Instrument the watch, not the officer
Aware Mate
Local bridge support.
Privacy-bounded operational review.
Aware Mate is an on-board, human-in-the-loop vigilance and watchkeeping support system. It provides local graded prompts when sustained patterns indicate alertness loss, attention drift, abnormal inactivity or weak watch engagement.
For operators, it turns those events into period-level, privacy-bounded review signals, without identity recognition, emotion recognition or raw video ashore by default.
On-board by default
No identity recognition
No emotion recognition
No raw video ashore
Advisory only
- Operational bridge test: 72h continuous run
- 98.7% uptime
- P95 alert latency 2.4 s
Additional ELNAV.AI systems
Supporting projects in development across bridge safety and maritime intelligence.
Helm Order Monitor
Speech recognition for safer manual steering
- ASR
- Helm orders
- Sensor context
An ELNAV.AI system in development for verifying spoken helm orders during hand steering, using automatic speech recognition and ship sensor context.
Project Sentinel
Marine environmental intelligence in development
- AI gliders
- In-situ sensing
- Pollution alerts
A concept for AI-enabled underwater gliders that detect illegal marine discharges and relay alerts for enforcement and environmental protection
From the press
Selected coverage, announcements and public updates.
The Europort Awards Stage was alive with excitement today, hosting not one but two major award ceremonies honouring innovation, digitalisation, and smart shipping excellence.
Later in the day, the spotlight turned to Europort’s Rising Stars, where ELNAV.AI received the Rising Star Award, including a €10,000 media package from HANSA.
ELNAV.AI is presented in the interview as a Croatian maritime technology company working on two problems that are often handled too late: human-factor risk on the bridge and pollution in coastal waters. The Adriatic is framed as a practical proving ground for systems that can later scale internationally.
The company says it is combining AI, maritime robotics, and operational experience at sea to build products that are usable in real conditions – not only in research settings. The stated objective is practical and measurable: fewer incidents, earlier pollution detection, and more reliable support for crews and institutions responsible for marine safety.
“AI in shipping should act as a copilot, not an autopilot.”
Hrvoje Mihovilović, founder and CEO of ELNAV.AI, is pushing for a more grounded approach to artificial intelligence in shipping and tells Maritime CEO that the technology’s real value lies in delivering practical AI assistance within existing operations, not in attempting to create autonomous shipping.
A master mariner with more than 30 years at sea across cargo ships, ferries, and cruise vessels, Mihovilović founded ELNAV.AI to build practical AI safety systems for bridge operations, with a focus on watchkeeping, human-factor risk, and real-world deployment.
In line with his company’s mission, he sees the real breakthrough happening when shipping stops treating AI as a feature label and starts treating it as part of a safety management system.
“That means clear limits, traceable outputs, proper change control, degraded-mode behaviour, human-factors testing, and evidence from real operating conditions,” Mihovilović says.
Shipping understands that AI will matter, he tells Maritime CEO, but says the governance around it is less developed, especially for safety-critical AI, which can’t be just seen as software.
“That distinction matters. AI can support safer watchkeeping, earlier risk recognition, fatigue-aware intervention, and better learning from weak signals,” Mihovilović explains. “But if AI is designed mainly for remote monitoring, scoring or blame-by-replay, it can damage trust and weaken just culture.”
Mihovilović tells Maritime CEO that his position is not anti-AI and that he is more focused on a pro-safety, pro-seafarer view.
“Shipping should use AI where it improves safety and reduces harm. But we should resist designs that quietly turn professional seafarers into data sources for remote scoring and post-event blame. The principle I keep coming back to is simple: assist the bridge, don’t audit it,” he states.
Human error remains a major driver of marine loss
Allianz Commercial has previously reported that human error was a primary factor in 75% of the value of almost 15,000 marine liability claims analyzed. Its latest Safety and Shipping Review continues to highlight loss trends and risk pressures across global shipping.
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