They've been hooked up for decades, especially pipeline. I'm not trying to be confrontational, but this is simple fact. I helped decommission a terminal that actually ran without an operator at all, just a guy in a guard shack with an oh shit button in there. Everything done remotely. I've worked in plants here that they run from Germany. Every commercial building you go in for the most part has hydronic heating and cooling, all remotely controlled. Hell my mom has her heating and cooling system so she can control it by her phone. Yes they have manual valves too, but it is usually only for backup or isolation for maintenence, in the real world most aren't even cycled enough to be reliable when needed. On pipeline they simply often omit them, and drop stopples when they need to isolate a section.