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Missing Titan submersible is operated by a cheap game controller (videogames.si.com)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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the Logitech F710 is a solid controller to get if you’re on a tight budget, but perhaps not exactly the type of equipment you want to stake your life on. [...] Reviewers on sites like Amazon frequently mention issues with the wireless device's connection.

The reporter, who followed an expedition of the Titan from the launch ship, wrote that “it seems like this submersible has elements of MacGyver jerry-riggedness.”

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (3 children)

So is everyone else thinking they accidentally fucking plowed into the Titanic because a controller input got stuck?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Pretty unlikely. It's easy to dunk on them for the controller, but they apparently carried backups, and it's nowhere near the most concerning thing about their operations. It's much more likely that their extremely brittle carbon-fiber hull fatigued (again), their homegrown acoustic fatigue detection system didn't detect it (or it did and they ignored it), and the ship was crushed in a fraction of a second.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

That or lost connection/battery.

The only wireless controller I ever owned would continue any repeating input active when connection dropped, if batteries or wifi died; they could just be cruising at max speed off in whatever direction they were facing, until the motor batteries run dry.

You'd like to think they'd carry backup interface, or even just use a wired controller, but this whole op sounds pretty McGuyver top to bottom.