Earlier this year I
received an Android phone as a birthday gift. Of course the first thing you do
when you get a smart phone is go searching for the best Apps available. There
are Apps that do useful things like track your bank accounts, and there are Apps
that do useless mind-numbing things like blowing bubbles.
Eventually, once I
began to comprehend how my phone works, I started looking for Boating related
applications. There are actually more than I thought there would be. There are
Navigational applications (my favorite is still from Navionics), tidal information,
weather data, and quite a few others.
I’ve even read a
couple articles about applications that control various functions of the boat
itself. This is where I become a bit leery of the how fast things are
advancing. The fact is that paper charts have not been completely replaced
, yet people are willing to allow their phone to control things like
auto-pilots and power distribution panels.
The National Marine
Electronics Association(NMEA) has made incredible progress in getting a
protocol established that enables most marine electronics to interface. While
the people at Apple, Google and Microsoft are all very bright – I'm not certain
that any thought has been given to whether any of these programmers have even
been on a boat, let alone piloted one.
The London P&I
Club, one of the world’s leading mutual marine liability insurers, published in
their StopLoss Bulletin that, “Onboard
communication has improved significantly over the last few years, with
technological advances enabling crew to use mobile phones and laptops to stay
in contact with family and friends ashore. However, the use of such equipment
at inappropriate moments may distract crew from the navigation or operation of
the ship.
“Another issue is
the risk of being exposed to excessive information and simply being unable to
process it all. Bridge equipment is increasingly sophisticated and it can
provide the crew with access to extensive information regarding the relative
positions of other ships. But, unless it is used in a focused manner, it can
confuse, rather than clarify, and ultimately prove counter-productive.”
There have been
accidents on inland waterways, as well as intra-coastal waterways caused by the
distractions of Skype calls, streaming news reports, and Email/Texting. Often,
these activities are being conducted on equipment
either adjacent to or on the same screen as chartplotters, AIS displays or
RADAR supplies.
There is no doubt
that great advances have been made in what is possible to accomplish with
technology, particularly within the marine industry. In 2004, the idea of
linking different systems together seemed like something from the realm of
"Star Trek." Now, in the world of tech, there is an app for
everything it seems. The question isn't whether we “can” control a boat from an
iPhone, Droid, Blackberry or Windows Phone – rather “should” we take this
step. Eventually, sure but this is where the NMEA should monitor closely what
the mobile device developers are “attaching” to boats. The most dangerous of
the four major smart phone’s to the marine industry is the Droid phones –
because anybody can make an application for them. This is great for the general
public, but can mean disaster to mariners.
We’ve all had that
person checking their Twitter or Facebook account cut us off on the road –
boats are not quite as responsive. Already there are apps that are trying to
replicate the functionality of AIS systems. What happens when somebody loses
reception, or they forgot to plug in their phone the night before when they
happen to be in a very busy port? Call me a cynic – but I can see bad things
happening.
The bottom line is
that there always seems to be a trade off for progress made to quickly.
As always, I
appreciate any comments.
