The Lloyd’s List Podcast: LISW Day 2 – Why software is the industry’s greatest safety risk

ABS chief Chris Wiernicki is in the studio with Lloyd’s List Editor Richard Meade for today’s podcast and they are talking about the path from here to 2050 and why software safety must be integrated into the industry’s planning now. It’s not going to be the structure or equipment that will cause the next major accident – it’s the software that we don’t see that is shipping’s greatest risk factor. xx Keep up to date with all the latest news and analysis from London International Shipping Week with the help of this special daily Lloyd’s List Podcast xx “Safety in shipping today is focussed on what we see - the structure and the equipment, but safety tomorrow is going to be focussed on all the things we don’t see – the software, the data, the analytics that drive the decisions we’re making,” says ABS chairman and president Chris Wiernicki on today’s podcast. Getting the industry from here to 2030 is perfectly achievable, he argued. But in the revolutionary march towards the digitalised, decarbonised industry of 2050 there are many unknown challenges to come and safety needs to be foremost in our minds as we make the daily decisions that will lead us there. In a wide-ranging conversation about the future challenges facing shipping, Mr Wiernicki talks, digitisation, decabonisation and focusses on the safety issues that must unpin innovation. He argues that the International Safety Management Code is set to become the compliance framework upon which many future regulations are based. In order to deal with the complexity and pace of technological development, it is, he argues, the best framework the industry has and is set to become much more significant than a mere compliance framework. “Software is the next generation safety system that we need to focus on - it’s the software that we don’t see that is shipping’s greatest risk factor,” he said.