Skydio 2 Drone - This Is Why It Will Succeed

So the Skydio 2, is this the drone that changes everything or is this another futile attempt by an American drone company to dethrone the king? Well today I'm going to tell you why I think the Skydio could not only survive but even thrive among the giant that is DJI. Also I'm going to briefly address a slightly related topic, the introduction of the American Security Drone Act of 2019 in the U.S. Senate. Now this video isn't going to be heavy on the specs about the new Skydio I will mention a few things that I'm pretty fired up about but instead I want to introduce you to the team behind this potentially scale tipping drone and why I think this is only the beginning for American drone companies. Then what I'm going to do is I'm going to tell you what I'm most excited about on the Skydio 2. So let's get into it. So first of all let's call it what it is, it's a monopoly. DJI is a monopoly. With 75% of the drone market share right now, it looks like nothing can budge them from the top of the hill. Well nothing except the American government crafting make-believe stories about national security concerns from drones the size of a Starbucks Trenta cup. Welcome to 51 Drones everyone, this is a channel where you will find a variety of high quality camera drone content, things like reviews, tutorials and such as well as some other tech related product reviews. So subscribe if you like what you see today. So real quick first of all let's talk about that bill. Now this bill is about one company, it's about DJI and it's an attempt by some ill-informed politicians to dissuade American agencies from giving American money to China. Now in case you haven't heard about this bill, basically what it is, it was introduced recently and it basically states that no government funded entity is allowed to purchase or use drones from China or Iran. They claim it's because that those drones may be used to spy on us. Excuse me. This bill has nothing to do with national security. Putting the words American security in the title is just an insulting attempt at perking the ears of the people. Now what I like to do is whenever a bill is introduced in this country, I like to follow the money and see who is going to benefit from it. Now don't get me wrong, I'm all about buying American as much as I possibly can because driving innovation is the key to our progress and our success. But I think that you should do it by making a better product, not by stifling and restricting something just because they are kicking our butts. And when it comes to drones, we all know no one can argue that DJI is kicking our butts. They are the best in the world right now. Now many have tried but nothing has even come close to what they can do. But now just maybe one American company has broken the code. And they broke it not just with a product but with the people behind the product. Skydio with the recently announced R2 drone has the potential to chip away at DJI's market share. And the coolest thing about this drone is that what sets it apart is the software and the people behind it. Skydio is a drone company no doubt but let's look at their team to gain an understanding of why this drone is different. Now the founders Adam Bry, Abe Bachrach and Matt Donahoe, I hope I didn't butcher their names, they all attended MIT together and both Adam and Abe worked as software engineers at Google's Project Wing. And then Donahoe was a gaming engineer before he came to Skydio. These guys are software mavens. The brains of the Skydio 2 is a result of a collaboration of the perfect storm of software engineers. Now another guy to mention here from this very impressive team is a guy named Ross Jaeger, the embedded software team lead. I'm pretty sure that this guy is an android. His resume is unbelievable. And finally the hardware guy Ben Thompson who worked for Northrop Grumman and Tesla as a mechanical engineer wraps up the brains of the R2 into the perfect symphony of components bringing us quite possibly the smartest most efficient drone ever made. The other thing to consider when it comes to the future of this company is how well backed it is. It has financial support from some of the biggest venture capitalist companies around including Andreessen Horowitz and IVP. I think the Skydio 2 is just the beginning for this company. Now at this point they're putting all of their efforts into drones as that's where the fire is hot right now but with their collective knowledge and experience I see them going well beyond drones in the future. Now I know I'm sure I left out many valuable members of the Skydio team but I wanted to highlight the ones that I found to be most interesting. This team could pretty much build whatever they wanted and succeed at it. The Skydio 2 is the Tesla of the skies and I think this is just the beginning. So let's take a look at my favorite things about this Skydio 2. So first of all for action enthusiasts this drone is perfect. Why? Because instead of worrying about where your drone is while you're navigating your vehicle or whatever you're riding on you can safely maneuver whatever you're driving and let the Skydio do all of the work. Autonomy is the future and knowing that you will always be in the frame is very comforting. You don't have to worry about anything. The Skydio 2 I think is what the GoPro Karma should have been. The second thing that's attractive to me is the price. For a thousand to thirteen hundred dollars what you are getting with this drone is an incredible bang for your buck. The first version the Skydio 1 was just too far out of range for most people. This price point makes the Skydio 2 within reach of a much broader market. The third thing that's very exciting to me is what's called the beacon. It's an optional item that you can get for the Skydio 2 and what it does it uses GPS to track the subject so even if the drone loses line of sight when it's tracking you it still can use that beacon to know where you are at all times. DJI drones rely solely on the sensors for tracking and are quite honestly easily distracted. ActiveTrack 2.0 is much better than the original but it's nowhere near the ability to track outside line of sight. Now as a content creator and a photographer and a videographer the next thing that I'm really excited about on this drone is that 4k at 60 frames per second capable camera that has a dynamic range of 13 stops. That is incredibly useful especially if you're going to be flying among the trees on a sunny day or you're flying in where there's a lot of shaded areas along with a lot of bright sunshine. Having the ability to capture all of the highs and the lows makes post-production a breeze and that's if you even need to do any post-editing. And then finally the most attractive thing about this drone, the biggest appeal, is that it's touted as the most crash-proof drone ever created. Now that claim is yet to be tested when I get it here in a couple of months but if it holds true this could be the most perfect drone for anyone wanting to get into drones for the first time. I know that when I got my first drone my Mavic Pro I had significant anxiety every time I put it into the air for about two months. With the Skydio 2 new pilots are going to have that same anxiety but after just a couple of flights they will be put at ease. And then one more thing I guess I probably should mention is that when you buy a Skydio 2 it comes with a full warranty at no extra charge. So as long as you fly safely the drone crashes they will fix it no questions asked and at no cost to you. Now that is unheard of and a much welcome offering as we've all read about the trials and tribulations that go along with current warranty claims with other well-known companies. I think the Skydio 2 is an industry changer and I look forward to bringing you everything about it. So be sure to subscribe so you don't miss anything. Down in the comments post any questions that you have about the Skydio 2 or maybe any testing that you'd like to see done with the Skydio 2 when I get it and I'll try to do as much of it as I can. If you got anything of value out of this video today please hit that thumbs up button on your way out. Also for behind the scenes content and exclusive early release content check out my Patreon I'll put it right there go ahead and click on that that's going to take you to my Patreon page and that's where you can get some additional content that you can't see here on the channel. I want to thank you for watching today have a great day and as always fly safe and fly smart.