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The t'au used remotely operated xv8 battlesuits, when they attacked and destroyed the Hrud on the world of vash'ya.

The only faction that cares more about the pilot than their giant machine is CWE. For all the others, the pilot is mostly replaceable, especially compared to the vehicle.

Further, more specifically:
-T'au - short lifetimes. Crisis Suit deployment is limited by Crisis Suits, not Pilots. So no need.
-Orkz - No way you're convincing an Ork that it's more fun to do da krumpin wit da mekfistz when you're not *physically there*
-Dark Eldar - What? Seriously? What's the point of killing and stuff if you're not there to enjoy it?
-Marines - Marines themselves *are* the the war machine. They don't use a lot of tanks and other mechanized vehicles, because a Marine pilot is just a moderately enhanced Human pilot.
-IG - Half their tanks are tractors with weapons ducktaped on. VR remote control is beyond their standard kit. And nobody in the IG is worth more than the tech to make it happen would cost.
-AdMech - Where they can, they actually do. But it's not so easy. Look up Scrapcode - if the AdMech can control it remotely, why can't ScrapCode? I'd ask "what's the worst that can happen", but the answer here actually ranges from "Annihilation of mankind" to "Obliteration of the Materium itself".
-Chaos - What's the point of VR control when you can just posess it?
-Corsairs - But that takes all the fun out of it!

CWE are the only ones who *might* do it. But their Wave Serpents are about as safe to operate as a car on a US highway already. And their Mecha require Spirit Stones to be effective - and those are *more* precious than the pilot's life, not less.

Bharring wrote:
-AdMech - Where they can, they actually do. But it's not so easy. Look up Scrapcode - if the AdMech can control it remotely, why can't ScrapCode? I'd ask "what's the worst that can happen", but the answer here actually ranges from "Annihilation of mankind" to "Obliteration of the Materium itself".

AdMech / Mechanicum certainly can, but the risks often outweigh the benefits. In Wolfsbane Cawl hijacks a unit of Vultarax Stratos-Automata and in 'By Your Command' a tech-priest gets stuck in a Kastelan he's remoted into when his body is destroyed.

Probably because it would be boring...

Because Haywire grenades are a thing?

 Shuma-Gorath wrote:
Because Haywire grenades are a thing?

So.are.rad grenades, vortex grenades and big standard explodey grenades.

They don't have wifi.

At least when dealing with non-Tau equipment and vehicles, I partly assumed that it was to prevent either demonic possession of the machine spirit or a spontaneous singularity from occurring.

I like to think part of the big reason that the IoM attaches servators to everything is the human brain has comparably limited ceiling of processing power and can't exponentially grow in intellect like the 40k equivalent of A.I. such as the Men of Iron and thus are much more controllable. Couple that with an in-universe idea of with human brain demonic possession is much tougher (it is hard to form a Faustian deal with lobotomized brain) than an inanimate object as well as biological parts are readily available yields a cheap, relatively safe processor for such equipment.

As for the other tech-savy species, Eldar probably already encountered/knew about this issue but make use of wraithbone or something (I don't know Eldar tech) to prevent it. Necron vehicles probably have Necronyr algorithms in those vehicles serving as machine spirits which prevent that issue largely in that they are already basically an A.I with the former personalities Necronyr pretending their conscience was transferred in to metal bodies. Probably some sort of C'tan psychic shielding is innate from the War in Heaven that largely prevent warp/daemonic sabotage.

I figure Tau just haven't yet suffered their Dark Age of Technology yet if they aren't receiving technology assistance from an outside source. I assume in the 40k universe that any species that makes use of unregulated advanced tech probably suffers from a singularity as some point. As for demonic possession, they still fly under the radar.

Bharring wrote:
-T'au - short lifetimes. Crisis Suit deployment is limited by Crisis Suits, not Pilots. So no need.

Perhaps no need to save the pilot's life, if you assume that the experience of veterans is not worth preserving, but even if life is cheap putting a pilot in a suit is not. That pilot takes up space and mass that could otherwise be spent on making the crisis suits more effective in combat, replace it with AI and you have either more firepower/defense/etc or a smaller unit with all of the advantages that smaller size brings. The only reason Tau don't use more drone units is because GW's marketing department wants to sell characters and not faceless drones.

Pilots take up space and mass, but VR pilots gain:
-space and mass at the cost of less space/mass (control node),
-higher production cost cost (remote control tech is going to cost more than in-person control tech, typically)
-communications infrastructure (base stations, relays, satalites, VR station, etc)
-logistics (signal coverage, allotment of infrastructure resources, direct involvement of out-of-theatre actors, etc)
-*capability* (jamming, coverage area, *SCRAP CODE*, hacking, higher defect rates, lag, bandwidth, detectability)

It's certainly a tradeoff, but the space and mass saved is likely to be dwarfed by other considerations.

The jamming, coverage area, and detectability are all *substantial* problems when dealing with an equal opponent, technologically. When outdone (which is everyone but Necrons), it goes from critical risk to near certain failure.

Which is to say nothing of ScrapCode. T'au probably don't know about it. But a race that tried this would probably get wiped out the first time they ran into ScrapCode.