> What do you think "add[ing] it to Google Maps" would accomplish? Give us better publicly-accessible seafloor maps for that bit of ocean? >> there will be a

> What do you think "add[ing] it to Google Maps" would accomplish? Give us better publicly-accessible seafloor maps for that bit of ocean? >> there will be a swarm of autonomous submersible robots doing detailed scans > Why? What would be the economic case for doing this? Immediately? Who knows. He did qualify his statement with an "eventually/100 years," though. I can imagine such robots would be useful for environmental monitoring, mineral prospecting, and defense reasons. Especially if the cost decreases. IIRC, there already are automated scientific buoys that drift with the currents, do programmed dives, and transmit their measurements by satellite. Edit: here is a link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underwater_glider https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underwater_glider Edit2: here is a paper about installing mapping sonar in such a vehicle: http://www.physics.mun.ca/~bdeyoung/Zhou_Icebergs_2014.pdf http://www.physics.mun.ca/~bdeyoung/Zhou_Icebergs_2014.pdf