When collision-avoidance navigation system developer Orca AI embarked on a project with NYK Group to set up a remote-controlled voyage demonstration in Japan, it could not have known how demanding the project would become.

Orca co-founder and chief technology officer Dor Raviv conceded that NYK was taking a risk in 2020 by appointing a then small Israeli technology firm, but the shipping group and its research arm, Monohakobi Technology Institute (MTI), had been impressed by what they had seen on a Ray Car Carriers vessel.