cooperation possible and cost-effective.