(Not) coming to stores near you: DJI’s new Matrice 3D nested drone

DJI has been getting scooped pretty routinely on its own product releases by leakers of late, but chagrin over all that stolen thunder wasn’t why the company decided to soft-peddle the rollout of its much-previewed Matrice 3D drone and accompanying Dock 2. That restraint instead reflected a very limited market demand for such gear – for now, anyway.

As promised by the teaser shared online earlier this week by leaker Igor Bogdanov, DJI unveiled the Matrice 3D and paired Dock 2 Wednesday as scaled-down enterprise drone package. The presentation also included the Matrice 3DT thermal craft, which like its fraternal twin differs from previous product line models in featuring non-folding arms thrust upward to facilitate their storage in and operation from the nesting device.

The duo is designed to offer professional users a highly rugged protective, charging, and data-download platform housing the new UAV solution between frequent mapping, surveying, inspection, or surveillance missions requiring vastly reduced human intervention.

Specs for hardware lovers follow below, but prior to those let readers be warned: Despite the considerable interest generated by the many leaks of the Matrice 3D among company fans, DJI is currently only marketing the drone and accompanying Dock 2 in China – and for the coquettish sum of ¥69999 ($9,607) to boot. T

That extremely limited availability contrasts the company’s habit of introducing new products in most major markets as fast as possible. Yet that throttled scope this time is entirely logical, according to UAV experts.

Indeed, even on the eve of DJI’s Matrice 3D rollout, savvy drone sector observers like Brendon Schulman and Stephen Sutton were issuing online reminders that – the anticipation ahead of the release notwithstanding – demand for the recurring, nested, virtually autonomous operation the combo provides remains very limited.

“(T)here is a near-zero market for these ‘dock’ solutions in the United States and EU,” Schulman said – and most certainly didn’t “X” – in a social media post on the looming unveiling. “As with agricultural spraying drones, this is a sign of drone innovation happening almost exclusively in Asia.”

“And the market for this is where?” Sutton echoed, before expanding on his views in a later post drawing from his experience in professional UAV operation. “You still need a (pilot in command). The industry is nowhere near full autonomy yet. BVLOS needs certification, again, nowhere near that level.”

Drone Analyst’s David Benowitz, who predicted DJI’s release of the docked Matrice 3D would begin as a China-only development, responded to the new drone offer by praising its tech, and noting its outwardly formidable price may in fact wind up lower than existing competition when it does reach outside markets.

DJI clearly didn’t develop the cutting-edge enterprise UAV for its domestic market alone, and noted releases of the package elsewhere in the world will follow – presumably once demand and regulations make that opportune.

So what’s on the bird?

According to the only DJI site with product information – not illogically a pace intended for customers in China ­– the Matrice 3D drones have 50-minute, 10-kilometer flight capacities; six-directional obstacle avoidance; and 4/3 CMOS, 20MP wide-angle, and 1/2-inch CMOS,12MP telephoto cameras enabling 1:500 high-precision surveying, mapping, and inspection missions. 

The thermal version of the craft also sports the telephoto and wide-angle devices, plus an infrared camera capable of intuitively displaying visible light and x28 digital zoom for imaging during security operations.

Those are housed in the Dock 2, which is two-thirds smaller than DJI’s existing nest, is much lighter at only 75 lbs., and boasts a five-hour battery capacity.

The ensemble represents some very impressive, albeit it lavishly leaked and very expensive tech that – international demand and operating regulations being as the now are – won’t be coming to a store near you very soon. But for now, there’s always video.