Self-Driving Ships Collide in Tokyo Bay

       Hmmmm.  Have you been reading about self driving cars?  Of course, who hasn't?   We have known about auto-pilot technology flying just about every airliner in the skies today.  It has been like that for years.  Flip the switch, sit back and relax.   There have been a few well publicized events that have given scientists pause:  an airliner goes down in the Atlantic on a flight from Brazil to France.  Black box data indicates that there was confusion in the cockpit as the plane went through its final dive(failure of auto pilot); another plane leaving Australia leaves its planned route and disappears somewhere in the south Indian Ocean-never found; a private jet deviates from its flight path and runs out of fuel before crashing in New England with all on board going down.   So the technology is not without flaws.
       Now we have two ships collide in the middle of the night with a loss of seven American lives as the injured Captain struggled to save the ship from sinking.  This occurred at the entrance to Tokyo Bay.  Tokyo Bay is a busy place.   Traffic control has long been part of the Coast Guard effort. The US Navy destroyer USS Fitzgerald was hit by a large container ship which actually continued on its journey for sometime before turning around and returning to the scene.    Multiple investigations are underway, but, as one Navy veteran said,  "Somebody wasn't paying attention".
       Was everybody asleep?   Was anybody awake? On either ship?    Hmmm.  Careers will end after this.  There could be a Court-Martial, or two.   Some licensed captain(s) may end up on the beach-forever.   The insurance company(Lloyds of London?) will probably pin the responsibility on some one.  Can't be the weather.   Radar-was it on ?   Was it calibrated?   Who charted this course/that course?   All questions and answers will come out-soon.   A sad day for 7 families, and many more to come.
      The incident brings to mind another near miss that occurred years ago in San Francisco Bay: the Mayor and his bro were on board a commercial fishing boat heading out of the Bay under the Golden Gate Bridge.   It was a clear cool morning at around 7:30am.  The boat was motoring steadily as we approached Mile Rock light on the south side of the channel.  In the distance, east of out location, a massive oil tanker was getting up to cruising speed as she approached the span.   As we sat on the benches on the rear deck, we observed the vessel as it began to close the distance.   Minutes went by, and neither ship not boat altered course.   As passengers, we ASSUMED the captain looked over his shoulder occasionally.   Wrong.  In an instant, a collision appeared in the offing.   We screamed at the captain, "Turn, turn, turn", which he did at the last second, avoiding a disaster before we even had bait on our hooks.  Lucky day.  I think the captain had to change his pants.   The tanker never stopped, never slowed, never turned-she just kept going west.