After the Titan imploded killing all on board on a dive to the Titanic, a lot of people were critical of the fact that the main control mechanism was literally a game controller. Little known fact, game controllers are used for some functions on modern U.S. nuclear subs, because they're inexpensive, easy to replace, and young sailors (average age around 24 or so) usually already know how to use them. The only issue is that they need to be wired in rather than using Bluetooth, etc.
@lauren
James Cameron used a Logitech gaming joystick on the Deepsea Challenger to control the robotic arm.
Fun fact. The sub was horizontal on deck and vertical in the water. The stick was heavy enough to sag, so we had to calibrate it on the vertical while on deck so as to not give any creep to the robotic arm when at the bottom.
So yeah. Those people were laughable when they got all bent, they have no idea how much those controllers are used in the real world.
Apart from wireless nature, I saw two complaints that imo made sense: one was that a portable controller risked accidental inputs more than a fixed one and the other was a lack of ~independent "stop everything" control.
@robryk @thebaldgeek @lauren
When I first learned about the use of the Logitech controller, I was horrified. After learning about how the 𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘵 of the Titan sub was constructed, I decided the controller was probably its 𝘮𝘰𝘴𝘵 reliable component.