Samsung Heavy Industries and Orca AI have combined their navigation systems in BerthView, an AI-supported tool designed to help crews manoeuvre commercial ships into port. It adds a close-quarters view of the vessel and nearby hazards, extending digital assistance to one of the trickiest parts of a voyage.
Watch Desk analysis
What happened
The South Korean shipbuilder and London-based Orca AI have developed, tested and qualified BerthView by combining Samsung Heavy Industries’ SVision berthing assistant with Orca AI’s SeaPod digital watchkeeper. Riviera reports that the system uses bridge-wing cameras to create a 360-degree view, with visual distance guides and a virtual safety boundary to help crews judge clearance from other vessels, quay walls and hazards.
The companies say BerthView can be installed on new ships or retrofitted to existing vessels. It is the first product launched since their strategic partnership began in April 2026. The system is designed to support crews from open water through port approaches and berthing, with semi-autonomous capabilities available as part of an advanced navigation package.
Why it matters
Most ship-navigation technology stories focus on open water. BerthView targets the final approach and docking, when ships are moving slowly in tight spaces and crews need to judge distances around the vessel. Bringing camera-based awareness and berthing guidance together could make that information easier to assess, including for operators considering upgrades to ships already in service.
The companies frame this as a step towards increasingly autonomous vessels, but the product is described as assistance for a bridge team, not an unmanned ship. That distinction is worth keeping clear: useful support for a crew is a meaningful development without pretending the crew has left the bridge.
Our read
This is a substantive maritime AI launch because it joins specific perception and berthing tools for a practical, safety-relevant task, with a retrofit option that could extend its reach beyond newbuilds. The useful test now is what crews can reliably do with it in real port conditions, not how sleek the bird’s-eye view looks in a demonstration. Riviera reports that the system has been tested and qualified; the article does not provide independent operational results or customer deployment data.
What to watch
- Which vessels adopt BerthView, and whether retrofit deployments follow.
- What crews report about visibility and usefulness during real port approaches and docking.
- How the system’s semi-autonomous functions are bounded and supervised by the bridge team.
Discussion spark: For close-quarters manoeuvring, should AI-assisted systems remain advisory tools for the bridge team, or should they eventually be allowed to take direct control?
Sources and evidence
- Riviera – News Content Hub – Samsung, Orca AI combine to deliver digital berthing assistance (30 October 2026, 06:30 UTC)
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