The Titan tourist submersible that went missing on Sunday may have been piloted with a video game controller - but it's the simple devices that make a submersible more reliable, a scientist told Insider.
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"Submersibles have been around for decades, and their reliability comes from the use of simpler, mechanical or electro-mechanical devices," Harvard marine scientist Peter Girguis told Insider.
Girguis said that to his knowledge, other submersibles - including those used by Japan, China, and France - all "strive to use the simplest components to control the vehicle, and to ensure the safety of the personnel."
The Titan submersible went missing on Sunday while on a dive mission to the Titanic shipwreck. The vessel was carrying five people, including British billionaire and adventurer Hamish Harding. Search efforts by the US Coast Guard for the missing submersible are underway.
CBS News in November reported that the Titan submersible was piloted using a game controller, and that the lights in the vessel were bought off-the-shelf.
The segment went viral on Twitter, and people on the platform weighed in on the equipment used in the vessel. A Twitter user named Marie, for one, tweeted a take on the submersible's controls on Monday.
"Y'all please watch this. It's a CBS story that aired a while back about that submarine that is now missing. The creators of that missing submarine are DEEPLY unserious," she wrote in a tweet that has, at press time, been viewed more than 4.4 million times.
Girguis responded to Marie's Twitter thread the same day, writing that based on his experience diving in submersibles for 25 years, the vessel "is better off with robust, uncomplicated hardware."
"Poking fun at the game controller is fun cuz it's an easy target, but I will tell you that lots of undersea vehicle use similar controllers. Why? They're intuitive," Girguis wrote in response to Marie's post.
"What REALLY MATTERS is the physical design and integrity of any sub, as well as the control and safety systems," he added.