BTW I wonder what they're going to do about the possibility of plowing into a small rock fragment at several times the speed of light?
If they can't solve this problem traveling at these velocities would essentially mean playing Russian Roulette with the probability of the crew dying at any moment.
The thought did occur to me that the the probe may even map the entire route using sensors and develop a temporal computer model for just how much time the route will still be safe to travel. But then I realised that the warp drive bends space-time, distorting photographs and other sensors.
Failing this, we decide to only use warp drive in parts of space that are very well mapped. It would allow instantaneous travel throughout the solar system, which would facilitate trade and colonisation. But warping into the dark unknown would be foolish.
Could you fly the ship at 5*warp and then have a drone canary in a squiggle/back and forth pattern at 50*warp in front of the ship?
If it hits something, depending on how warp works, you may be able to instantly stop the ship?
Though I suppose at least you can conceivably hope to detect them since you can actually see them at all since the approach is subluminal.
They will use superintelligent AI to pilot the ship and it will avoid obstacles automatically.
[Edit: jokes aside, a warp drive doesn't move the ship. It only distorts the spacetime around it. So there's no danger of hitting anything. Effectively, the ship remains immobile inside its little warp bubble and the warp bubble is displaced along space without actually moving. You know, like cats.]
|---o------o------------o------| normal distance
|o--o---o--| warped distance