Fog at sea seen through binoculars (Photo credit: Wiklander) In this age of artificial intelligence, self-driving cars and autonomous ships, the word 'lookout' would appear to sound outdated or even irrelevant. On the contrary however, the role of the 'lookout' on board ships remains more important than ever given the increasing traffic volumes at sea and the more complex equipment being used in integrated bridge systems. It is for the watchkeeper to understand the limitations of the equipment available to them and decide what means they must use to properly determine the risk of collision. There is perhaps no better way to explain this function of watchkeeping, than as it is set out in Rule 5 of the collision regulations: "Every vessel shall at all times maintain a proper look-out by sight and hearing as well as by all available means appropriate in the prevailing circumstances and conditions so as to make a full appraisal of the situation and of the risk of collision" The watchkeeper must be able to adapt to the prevailing traffic, weather and visibility conditions and use all the resources available to him to assess whether or not a risk of collision exists. For example, in open sea and good visibility conditions, a visual sighting followed by a series of bearings would provide the watchkeeper a reliable indication as to whether a risk of collision exists as described in Rule 7. Change the scenario to poor visibility and multiple targets and the lookout's role has suddenly become a lot more challenging. Of course, the increased number of aids to navigation such as ARPA, AIS and more recently the ECDIS has provided the watchkeeper with an additional aid to determining if a close quarter situation is developing or if risk of collision exists. The watchkeeper should use a combination of both plain sight and all other available aids to navigate safely. There is a danger that over reliance on electronic aids can become common and the watchkeeper will rely solely on th