For more than 20 years, Hydrolift has been in the forefront in high-performance boats for private and professional use. Innovation is a constant process throughout our team and all ideas, big or small, are valued. One such idea is our “Smart City” project, which actually started in the molding room at Hydrolift. The question was; How can we use our expertise to build a more cost-competitive ferry that will both reduce emissions and be suitable for autonomous operations in the future?

Urban congestion is a huge and growing problem.  Therefore we wanted to look for better solutions firstly to reduce emissions and secondly to secure fast, efficient, and accurate transportation.

At Hydrolift Smart City ferries, we believe in revitalizing urban waterways and rethinking how cities organize their public transportation. In order to make this a reality, we take a new approach to ferry operations.   Instead of continuously increasing the vessel size to adapt to the increasing transportation need, we think the other way around. By using a modular design and through the introduction of high-level automation and autonomy, we can scale capacity by increasing the number of ferries instead of building larger and larger vessels. A  “one size fits all” approach.

Together with SAMS Norway and our SAMS partners Applied Autonomy and YETI MOVE AS we have presented our thoughts on “Smart mobility – the new reality” in a video. Our aim is to build a national team of companies that offers autonomous and sustainable mobility systems. In developing the new mobility system, close collaboration and support from the government, local- and regional authorities is instrumental. Through this film, we hope to bring the Norwegian autonomous mobility cluster to an international audience.