Operations/Shipping line
Operations · Shipping line

Shipping line

US-built autonomous ships on fixed weekly loops, worked at IC terminals at both ends of the domestic lanes.

Phase 7 · 2033+Planned
First fleet
46 ships
Arrivals on time
95%
Pacific crossing
≈ 11 days
Crew
0
The loops — schematic
Domestic lanes first, then the Pacific and the Gulf
Domestic
Hawaii, Guam, Alaska and Puerto Rico from the mainland. Ten US-built ships on four services, two of them twice weekly.
Pacific
Two weekly loops of four 24,000 TEU ships between Asia and the West Coast.
Energy
Fourteen LNG carriers from the Gulf export terminal to Europe, with tankers, bulk, car and livestock carriers.
I · The fleet plan

Domestic lanes first, then the merchant fleet.

Ships between US ports must be built, flagged and owned in the United States. IC builds them. The domestic lanes come first; the international fleet follows from the same yard.

01 · Stage one

Domestic lanes

Ten container ships of 3,600 TEU, built in IC yards, run the mainland to Hawaii, Guam, Alaska and Puerto Rico. Every sailing lands at a terminal The Brain already runs or schedules.

02 · Stage two

The merchant fleet

Eight 24,000 TEU ships on two Pacific loops, fourteen LNG carriers, four oil tankers, four bulk carriers, four car carriers and two livestock carriers: 46 ships with stage one.

03 · Loops

Fixed weekly loops

Container services sail a fixed weekly rotation. Each call has a berth window booked at the terminal before the ship leaves the previous port.

04 · Speed

Timed at 20 knots, 22 in reserve

The Pacific loops are timed at 20 kn. The two knots in reserve and 19 hours of float recover up to three days of weather in every rotation.

05 · Tramp

Voyage by voyage

Tankers, bulk, car and livestock carriers are dispatched voyage by voyage. The Brain matches each ship to the next cargo and books its berth before it sails.

06 · People

One room for the fleet

Twelve supervisors a shift watch the fleet from the operations centre, about four ships each. Each ship carries its own planning model and keeps sailing its plan if the link drops.

II · A weekly loop

Four ships, one sailing a week.

Pacific A calls Shanghai, Busan, Los Angeles and Oakland. Each line is one ship: flat where it is in port, sloped where it is at sea. The same pattern repeats every 28 days.

Pacific A — time and distance, one rotation
One rotation is 11,510 nautical miles: 23.9 days at sea at 20 kn and 3.3 days in port, with 19 hours of float. A 24,000 TEU ship exchanging 8,000 boxes at an IC terminal sails in 14 hours.
Arrivals on time
95%
within a day of schedule; 56% across the world fleet today
Pacific crossing
≈ 11 days
Busan to Los Angeles at 20 kn, 22 kn in reserve
Fuel per crossing
≈ 2 kg
fissile fuel; ≈ 1,200–1,500 t of fuel oil today
Port call
≈ 20 h
a full 12,000-box exchange at an IC terminal
III · The ships

Six ship types, one line.

Every ship on the line is built by IC and runs on The Brain. Each links to its own page.

18 ships · Containers

Container ship

Eight 24,000 TEU ships on the Pacific. Ten 3,600 TEU ships for the domestic lanes, on the oil tanker’s 75 MWt reactor module.

Container ship →
14 ships · Gas

LNG carrier

174,000 m³ each, from the Gulf export terminal to Europe: four cargoes a week, sixteen million tonnes a year.

LNG carrier →
4 ships · Crude

Oil tanker

Two million barrels each, loaded offshore in the Gulf and dispatched voyage by voyage.

Oil tanker →
4 ships · Dry bulk

Bulk carrier

180,000 t of ore, grain or coal, loaded and discharged by the ship’s own cranes.

Bulk carrier →
4 ships · Vehicles

Car carrier (Ro-Ro)

Nine thousand vehicles, driven aboard by robots and delivered to the rail ramp at the terminal.

Car carrier (Ro-Ro) →
2 ships · Livestock

Livestock carrier

Twenty thousand head on climate-controlled decks, watched every second on passage.

Livestock carrier →
IV · On The Brain

Every ship, every box aboard, one plan.

The Brain carries each voyage in its digital twin and books the terminal before the ship arrives. The ship carries its own planning model, so the plan holds when the satellite link is thin.

Runs on The Brain
How a ship takes its orders
Common pictureEvery IC ship and every box aboard, positioned continuously; other traffic from radar and AIS
Digital twinEach voyage run forward with weather, current and berth windows; arrival predicted to the hour
Data modelOne record per box from booking to delivery, the same record at the terminal, on the train and on the truck
Decision layerSpeed, route and float for each ship; stowage planned for the discharge order at the next IC terminal
OrchestrationBerth window, cranes, road trains and the outbound train booked before the ship leaves the previous port
AgentsOne per ship, one per box aboard: up to 14,000 box agents on a full 24,000 TEU ship
ShipEvery sensor is wired to both perception modules; each is primary for its sector and hot standby for the other
SafetyA software fault can never drive the ship outside its certified safe envelope. The safety channel has its own radar, gyrocompass, rudder and shaft encoders and reactor trip sensors
LinkLow-orbit satellite at sea, ≈ 2 Mbit/s used; fibre and private 5G in port. Collision avoidance closes aboard in 100 ms
The Brain plans the voyage and the port call; the ship sails it. Commands pass from the ship agent through the certified safety channel to propulsion and steering, never around it.
V · Operating figures

The first fleet.

Design specification.

Fleet
46 ships
Container ships
8 × 24,000 · 10 × 3,600 TEU
Weekly services
6
Pacific capacity
2.5 M TEU each way / yr
Domestic capacity
1.1 M TEU each way / yr
Rotation, Pacific A
28 days · 4 ships
Loop speed
20 kn · 22 in reserve
Recoverable delay
up to 3 days / rotation
LNG delivered
16 Mt / yr · 14 ships
Reactor refuelling
every 20 years
Link at sea
≈ 2 Mbit/s
Supervisors
12 a shift
Today vs IC
A container line today beside the IC line
Today · container lineIC design
Schedule56.4% of arrivals on time across the world fleet (Jul 2026)95% on time: float in every rotation and berth windows booked at IC terminals
Fuel95–120 t of fuel oil a day for a 24,000 TEU ship at 18 kn; bunker is ≈ 18% of a global line’s transport cost≈ 2 kg of fissile fuel per Pacific crossing; refuelled every 20 years
HandlingTerminals, rail and trucking ≈ 50% of a global line’s transport cost, bought from othersIC terminals, rail and trucks under one operator and one plan
Domestic fleet92 oceangoing ships eligible for domestic trade (Jan 2025)Ten new US-built container ships in stage one
CrewUS-flag crew ≈ $13,700 a day per ship against ≈ $2,600 foreign (2010 data)No crew aboard; twelve supervisors a shift for the fleet
The IC column is the design shown on this page. Sources for the Today column are listed in BUILD_NOTES.md.
Runs on The Brain
Every voyage is planned in The Brain’s digital twin, booked into an IC berth window before departure, and re-planned the moment the sea changes it.
See how it works →