The pumps, which are working, will be operated manually by EA staff throughout the winter when flooding is possible.

BBC: Kempsey flood defence failure due to waterlogged sensor

Hundreds of thousands of switches and circuit breakers must be operated manually, and the main transmission lines have little instrumentation to monitor the second-by-second flow of electricity from unpredictable new sources like windmills.

FORBES: Juicing the System

Should manually operated vehicles be the ones to give way?

WSJ: Why Driverless Cars Are Inevitable��and a Good Thing

"It can be constantly inspected, maintained, repaired and most importantly operated manually without the use of robotics, " Mr. Noe said.

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