I’m a strong supporter for manufactures NOT to self impose flight restrictions of any sort… unless ALL participate & perform the same… voluntarily or govt requirements. None or All… but that won’t happen mainly due to market share & liabilities.
Similar to 1950’s Auto manufactures adopting seat belts voluntarily to prevent law suits… that developed later into law to “equip“ cars with belts… suits continued and lobbying pushed new law requiring seatbelts to be worn. Again, “requesting“ didn’t work; placing a light on dash failed, adding an obnoxious “dinger” failed… simply unpluged & bypassed… and that was life saving in comparison to hovering over a neighbor’s home or local football game.
The primary reason DJI does GeoZoning is to CYA for their own protection from legal suits. Being the high majority of consumer / prosumer sUAV’s, their products are the majority that are purchased by newbies,pleasure hobbyist, and carefree attitude. The suggestion of warning or notices on screen is essentially useless to high majority of casual flyers… it’ll be ignored and openingly flown in public eye presenting “drones” as negative and something the Public should have concern... evolved from irresponsible practice of non-professionals that all sUAV now endure… especially the Professional.
Those are probably the 2 main reasons we’re entertaining various new levels of control by Govt. If it hadn’t been abused over the last 5-10yrs, if casual flyers respected the existing casual regulations, gave attention to society protection, extended curtesy over roofs & back yards, didn’t abuse public attractions, and didn’t use the drone as a neighbor aerial “pest“ it wouldn’t have the General Public negative correlation it so boldly carries.
That unrestricted behavior resulted in encouraged civil suits of trespassing, spying & harassment, etc. Many lost the court battle; which simply encouraged pushing local ordinances & laws… several of those lost which inturn motivated Govt bodies to create new laws and pressuring Federal legislators to modify FAA regulations.
I’m pretty confident if Autel had the DJI market density and level of law suits brought forth similar to DJI for the idiots creating problems… Autel would provide a form of control too… much lower cost preventing than suit compensations.
That being stated… I do believe we’re on a short road where all sUAV Manufacturers will have requirements to limit & control similar to DJI… all moot soon most likely. The instruments & tools now being introduced within new regulations will easily allow additional future capabilities to monitor, regulate & enforce.
In the interim, applying a simplistic certificate hack to remove DJI’s restrictions isn’t difficult nor improper. I personally think DJI should offer this “tool” themselves with the signed-off acknowledgement all risks & liabilities assumed by Owner, not Manufacturer. To regulate this to solely PT107 certified, when 4+ other Manufactures provide similar unrestricted to everyone… again, All in or out.
Although should be noted, M3 has no known ability to apply a false certificate… it would be limited to GeoZone & Altitude. As well as recent new FW for older platforms.
I currently share the decision question to purchase M3 or
EVO2. I‘m thinking a
EVO2 Enterprise would be a nice addition… although Autel has multiple issues as Company and
EVO2 has it’s share of issues to resolve… which if were DJI, the majority would have already been addressed within first 6-8 months… not nearly 2 Yrs later without much attention.
Another concern, The EVO is about the age of Mavic 2 Pro… released 2018, the Mavic Pro released 2016. The EVO is already a dead craft to Autel, soon EOL… batteries & parts soon discontinued this Winter. The 2 yr “older“ Mavic Pro remains an active craft, fully supported & serviced by DJI and the equal EVO aged 2018 M2P/Z still fully in it’s Prime. Will the support and availability outlast the newer 2020
EVO2 Pro... in a lesser degree it already has regarding the v1 electronic components that may impact repairs in near future for 1st Gen. Regarding sales, the
EVO2 v1 has pretty much lost resale value when ver2 released.
Not counting the rumored EVO3 release… it’s not even a reality… scant rumors even. Plus the publicly announced Nano & Lite aren‘t even a certainty to shelf product. I also had plans for the
Lite+… that‘s faded a bit too.
Would like to see Autel grow and gain strength… support their aging products and release new FW & App versions addressing current issues and new features. It’s a certainty DJI will correct the majority of issues and add features.