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BUSINESS Saturday 12 September 2020
Drone maker hurt by U.S.-China rift, opening door to U.S. rivals

By MATT O'BRIEN roof near the city's cen-
AP Technology Writer ter, said Clovis police Lt.
Skateboarders, surfers and James Munro. He said the
mountain bikers used to department typically uses
be the target customers its fleet of about a dozen
for California startup Sky- DJI drones because of
dio, a maker of high-end their durability and infrared
drones that can home in night vision, but is also ex-
on people and capture perimenting with a Skydio
their movements on video drone because of its ability
all by themselves. Now po- to home in on an officer or
lice officers, firefighters and suspect.
soldiers are interested in the "You can put a little dot on
self-flying machines. the person and the drone
That's partly because U.S. will follow them," Munro
national security concerns said.
about the world's dominant Kumar, the Penn engineer-
consumer drone-maker, ing dean who also found-
China-based DJI, have up- ed a startup that sends
ended the market for small drones into mines, said it's
drones and opened the not easy to shift from hob-
door to lesser-known com- by drones to commercial
panies pitching applica- applications. Aerial robots
tions for government agen- This June 22, 2018, photo shows a Skydio R1 drone in Redwood City, Calif. Skateboarders, surfers consume a lot of power,
cies and big businesses. and YouTube stars used to be the target customers for California drone startup Skydio, which limiting how long their mis-
Companies like Skydio are builds sophisticated self-flying machines that can follow people around and capture their best sions can last — one reason
also tapping into a tech- moves on video. Associated Press he said that payload-car-
nological revolution that rying delivery drone efforts
could do away with the "Do you trust DJI drones?" its drone business in 2018 we take care of our own." spearheaded by Amazon
need for human pilots to said promotional mate- and other companies have Nordfors said he sometimes and Google haven't yet
put drones through each rial teasing the launch of a struggled to build afford- uses a Skydio drone to scout taken off.
one of their paces. Instead, new product this summer able devices. a riverbed or for other day- Navigating safely with full
advanced artificial intelli- from French drone-maker "Once you get one, it's not time tasks that require the autonomy is also difficult,
gence is starting to power Parrot. "Don't trust Chinese real clear what you do with drone to fly by itself with- he said.
drones that can follow hu- drones," said another Parrot it as a consumer," said tech out hitting a tree. Skydio, "Skydio has taken on this
mans and other targets on promotion. industry analyst William founded by engineers who challenge of developing
their own. Robotics experts "They're the dominant in- Stofega of IDC. worked on Google's de- vision-only platforms in all
say Skydio's cutting-edge cumbent and we're the Stofega said that's one rea- livery drone venture Wing, kinds of conditions," he
AI makes its drones ap- scrappy American under- son why drone companies employs computer vision said. "That's really hard to
pealing as reconnaissance dog," Skydio CEO Adam are tailoring their products rather than satellite-based do."
tools, as does its made-in- Bry said in an interview. for government or commer- GPS to move its drones DJI doesn't yet offer such
America vibe. "There's a real opportunity cial tasks such as inspecting around — enabling them autonomy, but Kumar said
"There's a lot of anti-China for U.S. companies to lead pipelines, monitoring crops to "see" and autonomously it won't easily be beaten. It
rhetoric," said Vijay Kumar, the way." or police surveillance. Sky- navigate around obsta- was first to really capitalize
a drone entrepreneur and The Defense Department in dio last year hired a retired cles. on the consumer potential
the dean of engineering at August gave a seal of ap- Southern California police But mostly Nordfors uses of drones and has built out
the University of Pennsylva- proval to Skydio, Parrot and captain to pitch its drones a remote-controlled DJI a strong manufacturing
nia. three other firms to supply to law enforcement. drone — such as the one and supply chain capacity.
Years before President U.S.-manufactured drones DJI has made a push to that helped his team track "It's amazing to me that we
Donald Trump cited spy- to agencies across the counter the security con- down a lost teenager this discriminate against DJI be-
ing concerns in pushing federal government. "We cerns, most recently with summer in Waterfall Can- cause we think that com-
to ban popular Chinese- need an alternative to Chi- a Wednesday announce- yon, a rugged hiking area pany can spy on us," said
owned apps TikTok and nese-made small drones," ment that it will enable an north of Salt Lake City. "He Kumar. "Are they a national
WeChat and ratcheting up Mike Brown, director of the internet "kill switch" on more was so thrilled," Nordfors security threat? I don't be-
sanctions against Chinese Defense Innovation Unit, drones so that commercial said of the 19-year-old. lieve so. Are they innova-
telecom giant Huawei, said in a statement. and government users can "He was jumping up and tive? Absolutely. Do they
Shenzhen-based DJI was DJI has referred to U.S. ac- halt data transmission on down." attract top talent? Abso-
already under close watch tions against it as "part of a sensitive flying missions. Its At the Clovis Police Depart- lutely. Some of my best stu-
as a potential national se- politically-motivated agen- products, while off-limits to ment in California's Central dents have gone to DJI."q
curity threat. da" to reduce market com- some federal agencies, are Valley, officers also have a
A document from U.S. cus- petition and support Ameri- still favored by many local choice of drones they can
toms authorities alleged in can technology "regardless and regional governments dispatch to be a "first re-
2017 that DJI drones likely of its merits." in the U.S. sponder" at crime scenes
provided China with ac- The attacks on DJI's repu- "If an enemy of the United — at least before the haze
cess to U.S. critical infra- tation and bans on its use States wants to see me of nearby forest fires tem-
structure and law enforce- in the military and some looking for someone on porarily grounded them.
ment data. DJI denied the other federal agencies a mountain, so be it," said The department doesn't
allegation. As political con- have coincided with a Kyle Nordfors, drone team have its own helicopter,
cerns grew, its rivals have lull in demand for pricey coordinator for the mostly but officers can get their
increasingly seized on the personal drones as their volunteer search-and-res- eyes and ears out to a
opportunity to pile on the novelty wore off. Camera- cue crew of Weber Coun- scene quickly by piloting
anti-DJI sentiment. maker GoPro abandoned ty, Utah. "They can see how the drones from atop a