How to Interface with Big (Engineering) Companies?

In brief: How do you get started interfacing with huge (engineering) companies?

The long story:

I've long been interested in marine logistics and shipping, I've built boats and even developed a small-scale autonomous boat (read: RC sailboat) and with rising incidence of crewmember ransom, increased trade volume and changes in the quality and availability of autonomous system algorithms -- I think it's time to retrofit an existing vessels with an autonomous stern system, with backup human-based satellite navigation from land.

I reached out to MARINTEK and Marorka, asking for some relevant contacts within their respective organizations, and it may not surprise you that the response I got back was somewhere between puzzled and threatening.

I don't think it would be feasible to mount an operation to build boats from scratch, but if I could convince one of these organizations to help identify legal barriers to unmanned vessels and license some autonomous shipping technology I build, it could have a shot.

Do I just keep bothering them until they crack or is there a defined procedure for reaching out like this? Is hearing something like this simply too insane for big corporate entities?