Zipline’s airborne delivery service is making fans in Texas, with more locales coming soon.
The Federal Aviation Administration is barring drones from flying within 3,000 feet of “Department of Homeland Security facilities and mobile assets,” 404 Media reports. The notice is similar to those restricting drones near military bases, 404 says, but could apply to flying them near Immigration and Customs Enforcement vehicles.
GDU Technology’s Li Lei says she’s not sure whether it might truly hurt her company. “It’s really hard to tell because they’re changing drone policy all the time,” she tells me at CES. Also, GDU mostly sells in China. But it just recently expanded in the US, and now its just-announced flagship P300 won’t come here.
Ace Combat in real life? This folding VTOL foam aircraft gives you a first-person view from inside a tiny toy fighter jet cockpit. A head-tracking DJI drone camera beams video to DJI goggles over DJI’s long-range O4 wireless tech; Fly Wing claims 60-minute battery life and nearly 75mph top speed. $2,000, tentatively in March, for the complete kit.
I don’t have a full review of this awesome drone today, but I can’t get over how easy it is to fly (once you power everything on)! I’ve updated my story with some pros, cons, a few key specs, pricing and price comparisons, and impressions from other reviewers now that the embargo has lifted.
Starting today, Walmart will begin offering delivery via drone at six stores in the Atlanta area, allowing customers to receive groceries, household items, and over-the-counter medicine in “as fast as 30 minutes.” Wing already partners with Walmart in Dallas-Fort Worth, and plans on expanding drone deliveries to Charlotte, Houston, Orlando, and Tampa.
Following two Amazon drone crashes in Arizona last month, the FAA is investigating another incident in Waco, Texas, according to CNBC. After delivering a package the drone “got tangled in a nearby internet cable” before shearing the wire and performing a “safe contingent landing.” There were no injuries or widespread internet outages.
The company’s drones and cameras will be banned by default unless a national security audit is completed by December 23rd, which is highly unlikely. Sure Trump has extended the TikTok ban several times, but Don Jr’s monetary stake in miniature drones made by competitors suggests the end is nigh.
In late December, DJI may no longer be allowed to import new products into the US — it seems someone woke up and smelled a business opportunity in that! Products DJI decided not to bring to the US are suddenly on Amazon’s shelves, including the Mavic 4 Pro and Mini 5 Pro.
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The company temporarily paused flights of its Prime Air delivery drones on Wednesday morning following two back-to-back crashes involving a crane. But airborne deliveries in the West Valley Phoenix Metro Area have resumed and Amazon is “confident that there wasn’t an issue with the drones or the technology that supports them.”
”DJI-US.com” got its domain name suspended after I asked DJI about it. Spokesperson Daisy Kong tells me:
This website is not an official or authorized DJI sales channel. We recommend that our customers check against the “where to buy” section at DJI.com or visit store.dji.com for any purchases to avoid counterfeit items.
Unfortunately, DJI’s own US website doesn’t sell any drones.
There’s lots we don’t know about Antigravity, the first drone from Insta360. But after my first flights, I think it could change what we expect out of drones. Want a look at some (prototype! compressed!) 360-degree footage on YouTube? I uploaded this interactive sample! Set resolution to 4K first.
Did you know it’s generally illegal to fly drones farther than you can see with your naked eye? That may be about to change — but the 731-page proposed rule doesn’t seem like blanket deregulation. Looks like it’ll cut red tape for drone delivery and automated inspection, but humans will still need to be in charge, it’ll require permits, and the more populated an area you want to fly over, the stricter the requirements.
The HoverAir X1 is one of the best drones for people who don’t like drones, we found last year: an affordable, portable, and durable self-flying selfie camera. Now, the company’s teasing a new model that floats on water (can it land and take off, though?) with a new compact controller.
Hopefully it’ll be simpler and cheaper than the company’s too-ambitious X1 Pro and ProMax drones, whose modular controllers have never worked right for me.
DJI is unusually weak right now, and Insta360 is seizing the opportunity for its first drone: “immersive, creator-ready, and easy for anyone to fly,” with spherical filming so you can fly first then frame shots after. (The company tried 360-degree drone attachments before, but never a full aircraft.)
Will Antigravity even exist in the US, though? The announce doesn’t say. Insta360 is Chinese, and Trump has made it clear that US drones should “dominate.”
Mark Walter is buying majority ownership of the Lakers at a $10 billion valuation, reports ESPN. Walter runs TWG Global, which owns chunks of other sports teams, and also owns a fun grab-bag of other companies, including Shield AI and Slate Auto. LeBron-themed pickup truck when?
It sounds ridiculous when I say it out loud: A Chinese company wants to be audited by the US government, and it’s asking you for help!
But it’s true: Every new DJI product will be banned from import as soon as December, unless a gov agency positively confirms the dronemaker doesn’t pose a national security threat. “More than six months have passed, and that process still hasn’t begun as far as we can tell,” writes DJI.
Ek’s investment company Prima Materia dumped its first €100 million in Helsing, the German defense tech group with roots in AI software, back in 2021. Now it’s leading a €600 million round to capitalize on the shift to drone warfare. Per the Financial Times:
“The world is being tested in more ways than ever before. That has sped up the timeline” for Helsing’s financing, Ek said, pointing in particular to the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, where drones and other AI-powered systems have been deployed at scale for the first time. “There’s an enormous realisation that it’s really now AI, mass and autonomy that is driving the new battlefield.”
Almost every single thing in Friday’s executive order is about uplifting the drone industry and cutting through red tape (at the potential expense of safety), not about cracking down on the China-based leading manufacturer of drones. But as I noted last week, Trump doesn’t need to lift a finger. The ban on future DJI products happens automatically unless he steps in.
[whitehouse.gov]
The Washington Post is reporting he’s expected to sign executive orders on drones next week, suggesting they could “end Chinese drone sales in the US.”
That might be true, but the main action WaPo describes is “the executive order could direct the U.S. intelligence community to accelerate reviews of whether Chinese drone makers DJI and Autel are national security risks” — which is exactly what DJI would like the US to do. DJI products will be automatically banned unless an agency finishes that review. If there’s a review, there’s a chance.
