As technology improves, transport industries will want to implement these developments accordingly. The maritime industry is now on the cusp of one of the largest advancements to the industry in recent history, with the introduction of autonomous operating systems. The International Maritime Organisation (IMO) has revealed that the maritime industry is ready to allow onboard automated systems a larger amount of control, thus elevating the system status to a more autonomous control level. With the level of autonomy increasing from current systems; to full automation and finally to fully autonomous shipping, the maritime industry will experience a complete overhaul of all onboard systems, conditions and operational parameters, all of which seagoing vessels utilise daily. This as a result, will introduce a new age of operational systems which seafarers will have to adapt, train, and become accustomed to. However as new levels of technology are introduced to the maritime industry, younger seafarers will be trained sufficiently on such machines. The current aging demographic shows that within the next 10-15 years there will be a large amount of retirements from current navigational officers and master mariners. As a result, the seafarers currently undergoing training at this point will become the future senior navigational officers of tomorrow resulting in a group of seafarers who will be trained in both manual and potentially autonomous navigation. This introduction of autonomy can benefit ship owners and shipping companies worldwide however, without training in critical situations the resultant fallout could be cataclysmic. This paper analyses 50 individuals, varying in experience as part of the navigational crew onboard vessels, and their conduct in performing a bridge watch whilst carrying out a variety of tasks within a simulation suite. It was found that age, rank, and education level of the individuals proved to be key factors in the assessment, regarding situational awareness and reliance on automated bridge systems.