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https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=_nApv-C7qSg

As someone who spent a large part of his career in the computer field
designing human-computer interfaces, I'd like to comment on some of the
previous posts.  Many of the "GPS-induced" navigation "errors" can, in
fact, be attributed to poor design of so-called integrated navigation
systems.

The Royal Majesty is but one example, where the "GPS has failed,
reverting to DR navigation" message was apparently not seen or
understood by the bridge crew.  Imagine if the ship's navigator was
doing traditional chartwork, but using his hand-held GPS as his primary
positioning tool.   I rather suspect that a blank screen on the GPS
would be instantly obvious.   And if he did pure DR without checking for
currents, etc, he would be able to blame a poor job on his GPS!

So I think the Royal Majesty grounding is not due to the use of GPS, but
rather other contemporary technologies that allow for an "integrated"
bridge developed by companies with imperfect understanding of things
like possible failure modes, how the system will be used, and/or human
factors in system design.

Allow me to give two examples of this issue from outside the seafaring
field.

The worst nuclear accident in US history was at the Three Mile Island
plant.  While a mechanical failure was the ultimate cause of the
accident, a direct cause of the severity of the accident was poor human
factors in the design of the plant's control and alerting systems.
Operators were faced with a wall of postcard-sized status indicator
lights; they were somehow expected to diagnose and respond to a
condition with only a bewildering array of lights telling them of a
variety of conditions (mostly normal).  It took them a very long time to
diagnose exactly what had occurred, by which time there had been a
reactor meltdown.

On the opposite end of the spectrum are the "smart cockpit"systems in
use in many aircraft today.  They offer a top-level display of all the
aircraft's critical systems -- engines, controls, navigation, cabin --
with the ability to "drill down" to see increasingly detailed data about
the systems.  More important, when a problem is detected with one of
these, the "smart cockpit" instantly switches to give detailed
information about the problem.

Most important, though, is that "smart cockpits" have been designed with
intimate involvement of pilots who will be using these systems -- and
have been the subject of through simulations of both normal and abnormal
conditions.   One has to wonder if this was done for Three Mile Island
-- or the Royal Majesty.

   

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