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I think you underestimate the distances involved. It'll be impossible to maintain the infrastructure. How are you going to get these people there? Additionally,

I think you underestimate the distances involved. It'll be impossible to maintain the infrastructure. How are you going to get these people there? Additionally, You will need an enormous number of tugs. It's' not like there are clearly marked highways or anything. The area to be covered is going to be huge. What are they going to do in bad weather? Then, who is going to coordinate all of this? How do the tugs know where to go and when? If the weather is bad and there is no fresh tug available the ship will go down. Let's not even talk about how inefficient and slow this will be. The forces of nature these ships work against are nothing to sneeze at. This stuff is not at all trivial.

Jyaif 4y ago
The idea is clever because it does not require retrofitting the existing fleet, and it works because it can be done incrementally. You can for example start with 1 tug boat that would shave off 200km of fuel usage.
- HeyLaughingBoy 4y ago
  No, it's not "clever." It's ridiculously uninformed. Tugboats are far less efficient than the ship running under its own power to start with. Add to that you now have a fleet of tugboats and their associated crews (robotic tugboats are nice in concept; not so great as a reality in 2022) sitting idle/travelling to meet a ship/recharging/etc. And more vehicles that require ongoing maintenance whether or not they're in use. A clever idea would be supported by data that shows how it can be effective. This is just an off the cuff suggestion by someone who's thought about the problem for 30 seconds.