Stephan van Dijk, Director of Innovation at the Advanced Metropolitan Solutions institute, is interviewed with an electric boat in the background, in Amsterdam, Thursday, May 20, 2021. Photo by: AP/Peter Dejong
AMSTERDAM (AP) Electric cars, meet your competition. Electric boats are on the way.
Amsterdam didn t have to look very far when searching for a way to ease traffic on its congested streets. The Dutch capital s canals were used for transport long before cars and trucks powered by polluting internal combustion engines began clogging its narrow roads.
Already steeped in maritime history, the city s more than 100 kilometers (60 miles) of waterways are to start hosting prototypes of futuristic boats small, fully-autonomous electric vessels to carry out tasks including transporting passengers and picking up garbage.
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While everybody's focus right now is on self-driving cars, a team of researchers from the Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Metropolitan Solutions is taking autonomous technology on the water. Called Robot, the vessel is already being tested on Amsterdam's canals.
To ease traffic on congested streets, the Dutch capital is testing futuristic boats to carry out tasks including transporting passengers and picking up garbage.