Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha with Japan Radio and YDK Technologies · autonomous vessel
Hokuren Maru No. 2
autonomous Ro-Ro retrofit
An 11,413 GT Ro-Ro container ship retrofitted with sensor fusion, AI image recognition and a route planner that proposes evasive routes and steers them once the navigator approves, backed by a shore Fleet Operation Center under construction.
- Price
- —Service vessel, not sold
- Autonomy
- SupervisedHow it runs
- Driverless
- Not yetSafety driver on board
- Fleet
- 1Reported; details below
- Speed
- —Not published
- Range
- —Not published
Why it matters
A MEGURI2040 Stage 2 test of adding autonomous navigation to an existing large Ro-Ro ship.
Real-world use
System installed in October 2023 and tested on three voyages of about 1,600 km each between Hitachi and Kushiro; a fully autonomous demonstration was planned for 2025.
How it drives
Fleet and city figures move fast; each carries its date and who reported it.
- Driverless status
- Safety driver on board
- Where it runs
- Hitachi (Ibaraki) to Kushiro (Hokkaido), Japan
- Fleet
- 1 vessel (Nippon Foundation, Apr 2024)
- Rides, miles or loads
- Three demonstration voyages of about 1,600 km each (Nippon Foundation, Apr 2024)
Public attention
How much public attention Hokuren Maru No. 2 (autonomous Ro-Ro retrofit) gets, from open data.
- No Wikipedia article of its own yet
- No recent press stories listed yet
Measures how much people read and write about a robot, not how good it is. Measured 2026-10-13; same method for every robot. How it is measured
What’s inside
No component details published yet.
- Movement
- Other movement
- How it runs
- Supervised. Works by itself while a person watches and steps in.
From the maker
Hokuren Maru No. 2 (autonomous Ro-Ro retrofit) is the only vehicle from Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha with Japan Radio and YDK Technologies in the atlas.
Made, sold and where
No production or sales figures published yet.
- Price
- Not publishedService vessel, not sold
- How to get one
- No official buying page found
Sources
Figures come from press coverage. Every link below backs something on this page.
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