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USS McCain collision ultimately caused by UI confusion

arstechnica.co.uk

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Re: USS McCain collision ultimately caused by UI confusion

#21

Post by Zak »

Aside from the lack of clarity about which station has control over what, which should be made really obvious, with additional warnings when someone sets a control input on an inactive station, this seems bizarre to me:

While the Ship's Control Console has a wheel for manual steering, both steering and throttle can be controlled with trackballs, with the adjustments showing up on the screens for each station.

I've never been on the bridge of a ship, but I've operated a lot of vehicles including boats, ATVs, snowmobiles, cars, bulldozers and once, an army Blackhawk helicopter simulator. These very disparate vehicles had one thing in common: there's a relationship between the position of any movement-related control and the movement commanded, and there are stops at the limits of control input.

Trackballs do not have either property, and I'm having trouble thinking of advantages they might offer in this application.

Re: USS McCain collision ultimately caused by UI confusion

#22

Post by mikeash »

foldr wrote: post #16
mikeash wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With linked controls, the sane pilot at the controls would have immediately realized that the crazy one was fighting him, and it would have been brought to a swift end. I know a lot of pilots and I don’t recall ever hearing one express the opinion that non-linked dual controls were anything other than idiotic. I’d personally be quite wary of ever flying such a machine. (Although of course the stuff I fly uses purely…

The sane pilot realized this anyway. Check the accident report. (Or rather, the captain realized once he entered the cockpit. Neither of the pilots in the cockpit ever figured it out.)

Once Bonin told them he had been holding the stick back the entire time, they immediately began a proper recovery, it was just far too late. This might have happened much, much earlier if the other pilot at the controls had been able to feel this.

Re: USS McCain collision ultimately caused by UI confusion

#24

Post by csours »

jordanb wrote: post #17

The real cause of the collision was poor seamanship and failure to follow the COLREGS on the part of the bridge crew of the destroyer. Most specifically they were seriously in violation of Rule 6: the Safe Speed Rule http://navruleshandbook.com/Rule6.html Every vessel shall at all times proceed at a safe speed so that she can take proper and effective action to avoid collision and be stopped within a distance appropr…

The path to a disaster has been compared to a tunnel [0]. You can escape from the tunnel at many points, but you may not realize it.

Trying to find the 'real cause' is a fool's errand, because there are many places and ways to avoid the outcome.

I do take your meaning, reducing speed and following well established rules would have almost certainly have saved them.

0. PDF: http://www.leonardo-in-flight.nl/PDF/FieldGuide%20to%20Human...

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Field-Guide-Understanding-Human-Error...

Re: USS McCain collision ultimately caused by UI confusion

#25

Post by theyregreat »

tomohawk wrote: post #7

Sometimes having too much money is worse than not having enough. With a tighter budget, you have to wonder if such an extravagantly over functional interface would be created.

I’ve seen hundreds of millions (!!) wasted at a university on a program of software projects that failed miserably.

Having too much money allows for unproven, complicated or arbitrarily selected solutions and more bureaucracy that introduces Tragedy of the Commons mediocrity and diffusion of responsbility to address higher-level risks.

Re: USS McCain collision ultimately caused by UI confusion

#26

Post by CamperBob2 »

foldr wrote: post #16
mikeash wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With linked controls, the sane pilot at the controls would have immediately realized that the crazy one was fighting him, and it would have been brought to a swift end. I know a lot of pilots and I don’t recall ever hearing one express the opinion that non-linked dual controls were anything other than idiotic. I’d personally be quite wary of ever flying such a machine. (Although of course the stuff I fly uses purely…

The sane pilot realized this anyway. Check the accident report. (Or rather, the captain realized once he entered the cockpit. Neither of the pilots in the cockpit ever figured it out.)

And why didn't they figure it out...?

Re: USS McCain collision ultimately caused by UI confusion

#27

Post by foldr »

mikeash wrote: post #22
foldr wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The sane pilot realized this anyway. Check the accident report. (Or rather, the captain realized once he entered the cockpit. Neither of the pilots in the cockpit ever figured it out.)

Once Bonin told them he had been holding the stick back the entire time, they immediately began a proper recovery, it was just far too late. This might have happened much, much earlier if the other pilot at the controls had been able to feel this.

What is your source for this? It does not seem consistent with sections 2.1.3.4-5 of the report.

In any case, the captain was not holding a stick when he returned to the cockpit, as both pilots were in their seats. So the captain could not have gotten any tactile feedback regardless of the stick design.

Re: USS McCain collision ultimately caused by UI confusion

#28

Post by foldr »

CamperBob2 wrote: post #26
foldr wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The sane pilot realized this anyway. Check the accident report. (Or rather, the captain realized once he entered the cockpit. Neither of the pilots in the cockpit ever figured it out.)

And why didn't they figure it out...?

Read the report. There is no simple answer to that question. It was a complicated and confusing situation, and the pilots in the cockpit made a number of mistakes.

Re: USS McCain collision ultimately caused by UI confusion

#29

Post by csours »

Jtsummers wrote: post #4
tlb wrote: post #3

Amazing that someone would design in multiple steering wheels, only one of which is active, and no big indicator to make it super-obvious which one it is. Also amazing that there's a mode where moving a control sometimes controls all engines, sometimes just one.

Check out the recent O'Reilly book Tragic Design for more situations exactly like this. Poor UI design is remarkably common, even on controls that are essential for safe operations. http://www.tragicdesign.com

Also the classic Field Guide to Understanding Human Error.

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Field-Guide-Understanding-Human-Error...

Older PDF (paperback is well worth it, in my opinion): http://www.leonardo-in-flight.nl/PDF/FieldGuide%20to%20Human...

Re: USS McCain collision ultimately caused by UI confusion

#30

Post by theyregreat »

dragonwriter wrote: post #18
pbh101 wrote: post #8

UI flaws have hit the Navy before, with even worse consequences [1]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Vincennes_(CG-49)#Iran_Air...

Nothing I see in that article (or anything else I've seen about the incident) attributes it to a UI issue. Not all errors made by users are the fault of the UI.

More than binary nuance is needed. The ship that crashed is a system of humans plus machines, the UI being just the API between the two. Forensic incident analysis of ship design, UI, human factors, etc. is needed.
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