Autonomous Ship Economics Explorer - AI Maritime Insights

Inputs ?

Ship type ?

The model uses different default costs per ship type. Replace with your own numbers in the code if needed.

Autonomy cost level (tech stack only) ?

This scales the annual OPEX of the autonomy tech (sensors, software, cyber, maintenance) for each ship type.

Custom autonomy tech OPEX (USD/yr) ?

Used only if "Custom" is selected in the autonomy cost level. Otherwise the model calculates tech OPEX from ship type & level.

Preset scenario (CAPEX / staff / comms) ?

Use this to jump between common scenarios. For anything more specific, pick “Custom” and change the values below.

Extra CAPEX for autonomy (USD) ?

This is the one-off extra investment for making the vessel autonomous-ready.

Onboard technical staff (per ship) ?

Each onboard tech / senior officer assumed at 150k salary + 30k other per year (180k total).

Onshore support staff (equivalent FTE per ship) ?

Example: 2 FTE per ship at 150k each = 300k/yr. Try lower/higher to see how sensitive the economics are.

Onshore support cost per FTE (USD/yr) ?

Adjust this to your market and salary reality.

Additional cargo / port overhead (USD/yr) ?

This sits on top of today’s pilotage / tug / port charges, which both crewed and autonomous ships pay.

Comms profile ?

Standard: ~60k data + 40k redundancy / year. Heavy: ~90k + 80k / year.

Crew OPEX, common OPEX and mid-case autonomy tech OPEX are embedded per ship type. You control the human support and overhead costs directly here.

Results 20-year view ?

Annual OPEX savings

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Crewed vs autonomous, including insurance & space uplift.

Payback period

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Extra CAPEX divided by annual savings.

TCO 20y – Crewed

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TCO 20y – Autonomous

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TCO difference

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Positive = autonomy cheaper over 20 years.

Autonomy tech OPEX (year)

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Sensors, software, cyber, maintenance – excludes human staff.

Metric	Value (USD)
Annual OPEX – Crewed	–
Annual OPEX – Autonomous	–
Extra CAPEX for autonomy	–

20-year TCO = newbuild CAPEX + 20 × annual OPEX. The line chart shows cumulative cash cost per year (0–20). At year 0 the autonomous line starts higher due to extra CAPEX; over time OPEX differences decide who wins.