Modern cars have a lot of technology. Modern boats have some, but not nearly as much as cars. Below is a comparison of the car and boat tech as of today.
| Cars | Boats and yachts |
|---|---|
| Cruise control | Not really, but also not needed as the speed will not vary that much and the exact speed is not that important. |
| Adaptive cruise control | No, but not needed. |
| Lane assist | Autopilot includes many of the features. There is however, currently no system to visually recognize the sea marks and steer accordingly. |
| Park assist | At least Volvo Penta and Raymarine are developing their own systems. This is also drive method and thruster related. As the boat manufacturers and engine / drive / thruster manufacturers are different companies, the interoperativity is not that easy to achieve. This is also much harder problem to solve than on the cars where there is no wind and currents and the car can be stopped. Then there is for example Raymarine’s Docksense for docking help. |
| Top view (360 degrees) carview | Should be almost as easy to make as for the cars. Just needs 4 (small) cameras and the software. In retrofit, wiring the cameras may be the hindering factor. |
| Collision alarms | OSCAR Collision Avoidance exists already. |
| HUD | Have not seen head up display on the boat. Maybe not exactly as useful as with cars, but depth and speed would be nice to see as well as heading. |
| Steering wheel with buttons and dials | Could be useful on the boat too for some functionalities. |
| Automatic wipers (based on rain sensor) | Most, at least older boats, do not have them. |
| Autonomous driving | This might be even easier on boats and is being developed for boats, especially for cargo vessels. |
| Keyless entry | Most boats do not have electronic locks, so not really possible at this point. |
| Remote monitoring | Several systems for boat monitoring exist. |
| Summon and remote control | If the boat has a full joystick control, this would be well doable. There has bee remote controls for bow and stern thrusters for a long time and there are also relocatable docking stations, but they are intended to be used onboard. It is a bit of a scare thought that a boat or a yacht would be driven from the shore, but it will most probably happen at some point if legislation allows. |
| Over-the-air (OTA) software updates | Boat software is fragmented between different devices and manufacturers. Engine firmware is not created by the same manufacturer as the navigation and other electronics, which may also come from a few manufacturers. NMEA 2000 does not support software updates and the faster networks are proprietary to the manufacturer. Many boat do not have internet connection. OTA will probably be something for the future, though. Some superyachts already support OTA. |