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In Iron Man 3, we saw that Tony was able to control Mark 42 armor remotely.

Talking about the Hulkbuster armor used in Avengers: Age of Ultron, it was very dangerous because Hulk's unpredictable rage could rip it apart any time.

Why didn't Iron Man simply control the Hulkbuster armor remotely?

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Well, not just the Hulkbuster suit, why is Tony even wearing any of the Iron Man suits given that it puts him in danger?

Throughout the movies, remotely controlled suits and drones have always been shown to be inferior in combat performance to worn suits. See e.g. the hammer drones in IM2, the iron legion being destroyed in IM3, the iron legion again in A2...

Rhodey (Iron Man 1): The future of air combat... Is it manned, or unmanned? I'll tell you in my experience, no unmanned aerial vehicle will ever trump a pilot's instinct.

Further, Tony does not appear to prize his own personal safety very greatly, instead valuing the personal touch being Iron Man provides.

Finally, if a remote controlled version of Hulkbuster did exist, it would have fallen into the hands of Ultron.

So, basically, to go up against the Hulk, Tony wants every edge he can get. And he's not worried about getting hurt in the line of duty, otherwise he wouldn't be Iron Man in the first place.

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    This quote is from the first Iron Man movie, right ? You should specify it. Otherwise +1.
    – Kalissar
    Apr 30, 2015 at 13:43
  • Signal loss can be problem in other cases (in enemy territory). But, Hulk vs Ironman happened in the middle of the city.
    – user931
    Apr 30, 2015 at 13:44
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    Signal loss can happen in the middle of a city. Actually, in many ways, it's more likely.
    – Lightness Races in Orbit
    May 2, 2015 at 18:44
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    That sequence ends with the suit inadvertently running into a truck and being blown apart into little pieces.
    – Fhnuzoag
    May 3, 2015 at 10:20
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    @Stark07 If correct, the fact that Stark is more careless when using remote control would be one reason why remote control is inferior. It doesn't contradict anything.
    – Fhnuzoag
    May 5, 2015 at 9:25
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I'll talk only in the scope of Age of Ultron.

Operating Veronica remotely would mean a continuous open channel to the suit. This, with Ultron on the loose, doesn't sound like such a good idea! For that matter, we do not see Tony operate any suit remotely in the movie at all, not even his regular MK43.

Also, at that point,

JARVIS was dead (sorta). So far we've seen only JARVIS to be capable of controlling Tony's suits remotely. After JARVIS's death, Tony uses some other backup UI for his suit. The new UI looks mostly untested, and doesn't seem up to the level of JARVIS at least from what we see in the movie.

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    this is probably a huge part of the answer, but no one has mentioned the fact that Tony probably wanted to be face-to-face with Banner, since the point is to (try to) calm him down, not kill him.
    – KutuluMike
    May 3, 2015 at 11:47
  • @Michael nothing can kill hulk anyways. The best anyone can do is Knock him out. Even a remote controlled drone could've done that.
    – Stark07
    May 3, 2015 at 12:15
  • @MichaelEdenfield - Tony wouldn't have been able to calm him down at all. The only way to do that was "The Lullaby", but as mentioned earlier in that scene, the option was unavailable at the moment(Considering Nat was under the spell). So no matter what, Tony's top priority was to knock him out ... Remember he says "Go to sleep".
    – Stark07
    May 3, 2015 at 16:00
  • Tony probably can't deHulkify him, but we've seen that even in Hulk form, Banner at least knows who the bad guys are. In that scene, Tony is just trying to get Hill to recognize that he's being controlled are hopefully get him to leave the populated area unscathed
    – KutuluMike
    May 3, 2015 at 16:12
  • Tony knew that was a lost cause. He went from "Don't mention puny banner" to "go to sleep" in about 30 seconds. Tony was just being smart. In the MCU The Hulk can't think much as is, let alone have a profound thought to realise to himself that he is being manipulated. The moment he deployed "Veronica", it's made pretty clear in the film, that there was only 1 way, and that was to knock him out.
    – Stark07
    May 3, 2015 at 16:16
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Because he wants to and is borderline addicted to it.

From Captain America Civil War:

Few years ago, I almost lost her, so I trashed all my suits. Then, we had to mop up Hydra. And then Ultron, my fault. And then, and then, and then. I never stopped. 'Cause the truth is I don't wanna stop.

Tony likes the rush, the danger, being a hero. He wouldn't get that if the armors were remotely controlled by JARVIS/Friday.

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