One of the first autonomous ships is a ferry sailing in Finland.
It is able to navigate, avoid obstacles and dock on its own, and in an emergency it can be controlled by humans from dry land using satellite and internet communications.
Rolls-Royce, who have developed the technology, believe it could eventually lead to ships not needing staff. Technology like this could certainly have applications in maritime transport.
It is interesting to see that the control center approach that we discussed in our report Managing Transition to Driverless Road Freight Transport for trucks is also applied in shipping.
A short video is available here: https://www.bbc.com/news/av/technology-46350188/the-ferry-using-rolls-royce-technology-that-sails-itself