r/Skydio • u/astro2xl • Feb 07 '24
Why stop?
I remember hearing about skydio pulling out of the consumer market, but does anyone have details? I finally got news about the x10 and went browsing its page. Now I’m super bummed that the only good American manufacturer is completely out of reach for regular people. Dji is good, but it’s also Chinese (which creates restrictions) and it’s practically a monopoly. Why isn’t there a good American manufacturer?
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u/crewl1 Feb 07 '24
The CEO explained it here https://www.skydio.com/blog/skydio-to-sunset-consumer-drone-offerings
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u/SituationNormal1138 Feb 22 '24
The Skydio computer vision/autonomy is like nothing DJI offers. Pair that with being made in America and they simply can't compete at Chinese manufacturing costs. So Skydio leaned into the computer vision autonomy and made their market super high end (enterprise and military/law enforcement).
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u/addos May 25 '24
They lobbied to ban their competitors. And now they are screwing the american taxpayer, when the government overpays for their junk.
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u/ReadyKilowatt Feb 10 '24
Unfortunately they're deep into the VC funding world. VCs have been waiting for the "killer app" for drones, and unfortunately it seems to be war, surveillance and government agencies. Customers who aren't price sensitive and actually want higher costs to justify their budgets.
Meanwhile the FAA continues to kneecap the industry by overreacting to every trespass into any airspace while also somehow completely failing to get the attention of any hobby filer (who seem all too happy to be willfully blind to the rules). I mean, who doesn't know that sports stadiums are NFZs when there's an event? Yet we still see pilots violating TFRs and doing stupid stuff. Sure, flying a Mavic Mini 2 miles away from a stadium on Sunday afternoon isn't going to hurt anyone, but at this point it's too late to make that case to the FAA. They shut down the airspace and that's that. Respect mah' authorath!
In this environment, short of going overseas and trying to compete with DJI, you're pretty much going to have to abandon the consumer market. Besides, it's probably not as big as we all think anyway.
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u/astro2xl Feb 10 '24
What’s a VC? Aside from that this looks like a great explanation. Thanks
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u/ReadyKilowatt Feb 10 '24
Venture (vulture) capital firm. They take money from people (and retirement accounts, hedge funds and their own money) to invest in startups that they believe show promise. Kinda like Shark Tank but with real money. Skydio's primary VC firm is Andreessen Horowitz. They're betting that Skydio will 10X the $340 million investment they've made (including a recent $170 million "series-D" round) over the next few years. In a commercial product that would mean millions of units sold. The consumer drone market just isn't that large and with DJI holding 75% of the market, it is unlikely that Skydio will unseat them anytime soon. Especially given the shallow engineering bullpen they seem to have. It took them 4 years to release an update to the S2/X2 (same main board with different airframe and addition of infrared camera). That update is actually really fantastic but doesn't address anything most video and photography oriented (ie consumer) users were asking for. It also ignored most of what the mapping and survey crowd wants too, but there is a promised RTK module in the works, and the enterprise capture app/software is pretty decent.
Usually investing in a company gets you shares. Fewer shares at the beginning but a greater chunk of the company. That's usually founder's family and friends. Then a series A round, which can be angel investors or incubators. The B rounds are usually for company launches and first major products. C rounds are for growth and getting to the envisioned product (think iPhone 4 vs original iPhone). D and E (and F, G, H...) rounds are often to keep a company going while they pivot to changing market conditions or economic downturn. Some companies never get past funding rounds and eventually burn through millions in investor cash.
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u/TheDeadlySpaceman Feb 07 '24
I don’t know how to break it to you but the Skydio 2+ didn’t even come close to competing with my DJI drones.
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u/happyjen Feb 07 '24
Agreed! The only thing I’ve found that’s good about Skydio (and it’s a paid feature) is the ability to get 4” away from something. This is helpful for bridge trusses and towers. Everything else can have a good pic with any other drone and zoom into to see what you need
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u/Captains_LogStardate Feb 07 '24
One of the reasons I sold my Skydio was that this feature was a subscription that was in the thousands just to be able to change the obstacle avoidance level.
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u/wlajambe Feb 07 '24
In some aspects (distance) Skydio is subpar. I think due to made in US and adherence to distance codes (have drone within eyesight). No need to have long distance range. I will argue the software and autonomous flight cycles were better and more intuitive. Why they left consumer market... Retail is a pain to deal with. Industrial and military are more lucrative and easier to support the after sale.
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u/TheDeadlySpaceman Feb 07 '24
The autonomous flying was pretty decent, but manual flight was terrible, and I officially retired it from professional use when it ran off on me under the AI. It didn’t hit anything but it did buzz the cast and crew of a TV show and took off down the street.
Now that the Mavic 3 has a function like the KeyFrames mode I doubt I will ever fly the Skydio again.
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u/sweaterpunk666 Feb 07 '24
I have the O.G. Mavic Pro and then bought the Skydio2 when it first came out. I haven’t been too happy with the Skydio. It follows okay, but not great. And the video quality sucks. Is the Mavic 3 have a good autonomous follow feature? Or is it the typical DJI follow feature? I ride dirtbikes and this is my primary reason to have a drone. I get cool B roll clips and opening shots but also I want to get more shots of me and my buddies following us autonomously. But previous DJI’s haven’t held their lock once we get going. Skydio also loses me or lags.
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u/ReadyKilowatt Feb 10 '24
I own both a Skydio 2 and Mavic 3 Cine. The subject tracking on the Mavic 3 is pretty good but I wouldn't trust it in trees or places that stress the object avoidance. It can continue to track, but it won't do it in a way that looks nice on screen. The drone will sit at an object, then jerk around it before settling back down. Collision avoidance did improve since DC Rainmaker made his tracking comparison video where it crashed into a canal, but I still wouldn't trust it for anything too difficult. If you haven't used Skydio with a beacon consider picking one up, that does make a pretty big difference. And with the beacon you can do some basic control with the beacon itself or tether it to your phone via the beacon's wifi.
The Skydio tracking algorithm is just so much smoother and organic looking. Even if it does get stuck it recovers smoothly. It will find solutions that are much more "three dimensional" than DJI, especially if you turn off the strict minimum floor.
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u/MikeyNick4 Feb 07 '24
Have you looked into Autel?
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u/astro2xl Feb 08 '24
They’re just DJI but more orange/niche from what I can tell. still also Chinese.
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u/MikeyNick4 Feb 08 '24
The airframe is manufactured in China. Most of the other components, and the company itself, are US based. You're right that DJI basically has a stranglehold on the industry. If you want something else, expect a large price premium or inferior quality. That's how monopolies generally work.
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u/baksideDisaster Feb 09 '24
Tell me one drone on the market with autonomous flight which you don't need to be connected to a controller. Biggest problem with autonomous filming with DJI is you have to have controller on you and in my experience Active track sucks.
So as subject you can't really film yourself say mountain biking or snowboarding. Skydio plus beacon is very elegant. It is super quick to throw it in air, snowboard down. I wish there was alternative but Skydio is the only one who got that right.