Canals (or at least narrow, shallow British-style canals) would be a surprisingly difficult environment to design an automated system for. Vessels whose awkward

Canals (or at least narrow, shallow British-style canals) would be a surprisingly difficult environment to design an automated system for. Vessels whose awkward handling is heavily affected by highly variable wind, water depth and proximity to banks, overhanging branches, floating rubbish and interactions with other boats whose unpredictable behaviour is usually understood by talking to them. Given the delayed response because 20 ton boats have massive inertia, and can be blown sideways even when brought to a halt I'm not even sure reliable crash avoidance is possible. Plus the real hard work (and risk to humans) is the mooring and the locks. Certainly a semi or mostly automated system would have its advantages, but not necessarily enough to justify the costs of actually training it for a very small niche market dominated by people proud of using obsolete tech. Autonomous shipping on the other hand...