And spares are easy and cheap to obtain and keep a few on hand.
Though the idea of losing my steering on account of a joystick or USB fault ... is a bit terrifying.
Though the idea of losing my steering on account of a joystick or USB fault ... is a bit terrifying.
http://www.infomarine.net/marine-accidents/119997-27-injured...
If a ship were to crash, can you imagine the headlines or accusations in court?
"Video game controller was used to operate billion-dollar crashed cargo ship"
Knowing that they've built the ship to operate using these devices tells me that they have trust in them.
These ships also have an electronics engineer aboard to take care of such stuff. That's aside from the usual team of marine engineers handling the heavy equipment. In this context, the electronics engineer handles everything from the office equipment to the deck cranes. The engineering team handles the actual engines. They kinda step on each other handling the smaller equipment around the engines (steam plants, pumps, etc -- yes they have steam plants).
And they have excellent machine shops. I expect a consumer joystick to be a) simple to fix and b) cheap and small, so plenty of spares on board.
Source: sailed aboard oil tankers.