Ishveena Singh

The authorities in Italy are nursing a new headache these days, and it looks like one that’s unlikely to go away any time soon. Incidents of tourists crashing (or nearly crashing) drones into historical landmarks are growing fast, with three such mishaps coming to light in the last month alone.

HobbyKing, a retail site that develops and sources radio control (RC) products for aviation enthusiasts and FPV drone pilots, is being sued by the United States of America after the company failed to pay nearly $3 million in fines for marketing unauthorized drone transmitters.

Now, here’s a good reminder of why following the rules should be paramount for any drone pilot. A drone recently crashed and sparked a wildfire in Colorado’s Boulder County – even forcing more than 300 people to evacuate their homes. But no charges are being pressed against the drone crew since they were flying “within regulations.”

Update [May 10, 2022]: DJI Mini 3 Pro drone is available to pre-order now from DJI’s official store, Amazon, and B&H Photo Video. Read Top 10 things you need to know about DJI’s new drone.

There’s precious little we don’t know about the upcoming DJI Mini 3 Pro, thanks to careless retailers publishing their listings online without waiting for the drone’s official launch announcement. But while those fleeting product pages gave away pretty much all the major features and capabilities of the sub-250 gram drone, a piece of the puzzle was still missing: DJI Mini 3 spec sheet.

Germany-based Nocturne Drones, which specializes in putting together dazzling drone light shows for customers such as E.ON, Xbox, and the state of Saxony-Anhalt on the Day of German Unity, is announcing the formation of a new business unit to protect its events from unauthorized aircraft. Joining forces with San Francisco’s Dedrone, the company is establishing Nocturne Drone Defense Systems to integrate drone detection systems inside its drone show control vehicles.

Canadian startup AirMatrix, who’s dedicated to mapping out drone corridors in the sky, is working on a new project that could impact commercial drone deliveries and public safety operations alike. The company is using funding from the National Research Council of Canada Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC IRAP) to figure out, from a telecommunications standpoint, the connectivity requirements for drones to safely operate in complex urban airspace.

Update [May 10, 2022]: DJI Mini 3 Pro drone is available to pre-order now from DJI’s official store, Amazon, and B&H Photo Video. Read Top 10 things you need to know about DJI’s new drone.

Days after a Netherlands-based DJI retailer revealed every last detail about the Mini 3 Pro drone by accidentally publishing the product page online, something similar has taken place in the UK. An authorized reseller is showing the highly anticipated drone as available for purchase today. And according to the sale page, the 48MP, 4K/60fps drone would cost £859 (roughly $1K) with the DJI remote controller.

The DJI Terra development team has been busy this year, continuing the streak of software updates for the all-in-one drone mapping solution. In the latest release (v3.4.0), the team has decided to upgrade Terra’s reconstruction algorithms that are based on the NVIDIA CUDA parallel computing platform.

Virginia Natural Gas (VNG) has decided to use drones as another means to perform equipment inspections on its pipeline infrastructure. The utility company says it will use DJI Mavic 2 Pro drones for inspections of critical infrastructure, right-of-way assessments, and monitoring more than 5,500 miles of gas pipeline in Virginia.

Florida Power & Light (FPL), which serves more than 11 million people in Florida, is deploying autonomous drones across the state to monitor substations and power distribution grids. The electric utility has tied up with drone-in-a-box solutions provider Percepto for what is being hailed as “the largest commercial autonomous drone project in the world.”

The world’s largest drone manufacturer, DJI, says it will temporarily suspend all business activities in Russia and Ukraine “in light of current hostilities.” This move makes DJI the first Chinese company to pull out of Russia since the country launched its invasion of Ukraine two months ago.

Update [May 10, 2022]: DJI Mini 3 Pro drone is available to pre-order now from DJI’s official store, Amazon, and B&H Photo Video. Read Top 10 things you need to know about DJI’s new drone.

Wait, what just happened? DJI is yet to confirm when it plans to release the Mini 3 Pro, but a seller has accidentally revealed the complete specs and features of the drone online. A Dutch retailer has created a listing for the sub-250-gram drone, which tells us EVERYTHING save the product’s release date.

A Singaporean man has been slapped with a $37,000 fine (SGD $51,000) for flying a DJI Mavic 2 Zoom drone unlawfully in September 2020. If he’s unable to pay the fine, the drone pilot will face a jail time of 100 days.

ModalAI, a Blue UAS framework manufacturer of autonomous drone technology, says it has developed the world’s smallest and most advanced autopilot built in the USA. Weighing only 16 grams, ModalAI’s VOXL 2 is designed specifically for GPS-denied, autonomous drones with obstacle avoidance.

Lucid Drone Technologies, a Charlotte, North Carolina–based startup that manufactures commercial spraying drones for cleaning external surfaces, is joining forces with T-Mobile for IoT connectivity and fleet management services. The news should excite property management and facility maintenance companies looking for IoT solutions to reduce risk and cut costs for exterior cleaning.

DJI’s top-shelf enterprise drone, the M300 RTK, is built for the not-so-average job site that requires greater flight time, more payloads, and enhanced protection against collisions. And such job sites must be many because Hextronics, a manufacturer of drone docking stations, says it has been witnessing an increasing demand for a solution that’s tailored for the DJI M300 RTK and can support high endurance and operations in extreme weather conditions.

When it comes to the consumer drone market, nothing can get more bang for the buck than DJI products. But, the Russian invasion of Ukraine has made it clear that commercial technology can have clear military applications too. Both Russia and Ukraine are widely using DJI drones, primarily for reconnaissance purposes. This has prompted the world’s largest drone manufacturer to reiterate its stance that DJI deplores any use of its products to cause harm.

The European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) has kicked off a large-scale emissions monitoring campaign in the Baltic Sea this week. As part of the project, drones are being deployed through Germany to remotely measure the sulfur content in ships’ exhaust plumes and detect violations of the applicable limits.

In a time when companies across the board are increasing prices to catch up with the rising costs, a drone startup is looking to buck the trend. SkyeBrowse, whose reality capture platform allows DJI and Autel drone users to create accurate 3D models within minutes, is lowering its annual subscription cost by 20%.

We may just have to wait a little longer for DJI to add a new offering to the safest drone category weighing less than 249 grams. The release date of the rumored Mini 3 drone has reportedly been pushed to May. In the meantime, we now have a better idea of how much the DJI Mini 3 could cost as new leaks have emerged revealing the European price list.

Counter-drone specialist Dedrone has launched a portable drone detection unit, DedroneRapidResponse, that can identify, locate, and analyze nearly 300 drone types. The company says it has developed this sophisticated technology following the requirements presented by St. Petersburg Police Department for the 2022 Firestone Grand Prix, an IndyCar motor race.