Yara International with Kongsberg Maritime · autonomous vessel
Yara Birkeland
An 80 m, 120 TEU battery-electric container ship whose Kongsberg sensors, control systems and remote-operation links are built for a gradual move from crewed to autonomous sailing. Its own systems are meant to steer the short Heroya-Brevik route with a shore centre watching, but public reporting through 2022 says a full crew stayed aboard while those functions were tested.
- Price
- —Norwegian government enterprise Enova granted NOK 133.6 million in 2017 to build Yara Birkeland (Yara, 2017).
- Autonomy
- SupervisedHow it runs
- Driverless
- Not yetSafety driver on board
- Fleet
- 1Reported; details below
- Speed
- 27.8 km/hFaster than 33%
- Range
- —Not published
Why it matters
Billed as the world's first fully electric, autonomy-ready container ship.
Real-world use
In commercial service since spring 2022 carrying fertiliser about 7 nautical miles from Yara's Porsgrunn (Heroya) plant to Brevik, still with a crew aboard as of the latest public reports.
Maker
Yara International with Kongsberg MaritimeCompanyHow 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
- Heroya (Porsgrunn) to Brevik, Norway
- Fleet
- 1 vessel (Yara)
- Rides, miles or loads
- Yara says it replaces about 40,000 diesel truck journeys a year (Yara press kit)
How it stacks up
Against other boats & ships that publish the figure. Pick a measure.
Yara Birkeland is faster than 33% of the 6 other boats & ships that publish a speed. Bars show the 6 closest in date.
Not published by the maker: height, weight, payload, joints, battery, price.
Public attention
How much public attention Yara Birkeland 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
Yara Birkeland is the only vehicle from Yara International with Kongsberg Maritime in the atlas.
Made, sold and where
No production or sales figures published yet.
- Price
- Not publishedNorwegian government enterprise Enova granted NOK 133.6 million in 2017 to build Yara Birkeland (Yara, 2017).
- How to get one
- No official buying page found
Sources
Figures come from the maker. Every link below backs something on this page.
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