Chicago Wednesday, August 20th, 2025
The U.S. Navy recently tested its top autonomous drone boats off the California coast. However, one of the vessels suddenly stopped working due to a software problem. As officials tried to fix the issue, another drone boat crashed into the stalled vessel, jumped over its deck, and fell back into the water.
This incident, which was caught on video, is one of several setbacks the Pentagon has faced in its efforts to build a fleet of autonomous vessels. Just weeks earlier, another autonomous boat being tested by the Navy suddenly sped up, causing a support boat to capsize. The captain of the support boat was thrown into the water but was rescued and didn’t need medical attention.
According to people familiar with the program, both incidents were caused by a combination of software failures and human error. There were problems with communication between the onboard systems and the autonomous software. These setbacks highlight the challenges the Pentagon faces in developing reliable autonomous vessels.
