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Submarine missing near Titanic used a $30 Logitech gamepad for steering

arstechnica.com

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Re: Submarine missing near Titanic used a $30 Logitech gamepad for steering

#301

Post by LeoPanthera »

xenadu02 wrote: post #293
LeoPanthera wrote: post #262

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They really remind me of Tesla. Exploit bleeding-edge technology by doing things as fast and as cheaply as possible. This may sound glib but I really do blame Elon for making "move fast and break things" acceptable in the world of hardware. When things work you can do great things in record time. When things don't work, people die.

I hardly think that is fair. Tesla hasn't re-invented the wheel on life-critical safety systems. They use off the shelf airbags and brakes. Their software on the steering, braking, etc control loops are more or less standard for embedded vehicle systems. The linux PC running the touch screen is not the system controlling the brakes. The failure modes for a vehicle are also a lot simpler than a sub. If the interior st…

> Tesla hasn't re-invented the wheel on life-critical safety systems.

Haven't they? They've removed radar from their cars and now the AEB system uses image recognition. Does any other manufacturer do that?

Re: Submarine missing near Titanic used a $30 Logitech gamepad for steering

#302

Post by plagiarist »

chejazi wrote: post #254
plagiarist wrote: post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the founder/CEO should be on a trip to prison for the negligence and mind bogglingly poor decision making surrounding this debacle.

He's one of the people on the lost submarine

My mistake, I thought there was a separate party from the company piloting and the owner was not aboard.

Re: Submarine missing near Titanic used a $30 Logitech gamepad for steering

#303

Post by cratermoon »

klabb3 wrote: post #159
jazzyjackson wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

VCs are all about finding someone with a genuine passion and pushing enormous expectations of profit onto them.

The enormous profiteering of deep ocean exploration is certainly an interesting angle, but I highly doubt it. If you want money from that, I think you’d want to be a military contractor instead, or consult for offshore oil. A $250k “leisure” trip to titanic would be an… unusual anniversary gift.

How is it all that different from companies selling seats on spacecraft to visit ISS? Or just to be in orbit or above the Kármán line and experiencing microgravity?

Re: Submarine missing near Titanic used a $30 Logitech gamepad for steering

#305

Post by CryptoBanker »

IceHegel wrote: post #283
medellin wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is what happens when you take the move fast and break things culture to anything where people die when things break. Really just sad and so stupid.

It’s sad of course, but the early days of flight were also quite dangerous but they lead to rapid innovation and the stable industry of today. It’s a tragedy, but high risk activities are by definition going to have a few.

Unfortunately with flights you can usually at least take a good guess at what went wrong. I think we’ll be lucky if they find (and retrieve) wreckage in this case

Re: Submarine missing near Titanic used a $30 Logitech gamepad for steering

#306

Post by ThatPlayer »

lolinder wrote: post #181
donkey_oaty wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Absolutely. The fella in the article is going wired though by the look of it.

They have a couple of pretty good shots of the controller, and I don't see a wire. Also, the marketing image they include for the controller is clearly labeled as wireless.

I have the controller itself and as far as I know there's no way to use it wired. It doesn't even have a port, batteries are replaceable double As.

Re: Submarine missing near Titanic used a $30 Logitech gamepad for steering

#307

Post by Exuma »

outworlder wrote: post #216
Exuma wrote: post #191

I wondered why they can't install a GPS anyway on the sub so that when it eventually does get to the surface, at least they can be found then.

Why would it eventually get to the surface? The issue with submarines is that they don't normally float (and if you need them to have positive buoyancy, they have to be functional).

Because its been programmed to return to the surface upon error, that is what I've read about 30 times over.

Re: Submarine missing near Titanic used a $30 Logitech gamepad for steering

#308

Post by selimthegrim »

michaelt wrote: post #240
vlod wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was wondering how naval submarines work when they get in trouble. I would expect to see some sort of emergency button (internally) that you could press, that would release some sort of buoy, that would float to the surface and start transmitting with gps etc. I think that would help narrow down the search. The buoy would be in an external container (to prevent pressure problems), with explosive bolts or something t…

For an tragic but well documented example, see https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kursk_submarine_disaster ”The submarine's emergency rescue buoy had been intentionally disabled during an earlier mission and it took more than 16 hours to locate the sunken boat, which rested on the ocean floor at a depth of 108 m (354 ft).”

Speaking of this would it’ve killed these OceanGate guys to have a (properly maintained) oxygen candle too?

Re: Submarine missing near Titanic used a $30 Logitech gamepad for steering

#309

Post by blobbers »

This is a shockingly simple product to make "self driving".

Why on earth do they have any controller, aside from some sort of emergency up button.

Furthermore, what the hell is the emergency plan??? This is going to cost taxpayers millions of dollars. The CEO who should be held criminally liable is inside the sub. I really, really hope they're found alive so that he can be held to account for this.

With regard to the people talking about COTS reliability of Microsoft, Logitech or whichever non mil spec components etc.

* Nobody tested that device when they had been working on an ocean going vestle.

* Nobody checked what happens if you have saltwater on your hands when you pick it up.

* Nobody checked what happens if it is exposed to salt fog for periods of time.

This is a potentially tragic event that I hope has a happy ending.

Re: Submarine missing near Titanic used a $30 Logitech gamepad for steering

#310

Post by jojobas »

blobbers wrote: post #309

This is a shockingly simple product to make "self driving". Why on earth do they have any controller, aside from some sort of emergency up button. Furthermore, what the hell is the emergency plan??? This is going to cost taxpayers millions of dollars. The CEO who should be held criminally liable is inside the sub. I really, really hope they're found alive so that he can be held to account for this. With regard to the…

>The CEO who should be held criminally liable is inside the sub.

The ultimate indemnity.

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