Design and application of a key performance indicator (KPI) framework for autonomous shipping in Europe

•Development of economic, environmental and social KPIs for the assessment of autonomous shipping.•Autonomous shipping can help EU transport policy to reach its targets.•Three use cases are examined comparing existing transport options with potential autonomous solutions.•Initial results show that there are trade-offs between increased cost and time and environmental benefits.•The KPI framework is transferable to other use cases but is very data dependant.