The question isn't "can the ship support continuous telemetry" but "does it generate more value than it costs". And I'm not sure it does.

Also, since the crew survived, why are they so concerned to get the voice recorder? Is it just because of the recorded alarm information, and if so why keep referring to it as a voice recorder and not a black box.

The recorder contains alarms and other data as well as the conversations on the bridge. As I understand it, they're like an aviation CVR and FDR but combined.

Just like with aircraft accidents, the conversations can provide as much (or sometimes more) value as the data. It gives you insight into decision making, details that may not be recorded in the data ("I was just in area XYZ and I saw sparks coming out of one of the vehicles"), etc.

Curious - why is this recorder not a floating device (which broadcasts its position) so that it could be retrieved easily? It's not like it needs to record the ship's descent to the bottom. Or is the primary function of this device unrelated to sinking?

I'm not an expert here, but yes, there are a lot of incidents and accidents that need to be investigated that don't involve the ship sinking (remember the Ever Given?). Plus, having a device installed in some kind of floating pod which detaches automatically when the ship sinks requires a lot of extra equipment, it has to be on the outside, so exposed to salt water and corrosion, etc.

Most ships sink in relatively shallow water. Broadcasters may fail, especially in the conditions that sink ships. In that case, finding a ship is easier than finding a floating box. It also simplifies the design a lot.

I believe all ships have a transponder.

Russian criminals were stealing rich boys million dollar yachts a few years ago.

They would board the ships when the skeleton crew was off the ship.

They would take the transponder, and put in model hobby ships.

The owner, and authorities thought their yacht was exactly where they left it.

The Russian thieves would take the yachts back to Russia.

(I thought is was clever. They stole millions of dollars in terms of yachts, and were eventually caught buy Interpol.

Especially with Starlink allowing roaming mode these days, though I wouldn’t expect them to pick up on that tech by now.

Also hello I think I rode your self balancing scooter at robo games in 2005. Or maybe you just showed it to me. Your web pages with details of your scooter projects were great inspiration to me as I went through college in anticipation of my future career in robotics (which is now going great).

I’ve actually got a clip of that 2005 Robo Games on my YouTube channel if you want a bit of nostalgia. I’m the blonde kid talking about the art bots!

https://youtu.be/J2R-TlBomnQ

The entire crew was rescued. The article is nonsense.

What's your point? Of course the avoidance of a human tragedy is great but the cost of this incident (to the shipping company, automotive manufacturers, insurers, environment) was enormous. It makes perfect sense to try to understand it better.

My point is that the ships telemetry was not an issue. Blaming electric vehicles with no basis, or lack of telemetry with clear evidence to the contrary is…something.

The issue is that they don't know what caused the ship to sink, because the data recorder is at the bottom of the ocean. If they'd streamed the data continuously, we'd have useful information to prevent future sinkings.

Of course it's an issue; the cost of finding out why it sank is huge because it didn't have telemetry.

This time. A fire on board a vessel is highly dangerous and should always be avoided if possible. If a car was the cause of the fire, additional safety measures should be implemented on these types of vessel to potentially save the lives of the crew.