With currently only 24 nm between the numbers 1 and 2, and loads of weather stuff happening in the coming days I won't take bets yet on TM. Timing of those projected HPs/LPs will be crucial for routing and that will hard to catch by the models, let alone the boats. A bit of rolling the weather dice the coming days.
To be honest they don't often detail much about the abilities of these pilots. That being said, some pilots are customized and trained to a specific boat using detailed models and I believe skipper input is a part of it as well.
I'm an engineer and a pilot as well as a sailor, but not a boat or control systems engineer. However, I think I've learned that at the very least the "gain" or sensitivity of the auto-pilot can be easily adjusted. It can be set to make rudder adjustments more slowly or more quickly, and whether or not to counter-steer ("Meet her") if the boat's course begins to swing past what has been commanded. I would guess - and it's a guess - that these might be compromises between limiting the use of draggy rudder or accepting the drag for more control in higher winds and seas.
They must have read your comment; from Instagram: https://instagram.com/stories/boris...ource=ig_story_item_share&igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=I find it rather humorous. I'm just giving Nico shit for so obviously wanting to be out of the picture. His sailing resume speaks for itself and he's there, I'm here.
But, ya gotta admit Nico does look a little like a hostage here...
I remember reading or listening to an interview I think with Boris or Will about this. I'm pretty sure they use machine learning to tweak the autopilot. They have 100s of sensors all over the boat, might as well use the data! They can also change the behavior of the pilot by selecting limits on certain parameters.
I don't know about the exact capabilities of these pilots but certainly the boat "learns" to feel the compass (or more accurately the rate and motion sensor; roll, pitch, yaw, heave etc.) and can apply counter rudder etc. before the boat starts to turn; much as a human driver would when they feel the stern lift to a swell and such. The same for heading up and down for changes in wind velocity. That is all fairly standard even on high end consumer APs these days.
The quote directly from some boat walk through I saw before leg 1 is that the auto pilot uses AI/machine learning to update it's algorithm every five minutes.
I'd be quite surprised if noone is doing it already.
Rudimentary machine learning has been a thing in at least one of the self made tiller autopilots for the last 10 years or so.
From a lot of what I'm reading it's becoming accepted that the auto-pilot steers better than a human can: it never gets distracted and it doesn't need to sleep or eat. I would think the boat senses in six degrees of freedom and the question for the helmsman is probably "How hard are you willing to ride and how much risk are you willing to take?"
And it doen´t need to shit in a bucket
I recall during the last Ocean Race, you helped out 11th Hour with their dismasting and detour to the Falklands where you put them in touch with your brother and they jury-rigged a mast to get them to Itajai.
