Pods are used primarily for manoverability. This allows Cruise ships to get in and out of ports with a minimum of assistance (none at all, if conditions permit). This is important because they are entering and leaving ports every day or two. It also makes sense as the hotel loads on these floating skyscrapers is similar to the propulsion loads so having combined main engines and generators gives other advantages.
Ocean going container vessels on the other hand use massive direct drive two stroke diesel engines (usually they only have a single engine). They have no gearbox. The only way to go-astern is to literally start the engine in reverse. This can only be done up to a limited speed, otherwise the windmilling effect of the water passing through the prop would overpower the starting air.
Suffice to say, I'd put a long bet on the overwhelming majority of containerships being powered by internal combustion engines in 30 years time. If we get our act together we might have come up with an alternative / synthetic fuel by then but I wouldn't hold my breath.
It's interesting but it's just an automated system build on top of the existing pod drive architecture which is there for the reasons I suggested.
Interestingly, there are situations in which it might be helpful where it wouldn't have worked. For example, the Francis Scott Key Bridge incident. The vessel suffering from a blackout caused by a transformer being tripped by a single loose wire.
Yes, new technology enables other new technology. The e-brake potential of drive pods was recognized before they were put to practice, and the jury is still out on whether or not it is the way of the future. But it is something that simply wasn't possible before at all unless you wanted to risk a snapped drive shaft, you can't just throw that much rotating mass into reverse without consequences and the driveshafts of a liner are most impressive, I've stood on a lathe that could cut them, and that thing required it's own building and power hookup just to spin the shaft up in a reasonable amount of time for machining.
> The vessel suffering from a blackout caused by a transformer being tripped by a single loose wire.
Transformers don't 'trip'. Circuit breakers do.
Yes, it was a loose wire. But that vessel had regular diesel propulsion so that is not going to make any difference, loose wires can - and do - happen, usually with less far reaching consequences.
The point of the pods is that there are many of them, and they are somewhat redundant reducing the chance of such complete outages. It may well have prevented that particular accident but it may have caused another. This tech is just too new to draw any conclusions.
As far as I understand it every pod has its own dedicated power infrastructure section (batteries, drivers), with the ability to maintain symmetrical drive even in light of multiple failures. So these are right now not for normal propulsion on ocean going vessels (though in a diesel-electric setting they could already be used like that and there are a couple of vessels that use them but I'm not sure if that is for main propulsion as well), but these 'captive torpedos' definitely have a lot of potential.
I'm not sure what this pedantry adds. It's pretty common to say that a piece of equipment tripped for example whole power stations, a generator, a pump etc. When of course it's the circuit breaker protecting that equipment or even occasionally something like a physical over speed trip.
The pod drive architecture, and diesel electric more generally, only makes sense when the other benefits outweigh the efficiency losses of converting from mechanical to electrical and back again. It's very difficult to beat a shaft connected directly from the flywheel to the propeller.
Ocean going container vessels on the other hand use massive direct drive two stroke diesel engines (usually they only have a single engine). They have no gearbox. The only way to go-astern is to literally start the engine in reverse. This can only be done up to a limited speed, otherwise the windmilling effect of the water passing through the prop would overpower the starting air.
Suffice to say, I'd put a long bet on the overwhelming majority of containerships being powered by internal combustion engines in 30 years time. If we get our act together we might have come up with an alternative / synthetic fuel by then but I wouldn't hold my breath.