DroneDJ

It’s no secret: GoPro is the first choice for most in the First-Person-View (FPV) drone world. But pilots don’t just strap on a GoPro camera to their small, cinewhoop-style drones. They strip down as much weight as they can, sometimes going as far as sawing the GoPro apart to engineer a better solution.

The Inspire line has been a powerhouse for DJI. With Inspire 2 continuing to be one of the most popular drones around for aerial cinematography, it’s easy to see why the tech giant has not felt the need to refresh the range sooner. But the Inspire 3 is definitely coming. And it’s hopefully coming soon. Here’s everything we know from rumors and leaks so far.

EHang, a specialist in passenger-grade drones and urban air mobility (UAM) solutions, says it has received a pre-order for 100 units of its EH216 air taxis from an Indonesian aviation company. This is the largest pre-order EHang has received so far for its passenger-grade drone taxis in Asia.

In December, we reported on rumors that DJI was working on a new drone for its Inspire line of professional video drones, but no other information has been leaked or found that it’s true. Well, we finally have some photos of DJI’s Inspire 3 out in the real world… well, a crashed one, that is.

April is here and already going by quickly. All rumors have pointed to DJI announcing its newest sub-250 drone this month. Notable leaker DealsDrone has stated that DJI’s Mini 3 release date could be April 28.

After months of delay, DJI has finally made its first audio recording product, DJI Mic, available to buy. But don’t count on creating spring content with the wireless microphone just yet. Most US states won’t see a DJI Mic actually being delivered until the last week of May.

The UK Department of Transport has just released a report that details how a police officer lost control of his DJI Matrice 210 (M210) V1 drone before it crashed into the first-floor balcony of a house. Although no one was hurt, the report warns that “people could have been seriously injured by the propeller blades” if the balcony had been occupied.

Gremsy, one of the most popular developers of camera gimbal stabilizers for drones, is launching a new product for open drone ecosystems. The Vietnamese gimbal manufacturer recently joined forces with autonomous mobility platform Auterion. And the result is Gremsy PE: a gimbal series that has been purpose-built for an effortless integration with Auterion and MAVLink compliant drones.

Counter-drone specialist DroneShield is joining forces with location intelligence firm Nearmap to make its DroneSentry-C2 Command-and-Control software more precise than ever. An upgrade adds a layer of high-resolution aerial imagery to DroneShield’s existing mapping service, so users have more precise information while responding to drone threats.

After achieving similar feats in the United States, Australia, and Israel, drone-in-a-box solutions provider Percepto has received its first Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) waiver under the new European drone regulations. This waiver for Percepto drones comes from the Dutch civil aviation authority (ILT), while Germany and Belgium are expected to follow suit.

The FAA has granted Iris Automation a second waiver for Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) autonomous drone operations on behalf of the City of Reno. But while the previous waiver required the use of Iris Automation’s advanced detect and avoid solution Casia X, this one utilizes the company’s Casia G ground-based solution (pictured above).

Mavic 3’s GPS connection problem has been known for quite some time now, and the most recent firmware update was supposed to fix it, but it still hasn’t done it for everyone. DroneDJ has learned that DJI has found the cause of the issue and will fix it via a firmware fix in the next two months.

Autel Robotics’ Dragonfish Lite and Pro drones are finally available in the US. The new drones join the standard version of the Dragonfish VTOL, providing enterprise pilots with multiple endurance options that suit diverse budgets.

Last week Autel released new firmware for its Nano and Lite series drones. One of the most anticipated features was Dynamic Tracking on the Lite+, but some pilots are experiencing issues with it, and so are we.

Israel-based autonomous drone software company vHive has scooped up $25 million in Series B funding to digitize enterprise assets and expand operations globally. vHive’s drone-agnostic solution enables readily-available commercial, off-the-shelf drones to follow flight paths autonomously and inspect field assets, such as cell towers, with uncanny precision to build accurate digital twins.

DJI again has been at the top of headlines over the last week, however not entirely for good reasons. We also revisit placing parachutes as a safety feature on drones. Catch up on the top drone stories from the past week below.

After reviewing over 800 stunning entries, the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has announced four winners for its drone photography competition: #ShotOnMyDrone. Here are the amazing drone photos that showcase the beautiful towns, cities, and countryside of the UK in all their glory.

Switzerland-based INVOLI has announced the availability of a new 4G drone tracking device, LEMAN RemoteID. Compatible with Remote ID requirements set by aviation authorities in both the United States and Europe, the INVOLI drone tracker comes with its own GPS and battery to broadcast drone information directly over a Wi-Fi frequency (Remote ID Broadcast) or a 4G network (Network Remote ID).

Though it took a bit of preparing to get aloft, Alphabet-owned Wing Aviation is set to launch its drone delivery service in the Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) area this week, a bit over five months after the company announced the expansion of its activities in the fast-growing region.

After weeks of leaks, rumors, and speculations that didn’t give away much, the DJI Mini 3 hype train is finally gaining momentum with new photos and videos of the highly-awaited drone showing up online Saturday. Interestingly, the drone shown in the video appears to have been activated in early March – indicating that DJI has been officially testing the product for at least a month and that its release date could be imminent.