By now, the majority of you have already heard the news about the missing submarine, Titan, that went missing near the wreckage of the Titanic, along with five people on board the craft, including the pilot. Naturally, it didn’t take long after that for news to emerge that the submarine was being controlled with, of all things, a US$30 (~RM140) Logitech F710 wireless controller.
Here’s a quick brief on the situation. Earlier on Sunday, the Titan submarine, carrying British Billionaire, Hamish Harding, and the owner of the said submarine and CEO of OceanGate, dived near the wreck of the Titanic and disappeared approximately one hour and 45 minutes after that. It’s last known position was in the North Atlantic, which has a body of water reports says have a depth of nearly 4km.
The PlayStation controller being used to pilot the Titan submersible appears to be a @Logitech Gamepad F710, available at Amazon for $30.
I wonder if Logitech would recommend using their products to pilot a homemade submarine to the wreckage of the Titanic. pic.twitter.com/FjnZSWzsyn
— TomHoefWrites (@TomHoefWrites) June 20, 2023
In true last-minute fashion, reports and images of the Titan being operated and controlled by the Logitech F710 soon began emerging, at which point, alarm bells started ringing. The controller was manufactured back in 2010, and is a wireless-dual joystick gamepad, designed in the spirit of the PlayStation and its DualShock design then. Given the timeline, we’re going to say DualShock 3. Not long after the news that the Titan was controlled by a Logitech controller, the Swiss peripheral brand’s stock value took a slight dive of around 3.6%. For that matter, it is still undetermined if the controller is the culprit behind the submarine’s disappearance.
To be fair, game controllers being repurposed for non-console or PC Gaming activities aren’t as uncommon. One of the US Navy’s submarines, the USS Colorado, controls its camera system with the use of an Xbox controller. However, at the very least, the US Navy chose to use a proper controller for its application, and not a what is clearly a very budget-oriented controller like the Logitech F710.
The Logitech F710 aside, the scary part about the scenario is that this wasn’t even the first time the Titan had gotten lost. Last year in the summer, CBS correspondent David Pogue reported that the submersible got lost for a few hours, and this was while Pogue was still on the surface.
At the time of writing, search and rescue efforts are still underway, with the latest reports saying that the Titan could have less than a day’s worth of oxygen left inside, but that the US Coast Guards have heard banging in 30-minute intervals occurring within a new search area.
(Source: Ars Technica, BBC, Reuters)
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