
Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2025, the world's biggest tech show is now in full swing, showcasing a plethora of technologies led by autonomous solutions catering to farms, boating, construction sites and whatnot.
However, humans relish boating, since we rarely indulge in it, as David Foulkes, chief executive of Brunswick, a boat-building company, remarked.
Given that, Brunswick is introducing partial autonomy in boating which assists boaters only with docking, since it is where professional boaters "appreciate additional help," Foulkes added.
At CES 2025, Brunswick showcased an autonomous docking system on the Boston Whaler, a 40-foot luxury yacht equipped with six stereo cameras, appearing to be replicating drone technology used in the military.
Reflecting on the introduction of partial autonomy, rather than opting for a broader implication on boats, Foulkes believed that autonomy introduced to spice up the experience of a particular field is not without complexities and repercussions.
An example of this is machine learning being the biggest challenge for cars, making up "the hardest AI challenge in human history," according to Barry Lunn, CEO of sensor company Provizio.
"Just like every other autonomy system, you kind of spend 20% of your time on the main use cases and then all the rest on the edge cases," said Foulkes.
By "edge cases" in his above-mentioned statement, Foulkes referred to various unpredictable, interfering factors, as is the case of driving involving unexpected manoeuvres by fellow drivers, pedestrians or falling branches.