SEAM, Zeabuz and Torghatten join Haugesund autonomous city boat project

Haugesund (Norway) municipality has signed a letter of intent with three new partners for the research and development project “Emission-free autonomous city boat”. The aim is to initiate the route and test the technology starting from the autumn of 2025. The new partners are Torghatten, Norway’s largest ferry company, Zeabuz, supplier of the advanced autonomy technology, and SEAM, a supplier and integrator of maritime technology and systems, all of which have considerable experience with challenging innovation projects. Together they are behind the world’s first commercial autonomous city ferry, MF Estelle in Stockholm.

The project’s aim is to develop an zero-emission, autonomous vessel for the city of Haugesund. The vessel will service Haugesund City Centre, Vibrandsøy and Risøy. In the long term, the aim is to dimension the route to also cover other locations such as Karmøy.

The test period has been set to two years, during which it is intended that the passenger vessel will be gradually developed towards self-steering and crew reduction.

“Zero-Emission Autonomous City Vessel” consists of multiple partners, including Municipality of Haugesund, Karmsund Havn, The University of Western Norway, Havnekraft, Remota, Maritime CleanTech and Norce.

🎤 Veronica Charlotte Haugan, project manager of “Emission-free autonomous city boat”, comments: “I believe we now have a solid and strong collaboration group that has all the prerequisites to succeed in developing an autonomous city boat in Haugesund.”

🎤 “The city boat project will help make Vibrandsøy accessible to everyone, strengthen the city’s maritime identity, and give residents and tourists easy, environmentally friendly access to a fantastic recreation area. At the same time, it will promote business development and tourism in the region”, – says Annette Sæther, head of business in Haugesund municipality.
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🎤 Mayor Nils Konrad Bua believes that the project will have positive ripple effects for Haugesund: “The innovation will certainly help put Haugesund municipality and the region on the map when it comes to the development of maritime technology, says Bua, and adds, this gives us a unique opportunity to link the city islands together and not least to make the city’s pearl Vibrandsøy accessible to everyone.”

📃📷 Source: SEAM