Amsterdam to Start Testing Self-Driving “Roboat”

Looking at ways to ease city traffic due to general congestion of all types, Amsterdam’s Institute for Advanced Metropolitan Solutions has developed a way to take transport to the water and will be testing its latest venture.

Still in its testing phase, the “Roboat” which is an autonomous floating vehicle will be expected to journey through Amsterdams canals transporting people, goods, and even trash.

After being unveiled on October 27, it was announced that the Roboat will continue its testing phase with trash hauling to decrease trucks on the streets.  The Roboats will act as floating trash containers and will slowly make their way back to base when they become full after a pilot program is set to begin next year.

An Innovation Director at Amsterdam’s Institute for Advanced Metropolitan Solutions, which is designing and engineering Roboat with The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) said, “We have a lot of road traffic and congestion, e-commerce, logistics cluttering the small streets in the city,” he continued, “At the same time we have a lot of open water available in the canals … So we developed a self-driving, autonomous ship to help with logistics in the city and also bringing people around.”