In case you haven’t heard, the Titanic is back in the news after a submersible that offered paying tourists a deep dive expedition to see the famous shipwreck up close has gone missing. It quickly began trending on social media, as more and more people began looking up this Titanic-seeking submersible for more information on it. And then people spotted that the whole thing was seemingly controlled by… an ancient video game controller?
The submersible, dubbed the Titan, was operated by a company called OceanGate, who had specially designed the machine to carry wealthy explorers down the sea to see the Titanic shipwreck at a cost of USD250,000 (~RM1,161,250) per head. A documentary by American TV network CBS that came out last year highlighted OceanGate, with its CEO showing off the Titan.
Built out of carbon fibre and titanium, it certainly seemed a little homemade to say the least, with the submersible even controlled via a Logitech F710 controller that first came out in 2010. Even the CBS correspondent couldn’t help but face palm when told how it was steered. This is on top of him having to sign a waiver that mentioned ‘death’ multiple times in the papers.
Once word spread that the Titan was controlled using an old Logitech controller though, it was almost immediately mocked by people on Twitter.
i am losing my mind, the sub that went missing was controlled with a shitty logitech controller from like 2005 pic.twitter.com/ErwnSLn4Ht
— HORSE WHOMST REVILES (@famoushorse) June 20, 2023
i have been awake for two hours and have been informed a bunch of rich idiots in a homemade submarine with bolted panels instead of doors, no safety cable to the mothership and steered by a logitech videogame controller have gone missing in the ocean trying to see the titanic pic.twitter.com/44Ke6jT1SH
— Hag🔞 (FFXIV6.3, big tits, anime, whatever) (@PowerfulHag) June 19, 2023
However, it actually turns out that using video game controllers to control and navigate serious equipment—like say, a submersible—isn’t actually that weird. In fact, it’s actually become quite common for military personnel to use modified Xbox controllers as a way to control everything from tanks to submarines. Game controllers tend to be used thanks to it being mostly comfortable and ergonomic in your hands, while having enough joysticks and buttons on it to be versatile for different use cases.
Even Elon Musk’s The Boring Company previously posted a video on Twitter depicting an employee controlling their massive drill equipment via an Xbox One controller.
Best video game ever pic.twitter.com/DlGFsji76l
— The Boring Company (@boringcompany) September 8, 2018
That being said, it probably doesn’t help that the Logitech F710, an accessory that’s about RM160 on Shopee and is so old that it originally came out for Windows 7, has been panned as a pretty terrible controller. Recent Amazon reviews for the Logitech F710 have been quite negative, claiming that it disconnects frequently and that the analog sticks failed on users shortly after purchase—not exactly confidence-inspiring to say the least.
Additionally, the data from the P-3 aircraft has been shared with our U.S. Navy experts for further analysis which will be considered in future search plans. 2/2 #Titanic
— USCGNortheast (@USCGNortheast) June 21, 2023
In any case, as for the missing Titan itself, at time of writing the US Coast Guard had just announced that they had detected ‘underwater noises’ in the search area, and will be relocating their search attempts closer towards these noises.
