Russia proposes joint autonomous ship navigation project to Italy

MOSCOW. Oct 29 (Interfax) - Russia has approached Italy with a proposal to consider organizing a joint pilot project in the area of autonomous ship navigation involving companies from the two countries, Russia's Transport Ministry said after the fifth meeting of the Russian-Italian working group on transport.

The countries also discussed the use of self-driving vehicles on roads.

"As the main area of cooperation, the parties noted the increase in the volumes of freight shipments on the Europe-Russia-China route. The Transport Ministry of Russia informed the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport of Italy about large-scale infrastructure projects in railway and marine transport, qualitatively new digital services and the digital transport corridors of the EAEU," the Russian ministry said.

The Russian government approved an experiment in December 2020 to operate unmanned marine vessels controlled partially or completely automatically or remotely. The first unmanned vessels might be launched on routes between the port of Ust-Luga in Leningrad Region and ports in the Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad Region.