STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Good morning. I'm Steve Inskeep. The voyage of the Mayflower in 1620 brought early settlers to the future United States. A modern-day Mayflower brought no human beings at all. The robot ship designed by IBM used artificial intelligence to pilot itself. Nobody was in the crew as the ship crossed the Atlantic. Mechanical trouble forced a safe docking in Halifax, Canada, which leaves only one question - if the ship ever sank, would the computer make it to a lifeboat? It's MORNING EDITION. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.