Autopilot taken over by "Smart Device"?

[deblen]

Originally Posted by TeddyDiver

I recall a couple of similar incidents some years back, other one caused a collision. Don't remember any details thou.

Autopilot does not mean you can leave the steering control (helm manual takeover) area nor stop constant eyeball watch.
Back in ancient times ('90s) ,the EU required a 4 minute alarm be included with autopilots.
A couple of N.A. companies came out with adjustable alarm timers-15 min. & my fishing customers bought them because it was common for their helmsan to fall asleep.
Now many "boaters" want to pre-program their pilots to blindly follow a multi waypoint track to anywhere,un-attended.
Just like driverless cars or Google Map drivers-blind faith in modern technology.
Of course,horses could do that in the olden days.
Personally,I'm waiting for a universal,beautiful,inexpensive AI droid to chauffer me-to the end of the voyage



Cheers/Len