Autonomous cargo ships dispute

The reading and the lecture are both about autonomous cargo ships. The author of the article believes that crewless ships would be more benefical for companies. The lecturer disputes the claims made in the article. His position is that crew is an essetial part of a cargo ship. According to the reading crew members cost cargo companies alot of money, so eliminating the human factor out of cargo ships would reduce cost. This specific argument is challenged by the lecturer. He claims that ships already operate with the minimum number of crew members and not having crew members on board would increase the chance of a technical problem going unnoticed, which would in turn cost the company more. Secondly. the author suggests that they would reduce pirate attacks since the ships are no longer attractive to pirates because the cant take the crew hostage. The lecturer, however, believes that a new type of pirates would start attacking ships by using technology. They would hack the ship and essentially reroute it to wherever they want. Finally, the author posits that crewless ships are unlikely to get into accidents because the chance of human error would elimanted and the ships would use high-tech sensors to prevent accidents. In contrast, the lecturer's stance is that human error isnt the main reason for accidents but the fact that cargo ships are too big to change course instantly and even is the ships use sensors and what so accidents would still be possible.