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I wish Skydio still did reasonably priced consumer drones with these features. Their old demo videos were glorious.

jauntywundrkind 3y ago
I wish they did consumer drones, period! They left the market! Innovators Dilemna movement; why chase a competitive cut-throat consumer market when there's big cushy expensive whales of governments, a much bigger revenue stream. Especially since drones have quickly become the leading "attritable" piece of equipment. Where-as a consumer will hold on to a drone for years!
- throwaway4good 3y ago
  I think/hope the consumer market for drones is larger than the military market.
  - nozzlegear 3y ago
    Just yesterday I read an article about how the rebels in Myanmar were using consumer drones and quadcopters very effectively to take control of military outposts from the junta there with minimal casualties on either side. The defenders were locked down taking shelter for over four days while the rebels flew drones in to recon the area and drop explosives until there were just two buildings and a temple left, at which point the defenders surrendered. The article speculates that the rebels were supplied with the drones through foreign military powers. I’ll see if I can find it. Here it is: https://www.wsj.com/world/asia/soldiers-surrender-bases-fall-and-a-powerful-army-no-longer-seems-invincible-dd9f76ec https://www.wsj.com/world/asia/soldiers-surrender-bases-fall...
    - justinclift 3y ago
      Non-paywall version: https://archive.is/n9e6J https://archive.is/n9e6J
      - nozzlegear 3y ago
        Thanks, I read it on the Apple News app and didn't realize it was paywalled.
  - jmspring 3y ago
    The amount one is willing to pay for a drone vs the govt doing so is not the same.
rasz 3y ago
They made nice demos, DJI makes drones that actually do all those things.
- matthew-wegner 3y ago
  Skydio 2's autonomy is still miles ahead of DJI's current generation. Have you used one in person?
  - nathancahill 3y ago
    I have one and fly it regularly. Sadly it's top speed isn't fast enough for most of the things I'd like to film in follow mode like mountain biking, backcountry skiing. Their initial demo videos showed a lot of mountain biking but it just isn't fast enough in practice. Now I use it for offroading (the follow car mode works even better than follow person), rock climbing and trail running.
    - justinclift 3y ago
      How does it not keep up with a mountain bike, but it can keep up with a car???
      - nathancahill 3y ago
        Offroading (truly offroading, not just driving on a dirt road) is considerably slower than mountain biking.
    - matthew-wegner 3y ago
      Yeah, a faster top speed would be nice for sure! I mostly do mountain unicycling, which stays in the sweet spot easily (unicycling is pretty slow compared to i.e. biking). The desert isn't a very challenging environment for obstacles, even still, this front-follow would be very hard to achieve with piloted FPV: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=koWzoCUUIbE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=koWzoCUUIbE Alas, there will never be a consumer Skydio 3, and the Skydio 2 is now $5k via their enterprise pricing :(
05 3y ago
DJI ate them for breakfast, turns out a single better implemented feature doesn't make a competitive product (or even a survivable niche, apparently). At ~800g AUW, sub-250g requirements just put the nail in the coffin - the avoidance tech doesn't scale down - a 2kg drone need the extra same weight in sensors and compute and battery to power that extra compute as a 249g one.
- snypher 3y ago
  Part 107 isn't really out of reach for most people.
  - lazide 3y ago
    Part 107 is in reach for anyone with even moderate motivation, the ability to graduate highschool, and a somewhat clean record. There isn’t even a medical requirement!
- vwoolf 3y ago
  The U.S. and Europe really shouldn't allow DJI sales: DJI is in effect part of the PLA, and they're amortizing military research across worldwide sales.
  - skavi 3y ago
    Maybe you intend this, but that argument could be applied to many other product segments.
  - justsomehnguy 3y ago
    > Europe There is a country what happily used DJI drones to harass their own people for years, and now happily use them to kill them and not only them.
    - justinclift 3y ago
      Examples?
    - 3y ago

I wish they did consumer drones, period! They left the market! Innovators Dilemna movement; why chase a competitive cut-throat consumer market when there's big cushy expensive whales of governments, a much bigger revenue stream. Especially since drones have quickly become the leading "attritable" piece of equipment. Where-as a consumer will hold on to a drone for years!

throwaway4good 3y ago
I think/hope the consumer market for drones is larger than the military market.
- nozzlegear 3y ago
  Just yesterday I read an article about how the rebels in Myanmar were using consumer drones and quadcopters very effectively to take control of military outposts from the junta there with minimal casualties on either side. The defenders were locked down taking shelter for over four days while the rebels flew drones in to recon the area and drop explosives until there were just two buildings and a temple left, at which point the defenders surrendered. The article speculates that the rebels were supplied with the drones through foreign military powers. I’ll see if I can find it. Here it is: https://www.wsj.com/world/asia/soldiers-surrender-bases-fall-and-a-powerful-army-no-longer-seems-invincible-dd9f76ec https://www.wsj.com/world/asia/soldiers-surrender-bases-fall...
  - justinclift 3y ago
    Non-paywall version: https://archive.is/n9e6J https://archive.is/n9e6J
    - nozzlegear 3y ago
      Thanks, I read it on the Apple News app and didn't realize it was paywalled.
- jmspring 3y ago
  The amount one is willing to pay for a drone vs the govt doing so is not the same.

rasz 3y ago

They made nice demos, DJI makes drones that actually do all those things.

matthew-wegner 3y ago
Skydio 2's autonomy is still miles ahead of DJI's current generation. Have you used one in person?
- nathancahill 3y ago
  I have one and fly it regularly. Sadly it's top speed isn't fast enough for most of the things I'd like to film in follow mode like mountain biking, backcountry skiing. Their initial demo videos showed a lot of mountain biking but it just isn't fast enough in practice. Now I use it for offroading (the follow car mode works even better than follow person), rock climbing and trail running.
  - justinclift 3y ago
    How does it not keep up with a mountain bike, but it can keep up with a car???
    - nathancahill 3y ago
      Offroading (truly offroading, not just driving on a dirt road) is considerably slower than mountain biking.
  - matthew-wegner 3y ago
    Yeah, a faster top speed would be nice for sure! I mostly do mountain unicycling, which stays in the sweet spot easily (unicycling is pretty slow compared to i.e. biking). The desert isn't a very challenging environment for obstacles, even still, this front-follow would be very hard to achieve with piloted FPV: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=koWzoCUUIbE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=koWzoCUUIbE Alas, there will never be a consumer Skydio 3, and the Skydio 2 is now $5k via their enterprise pricing :(

05 3y ago

DJI ate them for breakfast, turns out a single better implemented feature doesn't make a competitive product (or even a survivable niche, apparently). At ~800g AUW, sub-250g requirements just put the nail in the coffin - the avoidance tech doesn't scale down - a 2kg drone need the extra same weight in sensors and compute and battery to power that extra compute as a 249g one.

snypher 3y ago
Part 107 isn't really out of reach for most people.
- lazide 3y ago
  Part 107 is in reach for anyone with even moderate motivation, the ability to graduate highschool, and a somewhat clean record. There isn’t even a medical requirement!
vwoolf 3y ago
The U.S. and Europe really shouldn't allow DJI sales: DJI is in effect part of the PLA, and they're amortizing military research across worldwide sales.
- skavi 3y ago
  Maybe you intend this, but that argument could be applied to many other product segments.
- justsomehnguy 3y ago
  > Europe There is a country what happily used DJI drones to harass their own people for years, and now happily use them to kill them and not only them.
  - justinclift 3y ago
    Examples?
  - 3y ago