‘Hey Google’ trial rolls out at Azimut Yachts

The trial taps into Google Cloud to allow owners to remotely access the motor yacht’s systems as well as Google Reply, a system that will let owners use their voice to do everything from turn on the lights to play music and even fine-tune the air-conditioning.

Google’s in-built artificial intelligence can recognise what the motor yacht’s owner is asking, and then act on it.

“Thanks to the collaboration with Google Cloud and Reply, Azimut has created a proprietary app that leverages Google Cloud data management and analysis and speech-to-text capacities included in its Vertex AI solution to combine boat management and smart home functionality for the first time, allowing you to interact with the yacht through voice commands or access the system remotely,” Azimut said in a statement announcing the technology trial.

“The beta version – installed on board the Magellano 60 for testing – controls the entertainment, lighting and climate systems, as well as the appliances,” it said. 

“It also displays up-to-date information from the main computer, allowing real-time water and fuel monitoring and supporting the optimisation of resource management.”

Back at the marina, security cameras can remotely monitor the motor yacht and flag anything out of the ordinary with the owner, no matter where they are.

The trial introduces the “Internet of Things” to luxury motor yachts, with Google’s development team able to bridge the digital world with physical engineering to create what it dubs a “smart yacht”.

It is also hoped the smart yacht will one day replace the need for skippers to have to flick though a physical owner’s manual for information on how to run the vessel, instead relying on artificial intelligence to solve a problem.

Azimut did not say when the Google system was likely to roll out to production yachts.

The Azimut Magellano 60 was also used as a test bed for HVO, a synthetic diesel fuel that can reduce the amount of carbon dioxide used in its production by up to 80 per cent.