Yes, and you also get feedback from your butt as the machine tips and wobbles, particularly on smaller machines. Hearing the engine straining helps also. Often you can not clearly see what you are digging, this feedback lets you know if you are running into a rock or something.
One big advantage would be cameras mounted on the boom and rear view cameras, as many machines have obstructed views.
We're indeed streaming the audio and have haptic feedback. My hypothesis is the seat vibration isn't as helpful. It's sub optimal and operators would be far more productive without it. We would do a paper when we have enough data on this.
We're also putting more cameras but streaming a lot of them at once is tricky.
Humbly, have you used excavators of varying sizes on uneven ground? I have and would suggest it's more important than you might think. But if you've operated them, you might know better than I.
Also, teleoperation is likely to produce lower-quality operation data than hooking up to locally operated excavators. Just a thought.
I might be less experienced than you - I've operated upto 38 tons on maximum 15 degrees incline. I wasn't moving tracks a lot when I did that. Would like to hear what scenarios you'be been in and how would you describe your experience? Maybe I could try those out to learn more!
The problem is how do you quantify it and metricize it and get some numbers to compare? Because it's absolutely invaluable after you get to a level of mastery with a machine that you're sitting in that the seat moves in. You just feel it, you can't explain it in words, you're just one with the machine. Your butt really needs to feel that in order for that to really happen. Can you do it without it? Absolutely. Does it make it worse to not have that? Also true. It's extra effort, it's extra cost, and it makes things better for the actual users of the product, but it'll never show up as something you can measure.
Do you want to sell Microsoft Teams to the executives or do you want to give joy to the people who actually use the product?
You've touched one of my favorite things to think about. I think about this a lot. There will always be people who enjoy fully analog cars/planes/watches over alternatives. I think that doesn't define the whole market. How many of new joinees are we seeing in this industry? Would you rather have a functioning back because you operate these remotely or go to site and sit in one of these and have a broken back by 50s?
This is leaving out the fact that remote operation could save lots of lives.
In our launch video we did put together some of the news clips on it: https://www.ycombinator.com/launches/O8i-flywheel-ai-waymo-f...
One big advantage would be cameras mounted on the boom and rear view cameras, as many machines have obstructed views.