Haugesund Municipality has long had ambitions to establish a mobility service with one or two remotely operated electric city boats. The idea is for these boats to transport passengers between Inner Harbor, the city islands, and Torvastad. The concept of the city boat originated as a response to the need to activate Vibrandsøy, where transportation to and from the island played a crucial role. Over time, the concept evolved to include remotely operated unmanned passenger vessels.

Recently, the municipality received a grant of eleven million Norwegian Kroner from the Ulla Førre Fund to support the project. Additionally, Haugesund Municipality has allocated 14.7 million Norwegian Kroner for the boat project.

The plan for the city boat in Haugesund is for it to be operated and monitored from the control room at Killingøy, which belongs to Remota. The ambition is that the city boat will trigger a range of exciting ripple effects in urban development, public transportation, and especially for the supplier industry and the University College.

By combining autonomy or remote control, an electric autonomous city boat can be optimized for operation and safety. However, the technology is still under development, and there are no commercially available vessels on the market due to the lack of detailed regulations for autonomous vessels. The regulations will be developed in parallel with the realization of the first vessels.

To put an autonomous boat into operation between the city islands in Haugesund and Karmøy, it is crucial to establish a pilot project that can test and verify the technology while contributing to its improvement for more challenging waters. The start of the pilot project between Inner Harbor in Haugesund, the city islands, and eventually towards North Karmøy will allow gradual testing of the technology in an environment it is designed for. This pilot project will also help formulate a potential commercial business model for the boat and the route. Rogaland County Council and Kolumbus, a provider of public transport services, are important partners in this effort. Additionally, the vessel could become part of the infrastructure in the national test area and be available for other entities needing testing, verification, and knowledge development in autonomous maritime operations.

It is necessary to verify the technology against the actual weather and sea conditions on the chosen route and further develop the infrastructure. Therefore, this project seeks support to realize a pilot project that will test autonomous technology on vessels in a realistic environment in the national test area. This will help connect the business sector, education, and research in the region toward a common goal of becoming leaders in this technology development.

The primary goal of this pilot project is to test autonomous operation and optimize the autonomous solution. In the project's further development, the intention is for the boat to serve a route that includes the city center, Risøy, Hasseløy, Vibrandsøy, and back to the city center. This area will gradually include testing of autonomous operation.