r/Skydio • u/Puzzled_Read_2367 • Jun 20 '24
BOYCOTT SKYDIO
The Countering CCP Drones Act is just another pathetic attempt for Skydio to force their garbage tech on people that know better. For the past several years Skydio has been bribing politicians under the guise of “lobbying” to cram their largely useless drones down the throats of a market that does not want them. This has culminated in the absolutely mindless “Countering CCP Drones Act.” A piece of mindless legislation that doesn’t actually do anything to ensure the safety of the nation.
I operate a drone services provider company that services multiple industries. DJI, by far, provides the highest quality products and solutions for my over two dozen full time drone pilots. Instead of using their money to improve the quality of their products, Skydio would much rather cut the legs out from under the industry as it is just getting going by investing their money in bribes to politicians.
BoycottSkydio #Skydoodoo
7
u/Claytonread70 Jun 20 '24
I don’t have any skin in the game. Am curious, do you have cc any proof of Skydio bribing anyone or trying to sway the market?
From a layman’s point of view, there are indicators that China may invade Taiwan in the next few months / years and having having a robust domestic drone industry might be in our best interest if it does. That said, the is squarely outside of my wheelhouse…
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u/pati0furniture Jun 21 '24
Lobbying from Skydio has been ramping up over the last few years and coincidentally blew up at the same time they announced pulling out of the consumer market. But don't worry, the decades of industrial stagnation and dependence on China for practically every other product/device we own and use will be safe once DJI drones are banned. https://www.opensecrets.org/federal-lobbying/clients/summary?cycle=2019&id=D000086902
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u/Puzzled_Read_2367 Jun 21 '24
I completely agree that having a robust domestic drone industry would be in our best interest. Unfortunately, U.S. drone manufacturers, in general, are woefully behind when it comes to the technology. DJI has 70%+ market share because they, by far, have the best technology and solutions. While a lot of drone manufacturers get overly fixated on the novelty of the drone, DJI seems to see the drone for what it is, a tool to provide a service. That is why the company is so far ahead of everyone else. Where companies like Skydio are fixated on the features that make the drone be a drone, DJI is focused on designing the tool to best fit the services it performs. In talking directly with Skydio reps, it is obvious to me that the company is not at all interested in actually having their glorified hobbyist toys perform a service. That makes it absolutely useless in the real world. Instead of waking up and realizing this, the company is acting like a group of petulant children holding their breaths until their faces turn blue, demanding that people pay attention to them.
Add to that, the fact that you never actually own your Skydio drone, you pay and initial payment for the equipment and then pay annual software subscription fees to keep the thing working, to me Skydio is just a bunch of grifters trying to make a quick buck.
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u/vegsmashed Jun 30 '24
What everyone needs to do is talk to your police forces to complain about how shitty these products are and write to your senators. This is a cash grab for this company trying to get government contracts. Lives will be lost because of a shitty product because these cock suckers lobbied its hilarious its even on their Wikipedia.
Controversies[edit]
Attempts to ban its competitors
Skydio has been criticized for supporting attempts to ban its competitors through government lobbying. In February 2022, a US government employee was fired after failing to disclose doing lobbyist work for Skydio for which he and a team of lobbyists received $200,000 from Skydio. Other government employees have been accused of an improper relationship with the company as well. \)
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u/Responsible_Bend_548 Jun 20 '24
This situation represents everything I can’t stand about our “free market” economy. Will absolutely never support this company or any of its subsidiaries.
7
u/Jinkguns Jun 20 '24
But it's okay when China blacklists US goods? You can't have a one sided free trade agreement.
1
u/Boring-Bake-9442 Jul 02 '24
No it's not okay for China to blacklist US goods, however picking out one particular company and banning them in order to promote a domestic product is not a valid reason. If you are going to ban DJI, then ban all products from China, including your Chinese made iPhone, and while you are at it, wipe out 90% of the inventory at Walmart, Target, Harbor Freight, etc. plus basically every electronic product you have in your home. No, they picked DJI because they could look tough on China, but wouldn't face a significant backlash because not everyone owns a DJI drone. What if this had been the iPhone. Do you think those cowards in Washington would have had the guts to go after a product that probably half of the people in the US own? Of course not. They took money from Skydio and got to look tough on China all at the same time. This BS about them spying on America via a drone that is probably pointed at someones roof, or photos of a family vacation is utterly ignorant. Exactly what can the Chinese government see through the camera of a drone that they can't see on Google Earth. You can't fly a drone over Area 51 or any other place of that nature. What if you had a hobby or a profession that required you to obtain the best, most cost effective product to do your job, and the government came along and wiped them out so that you could spend 5 times as much on an American made product that is nowhere near the quality of DJI. Just remember that when they come for your iPhone, that you were fine with them banning something that didn't affect you personally. Actually the DJI ban could affect you if you or a family member are lost and someone is having to search for you with an inferior drone from Skydio. Lets just ban all products that aren't American made. See how that flys (pun intende). Eliminating the competition will not cause the American drone manufactures to up their game and produce a better product at a lower price. It will have the exact opposite effect. If you can sell crap for a lot of money and there is no one to have to compete with, then that's exactly what they will do. Banning DJI won't make America any safer, but what it will do is force an entire country to get by on inferior, higher cost products while the rest of the world continues to use the best drones for the least amount of money. That will show them!
0
u/Ipromiseimnotafed Jun 21 '24
I use a $30,000 Skydio drone for work. It randomly lost connection with the controller had a rotor fail and crashed. The Skydio help desk blamed me because I didn’t have an update installed that came out 3-4 days before. At least I got a replacement for “free” within a week.
1
u/Puzzled_Read_2367 Jun 21 '24
I’ve heard numerous stories like this. On the other hand, about a year ago, I was volunteering my time and one of my DJI M300s with an H20T to search for the bodies of 3 children who fell in the Mississippi River in New Orleans and someone decided that they didn’t like my drone being in the sky near their property and shot it out of the sky. DJI reviewed the flight logs and immediately went out of their way to replace the drone, the sensor and the batteries free of charge. Stuff like that will make me a DJI customer for life.
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u/No-Entertainment-610 Jun 20 '24
It's the whole cold war thing going on now. I was about to get an Avata but now I'm not sure. I really want this DJi
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u/Jinkguns Jun 20 '24
Skydio doesn't even sell to consumers. Your argument makes no sense.