Nami Island in South Korea has received approval from the Korea Maritime Transportation Safety Authority (KOMSA) to operate its passenger ferry Tamnara with Samsung Heavy Industries’ Samsung Autonomous Ship (SAS) system.
The approval represents the first time an autonomous navigation safety assessment has been approved for a passenger ferry in South Korea.
SAS analyses data from onboard navigation and communications equipment, including radar, GPS and AIS, to identify surrounding vessels and obstacles, assess collision risks and recommend avoidance routes. The system can also control propulsion and steering equipment to support navigation towards a designated destination.
The deployment follows an earlier installation aboard Nami Island’s vehicle ferry Nami 51, which received safety validation in December 2025. The latest approval extends the technology’s application to a vessel carrying ordinary passengers.
More than 90% of Nami Island’s annual visitors travel by boat, as the tourist destination is not connected to the mainland by road.
Nami Island plans to use operational data from the two vessels to develop a model for autonomous passenger ferry operations that could be applied at other inland waterway tourism destinations in Korea.
The system will also be installed aboard a new passenger ferry, Sequoia, which is currently under construction.
Samsung Heavy Industries has previously conducted SAS trials aboard large commercial vessels and is working with Evergreen, ClassNK and Weathernews to assess the impact of AI-based route optimisation on fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions.
