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"Debris field" found near Titanic in search for missing sub, U.S. Coast Guard says
(www.cbsnews.com)
this post was submitted on 22 Jun 2023
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The game controller thing gets meme'd to death, but I don't think people focus on the right thing.
Xbox controllers are also used by the US Navy, among other branches of the military.
These are GOOD pieces of engineering, and they're tested by millions of users under pretty strenuous conditions. However, the controller the Oceangate was using was some shitty-ass third-party controller that you can get for peanuts off Amazon.
THAT, IMO, is the issue that this piece of equipment illustrates. A solid Xbox Series S controller is $60 on Amazon, and you're telling me you had to go for cheaper?
Also, backups: the controller doesn't bother me that much UNLESS they had no redundancies for it failing plus checklists. I.E. controller battery dies, use second controller, use wired controller, use control screen, etc. And backup mechanical linkages for critical stuff. I don't know the details but if they lacked these things, then they are (were) definitely morons.
For what it's worth, in one of the old videos the CEO did, he mentioned that they kept two or three of the controllers on board. I think the stuff about game controllers and RV gear is overblown and almost certainly not what caused the problem. The bigger issue to me is the fact that they picked "exotic" materials for the pressure vessel (which while strong, are more brittle and fail more dramatically than steel), didn't get them properly tested or certified, and if they somehow had been found adrift, put no engineering effort into escape or communication in an emergency.
Though thinking about it, I guess the game controller thing is relevant, at least to the extent it points at a pennywise and pound-foolish operation trying to value-engineer a business to go to the bottom of the god-damn ocean. Carbon fiber and tungsten sound amazing, until you realize that a big part of using them was to create a vessel big enough for 5 that was also small and light enough that it could be toted aboard any ship they could rent, and would then be set free from its launch sled by dudes undoing bungee cords.
The thing is that if they cheap out on one area then you have to think "what else did they skimp on?" Like if they're that careless about what you can see you should be terrified of what you can't.
And it'd be one thing if we were all just laughing at some tech bro fulfilling his wacky dream and using some odd parts, its a totally different conversation now that we know the sub imploded. The guy probably cut every corner possible and if those people with him had said "hey, this sub uses shitty consumer grade parts, I'm out" they would be alive still.
The whistleblower said they would pay for the windows rated for something like 1400 meters and refused to pay for the ones rated for 4000 meters. https://www.npr.org/2023/06/21/1183408455/titan-missing-submarine-oceangate-submersible