Orca AI Launches Co-Captain, the ‘Waze of the Seas’ for Smarter Navigation
First of its kind platform provides real-time collaborative vessel-to-vessel navigation, enabling crews to anticipate risks and make critical decisions with confidence
Autonomous maritime navigation platform, Orca AI, launched a groundbreaking new function, Co-Captain, the world’s first ‘Waze of the Seas’. Vessels can now share data with each other in real time, allowing them to be better prepared for real-time events, anticipate hazards early, and navigate with higher confidence.
Between 2018 and 2024, the number of maritime safety incidents globally rose by 42%, with shipping casualties or incidents worldwide reaching 3,310 cases. By connecting a growing network of more than 1,000 Orca AI-installed vessels, with hundreds more set to join, Co-Captain turns every ship into both a sensor and source of awareness. Together they share and receive verified alerts based on real-time conditions, enriched with external data such as weather, vessel traffic and local regulatory feeds.
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“Given that 90% of international trade is transported across oceans, collaborative navigation at sea is no longer optional—it’s a safety, environmental, and security imperative,” said Yarden Gross, CEO and Co-Founder of Orca AI. “What we’re building is a living, evolving ecosystem, wherein each vessel becomes a key link in a safety chain that keeps crews connected and ahead of risk. Having passed the milestone of 1,000 vessels, this could very well be the most accurate crowdsourced navigational engine in shipping history, enhancing how ships anticipate risk and support one another at sea.”
Each Orca AI-equipped vessel acts as a node in a trusted global network, continuously detecting high risk targets, including non-AIS targets such as fishing vessels, small craft, and navigational hazards like fishing nets. It also alerts on events – such as severe weather, GNSS interference or dense traffic. The alerts are sent to vessels on intersecting routes, enabling timely adjustments to speed, course or watchkeeping, helping crews stay safe and in control. All data is fully anonymised, with only the location and observed conditions reported, ensuring complete privacy.
Co-Captain delivers verified, route-specific notifications tailored to each vessel’s exact operational context, including:
- Congested waters: Alerts based on live traffic density and recent close encounters, enabling early speed or course adjustments, or an additional OOW to be assigned.
- Severe weather: Real-time warnings, including Beaufort Scale readings and visibility data, enables crews to prepare well in advance.
- GNSS spoofing/jamming: Any satellite signal interference detected by other Orca AI vessels is relayed in real time, allowing crews to re-route or rely on alternative navigation methods. Warnings about areas prone to spoofing and interference are also sent.
- Piracy zones: Alerts before entering high-risk areas, prompting activation of security protocols and increased vigilance.
- Environmental compliance: Automated updates on whale sightings and whale-protection zones, emission-control areas and local speed limits to ensure full regulatory adherence.
- Navigational hazards: Buoy shifts, unmarked obstacles, ice, man-overboard incidents and pollution can be reported between vessels. Co-Captain also relays critical updates on temporarily closed or restricted areas.
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With over 100 million NM of data collected and counting, Orca AI’s dataset forms an unmatched foundation for next-generation situational awareness. Every data point strengthens the model, refining detection accuracy and predictive power over time.
“What we’re building is a living, evolving ecosystem,” adds Gross. “Each vessel becomes a key link in a safety chain that keeps crews connected and ahead of risk.”
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