Microsoft joins tech race to clean up shipping with big data

By Bloomberg

At noon every day — when the sun is directly overhead — the world’s fleet of commercial maritime ships report their position, speed and weather conditions. It’s the primary way ships track how much fuel they’re burning and how to to use less of it, and they’ve been doing it this way for at least 200 years.

Surely there’s a better way, and the world’s biggest tech firms are investing millions to figure it out before fuel prices spike under new shipping rules in January.