Orca AI, a London-based autonomous maritime navigation company founded in 2018 by Yarden Gross and Dor Raviv, has unveiled its latest software feature, Co-Captain. This innovative platform aims to improve maritime safety by creating a network of vessels that captures and shares insights on global maritime events. That’s why more than 1,200 vessels have already adopted the new Co-Captain feature. This innovation will truly change how ships operate and communicate with each other.
It fuses data from several different onboard sensors in real-time, which it then transmits to the cloud. This capability helps ships optimize for mission effectiveness and safety as they dynamically respond to changing maritime conditions. Co-Captain also continuously collects data to predict how today’s conditions will affect ships in proximity. It takes many different evolutions into account, such as the size and design of each vessel.
The purpose and need for improved maritime safety is further highlighted by the data related to maritime accidents. Orca AI’s Co-Captain seeks to prevent such occurrences by centralizing all relevant alerts and navigational updates in one place for vessels. In Gross’s words, each one of those ships is a node in a much larger networked system. In addition, each vessel is outfitted with its own onboard AI platform. This platform pulls data from a variety of sensors at the ambient, stormwater, and infrastructure levels in real time.
Co-Captain’s capabilities extend beyond merely gathering data. The platform then anonymizes all of the information it collects. This gives them the ability to share critical safety updates like GPS interference, severe weather, or high traffic areas without disclosing the name of the reporting ship. This enables critical safety information to be shared swiftly and securely throughout the maritime community.
Orca AI is hard at work improving and expanding its products! The company has plans to further integrate Co-Captain with additional bridge systems, such as NAVTEX and ECDIS, among others. This new integration will enhance the existing functionality and impact of the platform even further, enabling more holistic and robust safety measures.
When explaining the ease of use of Co-Captain, Yarden Gross, Project Manager of My Co-Pilot, likened it to well-known navigation apps. “Think of it like the navigation app you use in your car: it tells you about traffic or roadblocks in advance so you can adjust your route,” he said. This analogy serves to demonstrate how Co-Captain furthers operational efficiency alongside safety, making it a highly applicable and valuable tool to maritime professionals.
Orca AI’s journey began with these earlier products—SeaPod and Fleet View. This development was the first step that paved the way for the more advanced solutions that are now available through Co-Captain. The company’s commitment to advancing maritime technology is representative of a larger shift in the industry toward automation and data-driven decision making.