DJI teases delivery drone launch event for August 16

DJI has released the teaser for a new drone launch event scheduled to take place in China on August 16, 2023. The world’s largest consumer drone maker looks set to officially enter the delivery and logistics segment with its latest product.

Update [August 16, 2023]: DJI enters drone delivery market with new FlyCart 30 aircraft

Rumors of a DJI delivery drone have been doing the rounds for a few weeks. But the tech giant has shared the official launch date only now.

The teaser trailer clearly shows a large quadcopter carrying a DJI-branded delivery box. It can also be observed that the drone is outfitted with an RTK module, which would help to navigate the aircraft with absolute precision.

But why is DJI launching this drone only in China and not in North America?

While DJI enjoys the lion’s share of the consumer drone market pie in the US and Canada, the company has often struggled to get its specialty products off the ground in these countries.

DJI’s Agras line of agricultural drones, for instance, was already being used quite widely in parts of Asia before it was even introduced to overseas partners. Similarly, the company had to spend several months simply promoting and lobbying for the DJI Dock autonomous drone charging and docking station in North America, even after the product was officially unveiled.

To be clear, the problem here is not with the technology DJI offers. It has nothing to do with the availability of the product either. Rather, much of it boils down to the drone regulations established by the aviation authorities. For advanced operations such as fertilizer spraying or flying an aircraft beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS), large-scale adoption cannot happen in the absence of conducive policies.

And drone delivery is no different. As Brendan Shulman, DJI’s former VP of policy and legal affairs, explains, “There’s no market at scale for delivery drones in the US until the regulations change. So this is a lot like the Dock. The tech is here, the policy is not. [But] this could be quite successful in China.”

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