The verified answer
As of Oct 2026, DEPLOY verifies River Drone: 1 model, 2 deployments across 2 regions, 3 active incidents. 1 source back the record.
CategoryMaritime
Overview
River Drone is a fleet of semi-autonomous inland barges operating in Belgium's waterways, equipped with sensor systems for autonomous navigation. The River Drone 5 is in pilot stage for autonomous inland cargo transport.
Verified record
- Verified deployments
- 2 deployments on file
- Active incidents
- 3 incidents on file
Key facts
Investor
Application
Technology provider
Operators
Vessel type
Flag
Product
Financial stage
Data & sources
Web sources
1
1 source backing this record.View all →
Models (1)
View all models →Partnerships
Every company River Drone has built with, alongside the ones only announced in a press release.
Most-frequent partners
- 1AWS1× joint976 total
Most recent
River Drone on the deployment map
View the global map2 verified deployments across 2 regions, newest verified Jun 2024. Explore where River Drone's robots are operating, by place and type.
View the full River Drone deployment record →
Relationships
Safety record
3 incidents on record (3 moderate). Most recent: Dec 2025.
Most recent: Dec 2025
Only active incidents are counted. Retracted incidents are excluded from this summary but remain reachable at their canonical URLs.
Full safety record: incidents, sourcing, and exposure data →
Incidents affecting River Drone (3)
- Autonomous vessel River Drone 5 collides with container ship near Rotterdam2025-12-05 · Collision
- River Drone 5 collided with container ship near Rotterdam2024-12-01 · Collision
- River Drone 4 spilled 10,000 litres of fuel into Belgium's Albert Canal2024-11-01 · Property damage
Includes incidents linked directly to this company, to its models, or to deployments of its models or under its operation. Retracted incidents are excluded from this view but remain reachable at their canonical URLs.
Operator customers (1)
- River Drone2 deployments
Recent coverage
River Drone in third-party press
Peer companies
- Saildrone4 models
- Saronic Technologies4 models
- BAE Systems3 models
- Kongsberg Maritime3 models
- Rekise Marine3 models
- L3Harris2 models
Financial state
- Reporting basis
- private_reported
- Lifecycle stage
- growth
- Counterparty risk class
- moderate
Each numeric field carries its own basis marker. Aggregators report a number; this surface preserves the source class so verification depth travels with the value.
Partnerships
1 total
Every company River Drone has built with, alongside the ones only announced in a press release.
Most recent
Most-frequent partners
- 1AWS1× joint976 total
Recent activity
Every change to this record is dated, sourced, and independently verified where marked.
- Record createdJul 3, 2026
Added to the verified registry
- Incident recordedDec 5, 2025
Autonomous vessel River Drone 5 collides with container ship near Rotterdam
- Incident recordedDec 1, 2024
River Drone 5 collided with container ship near Rotterdam
- Incident recordedNov 1, 2024
River Drone 4 spilled 10,000 litres of fuel into Belgium's Albert Canal
- Deployment verifiedVerifiedJun 1, 2024
River Drone 5 at United States (multiple hotel chains)
Sources (1)
Common questions
What is River Drone?
What does River Drone make?
Is River Drone publicly traded?
Who competes with River Drone?
How can I invest in River Drone?
Where is River Drone headquartered?
Who owns River Drone?
Where does River Drone operate robots?
How many robots has River Drone deployed?
Is River Drone a top robotics company?
Are there any incidents involving River Drone?
Is River Drone safe?
Methodology: Verified · 1 source (no primary) · last reviewed 2026-08-21
Verification posture
Verified
Low confidence
Review state
Stable
Last reviewed 2026-08-21
Sources by quality tier
- 1
- unclassified
- Unclassified source
The framework is documented at /methodology. Corrections at /corrections. Reviewer: DEPLOY editorial team.
Methodology surface for River Drone.Peer companies
- Saildrone4 models
- Saronic Technologies4 models
- BAE Systems3 models
- Kongsberg Maritime3 models
- Rekise Marine3 models
- L3Harris2 models
In the press
Recent coverage mentioning River Drone from third-party publications. Automatically surfaced; not part of the verified registry record.
Containership and autonomous vessel collide near Rotterdam
River Drone 5 autonomous vessel collided with container ship on Scheur River near Rotterdam. Four containers spilled.
Autonomous Vessel Collided with Container Ship Near Rotterdam
River Drone 5, a Belgian-flagged semi-autonomous inland freighter, collided with a container ship near Rotterdam while under human control.
Semi-Autonomous Barge Spills Fuel on Belgium's Albert Canal
River Drone 4, a semi-autonomous Belgian barge, spilled approximately 10,000 litres of fuel into the Albert Canal, disrupting shipping traffic at the Port of Antwerp.
WeBarge takes first semi-autonomous barge into service
Barge operator WeBarge launched River Drone I, the first of three new hybrid barges capable of semi-autonomous operation, equipped with Seafar's remote navigation technology.
Machine-readable surfaces
- Markdown mirror: /companies/river-drone.md
- RSS feed: /companies/river-drone/feed.xml
- JSON-LD: embedded in this page’s head
- REST API: /v1/companies/cec406d0-59ca-46af-b557-1b530e698701
- Revision history: /companies/river-drone/history
- Data documentation: /data
- Query this programmatically: Deploy MCP
Peer companies
- Saildrone4 models
- Saronic Technologies4 models
- BAE Systems3 models
- Kongsberg Maritime3 models
- Rekise Marine3 models
- L3Harris2 models
Video
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Heat Index
Serious52/100
A composite of competitive footprint, funding, press velocity, active partnerships, and supply-chain edges. Different from the Intelligence score below (which is per-form-factor productization). Non-robotics companies cap at 25.
Reality vs attention
River Drone draws attention at the 26th percentile but verifies reality at the 48th percentile among maritime_surface robots. Hype Gap -21.7, 17th widest among maritime_surface robots.
6-month trend
Analysis
Safety profile within acceptable range for category. Limited public funding data for capital position assessment.
Signal flags
Dimension breakdown
Verified signal
Attention (reach, not merit)
DEPLOY Intelligence scores are computed from verified registry data: confirmed deployments, disclosed funding rounds, regulatory filings, active job listings, video viewership, and press coverage. Confidence ratings reflect data availability. Scores update nightly.
DEPLOY Indices — verified vs claimed
Last computed: Oct 2, 2026