"Autel" was never "Autel".
Autel was never a "mom and pop" anything.
"Autel" has always been a USA based subidiary of Autel China, maker of automotive diagnostic tools.
Autel USA is:
www.auteldrones.com
Autel Robotics China (drone division and parent to Autel USA) is:
www.autelrobotics.com
Autel China (parent to Autel Robotics China drone division) is
www.autel.com
The physical presense of Autel USA is in Bellingham Washington, and they are owned and work for Autel Robotics China.
They started small as an offshoot of the existing company and are investing more and more in their products in an effort to compete with DJI and other Drone manufactures in the US market.
As for the explorer app. Yea, it's not great, but it's not the worst either, and the new drones Nano, and lite, and perhaps Evo III will have a new app.
It remains to be seen if they've invested more in software as well as hardware. I hope so.