What Was Running the Titanic Submersible? It Could Be a $49.99 Videogame Controller
Tech analysts say videogame controllers are often used in other applications
2 min
The missing submersible headed for the Titanic shipwreck may have been operated by a wireless video game controller that sells online for $49.99.
Stockton Rush, founder and chief executive of OceanGate Expeditions, which owns the Titan submersible, said in a 2022 segment with CBS News that the vessel was operated by a video game controller.
“We run the whole thing with this game controller,” Rush said during the news segment, holding what appeared to be a modified wireless gamepad made by computer-peripherals company Logitech International.
It’s unclear if OceanGate Expeditions was using a Logitech controller on the Titan when it started its mission on Sunday. A spokesperson for OceanGate declined to comment. Logitech didn’t respond to requests for comment.
The Titan lost contact with the ship monitoring it from the surface one hour and 45 minutes after it began its dive in the North Atlantic on Sunday morning. The Titanic sits about 13,000 feet below the ocean’s surface and about 900 miles off Massachusetts’ Cape Cod.
Rescuers are trying to find the submersible before its oxygen runs out, which officials say could happen Thursday morning. The Titan’s five-member crew includes Rush.
The controller the Titan used in the past appeared to be a modified Logitech F710 gamepad with extended joysticks.
An earlier version of OceanGate’s submersible vessels called the Cyclops was operated by a Sony PlayStation 3 controller, according to a 2014 promotional video released by OceanGate.
The Logitech F710 gamepad was first available in 2010. It’s compatible with computers running on the Windows and ChromeOS operating systems.
Such controllers can be adapted for piloting other machines, as long as the controller and the machine are using the same signal, said Michael Pachter, a managing director at Wedbush Securities.
Game controllers are commonly used in applications beyond video games, said Will McKeon-White, an analyst at technology research firm Forrester. The U.S. military and foreign militaries use them to control vehicles and in other applications because they are fairly intuitive and users often have an existing familiarity with them, he said. The Pentagon didn’t respond to a request for comment.
“The problem with the usage of a Logitech controller here isn’t the fact that a game controller was used,” McKeon-White said. “The issue is they chose a really, really cheap model.”
The military typically expects to have a backup when it uses video game controllers, McKeon-White said. That way “it’s not a situation of ‘your life only relies on a video game controller,’ ” he said.
OceanGate didn’t say if there were backup controlling devices available on the Titan.
Pachter said the Logitech gamepad is considered a durable device made of commonplace parts.
“Every single component of that thing is a commodity component that doesn’t break,” he said, though “they do wear out after a while.”
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The partnership gives Citizen Kanebridge members priority access to elite rallies, track days and Formula 1 hospitality, beginning with the Australian Grand Prix.
2 min
Citizen Kanebridge Car Club has announced a major new partnership with Bullrush Rally, Australia’s leading automotive lifestyle community, unlocking a powerful series of exclusive driving and motorsport experiences for its private members.
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