1st unmanned electric boat to start trial in Helsinki

The first unmanned electric connecting boat in the Finnish capital Helsinki, which can be ordered with a smartphone application, will start trial running in mid-June, reported news agency Xinhua, quoting national broadcaster Yle on Tuesday.

The electric boat that runs across the approximately 150-meter-wide Reposalmi strait in Helsinki archipelago is a six-seat covered catamaran, and its cross-channel customer journey can be ordered with an application called Callboat, which can be downloaded to a smartphone.

According to Mente Marine, the company which developed the boat and Callboat application, even though there will be a skipper in the trial as monitoring staff, the company aims to get several driverless electric boats into water transport in the Helsinki metropolitan area in the next few years.

"We hope that anywhere in Helsinki you can order a boat in the future within five minutes. That would mean that there will be stops everywhere, from which you could board and the boat could move wherever you want," Peter Ostberg, CEO of Mente Marine, was quoted by Yle as saying.

The unmanned electric boat's engine batteries are mainly charged at night at the dock. In sunny weather, energy is also collected in the batteries by solar panels placed on top of the boat's canopy, said Ostberg.

During summertime, there are polar diurnal phenomena and often sunny days around the Helsinki area, which will give big possibilities for the use of solar energy.

The transport trial is planned to begin on June 16. The connecting boat will operate until the end of August, said the company.

Plenty of Finns would enjoy camping and other outdoor activities in summer and the coastal and island views around the Helsinki area draw groups of tourists every year. As a new choice of water transportation, the unmanned electric connecting boat could bring convenience and joy to people.