DJI is a Chinese company headquartered in China. It's products and services include GPS tracking of drones and the over-the-air transmission of video. If the DoD were to use DJI drones, how easy would it be to (at the very least) track drone movement and identify their locations (both potentially sensitive in a theatre of operations)? All that said, Skydio is the reason DJI was removed from the DoD's blue list. Arguably, Skydio and their 2+ drone had (as of a couple years ago) the most advanced obstacle avoidance software on any drone (including DJI). Instead of competing fairly, they lobbied Congress to ban DJI and the DoD willingly followed, arguing that the U.S. needed more homegrown drone manufacturers. I don't necessarily disagree, but I do disagree with how Skydio went about getting their biggest competitor banned from all U.S. contracts and then, in a final F-U to consumers, a couple years later, Skydio shuttered all consumer services. Instead, they opted to focus on commercial, military and enterprise applications instead of the consumer market (which had helped propel them to within striking distance of DJI drones). Now their products are behind a ridiculously priced subscription service, which is closed off to everyone except those with deep pockets. Not surprisingly, they've conveniently cornered the market in providing drones to the DoD. I wonder how that happened. Hmmm.
Getting rid of the consumer base is perhaps one of the stupidest business decisions a drone manufacturer (in the USA no less) like Skydio made despite potentially being a top competitor to DJI.
DJI is a Chinese company headquartered in China. It's products and services include GPS tracking of drones and the over-the-air transmission of video. If the DoD were to use DJI drones, how easy would it be to (at the very least) track drone movement and identify their locations (both potentially sensitive in a theatre of operations)?
All that said, Skydio is the reason DJI was removed from the DoD's blue list. Arguably, Skydio and their 2+ drone had (as of a couple years ago) the most advanced obstacle avoidance software on any drone (including DJI). Instead of competing fairly, they lobbied Congress to ban DJI and the DoD willingly followed, arguing that the U.S. needed more homegrown drone manufacturers.
I don't necessarily disagree, but I do disagree with how Skydio went about getting their biggest competitor banned from all U.S. contracts and then, in a final F-U to consumers, a couple years later, Skydio shuttered all consumer services. Instead, they opted to focus on commercial, military and enterprise applications instead of the consumer market (which had helped propel them to within striking distance of DJI drones).
Now their products are behind a ridiculously priced subscription service, which is closed off to everyone except those with deep pockets. Not surprisingly, they've conveniently cornered the market in providing drones to the DoD. I wonder how that happened. Hmmm.
Getting rid of the consumer base is perhaps one of the stupidest business decisions a drone manufacturer (in the USA no less) like Skydio made despite potentially being a top competitor to DJI.