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Podcast propulsé par MaxxisInstallée à Millau, au cœur d'un territoire taillé pour les sports outdoor, Wish One ne se contente pas de fabriquer des vélos de gravel en carbone made in France. Depuis ses débuts, la marque participe activement à l'émergence du gravel sous sa forme sportive et compétitive.Derrière le projet, deux profils complémentaires : Maxime Poisson, ancien footballeur professionnel et entrepreneur passionné de vélo, et François-Xavier Blanc, ancien VTTtiste de haut niveau et chargé chez Mavic de développement produit ont construit une marque qui mêle innovation industrielle, ancrage territorial et engagement dans l'univers du gravel race.Après avoir organisé en France l'une des premières épreuves UCI Gravel World Series, Wish One franchit une nouvelle étape en devenant partenaire du Gravel'Tour organisé par LVO Organisation. Un partenariat qui interroge la manière dont une marque peut contribuer au développement d'une pratique tout en affirmant son identité.Retrouvez les liens :Wish One Grands Causses : https://wishonegravelrace.com/LVO Organisation : https://cycling-challenge.fr/gravel-tour-wish-one/Tribe Sport Group : https://www.tribesportgroup.com/Hébergé par Ausha. Visitez ausha.co/politique-de-confidentialite pour plus d'informations.

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The future of war has been evolving before our eyes in Ukraine, yet the west still plans to fight the last war. In this special episode, guest host Noah Smith (@noahpinion) and Brandon Anderson sit down with Yaroslav Azhnyuk (@YaroslavAzhnyuk), a serial tech founder who went from building PetCube to founding The Fourth Law, one of the world's most advanced AI-guided drone companies. Over two hours we cover the technology, tactics, and geopolitics of drone warfare, and why the modern battlefield has already left the West behind:* Yaroslav's personal history and the Ukraine war [00:01:04 – 00:14:01]* The modern drone tech stack: why FPV drones are the new god of war, the future of the rifleman, fiber optic vs. AI, five levels of autonomy, and the eight dimensions of the autonomous battlefield [00:14:01 – 01:05:13]* The geopolitics and economics of drones: China's manufacturing advantage, the drone race, Western defense readiness, countermeasures, and why the gap is widening [01:05:13 – 01:58:57]For those looking for Noah Smith's commentary, it really gets going around the 00:51:31 mark.Yaroslav Azhnyuk / The Fourth Law:* X: https://x.com/YaroslavAzhnyuk* LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yaroslavazhnyuk/* The Fourth Law: https://thefourthlaw.aiNoah Smith:* Substack: Noah Smith * X: https://x.com/noahpinionTimestamps00:00:00 Cold Open: China's 4 Billion Drones and the Cameras-to-Explosives Pipeline00:01:04 Introduction: Brandon, Noah Smith, and Yaroslav Azhnyuk00:05:41 From Tech Entrepreneur to Defense: PetCube, Brave One, and the D3 Fund00:10:42 The Ethics of Building Weapons: Dual-Use Technology and the Wolf at the Door00:14:01 The Tech Stack: Cameras, Autonomy Modules, Interceptors, and a Semiconductor Fab00:18:47 Fiber Optic vs. AI: The Radio Horizon Problem and $32/km Cable00:25:32 FPV Drones: The New God of War — 70–80% of Frontline Casualties00:28:28 The Five Levels of Drone Autonomy: From Terminal Guidance to Full Autonomy00:41:37 The Eight Dimensions of the Autonomous Battlefield00:45:32 AI Safety and the Morality of Autonomous Weapons00:51:31 The End of the Rifleman? Noah's 2013 Prediction vs. Battlefield Reality01:05:13 China's Manufacturing Advantage and Western Vulnerabilities01:24:21 Policy Advice for Western Defense: Defense Valley and the Widening Gap01:32:54 The Drone Race: Who's Ahead, Category by Category01:41:57 Countermeasures: Shotguns, Jammers, Lasers, and Fishnets01:58:19 The Wedding and Final Takeaway: Be Prepared for WarTranscriptCold Open: China, FPV Drones, and the New Warning SignYaroslav [00:00:00]: Think about this. Last year, Ukraine produced 4 million FPV drones. Ukraine is not the most industrious nation in the world. China can produce 4 billion of these FPV drones.Noah [00:00:10]: Would you say that right now China is now the supreme conventional military power on Earth, given its ability to manufacture and deploy drones in the quantity and quality that you just described?Yaroslav [00:00:20]: I don't think we have all the information to claim that but we cannot count it out, and that alone should be a big warning sign. As I say, at some point in my life I went from making cameras that fling treats to pets to cameras that fling explosives to the occupiers. So that's the short story. And when you think about what your nation, what your patriots are going through, you realize that's the only morally right thing to do is to fight back, and it is immoral not to fight back, and then the choice becomes very clear.Introduction: Yaroslav Azhnyuk, Petcube, and the Last Flight into KyivBrandon [00:01:04]: Welcome to Latent Space. I'm Brandon. I normally do science podcasts, but today we're going to do something a little bit different. I'm joined by Noah Smith of Noahpinion on Substack and Twitter. And he has lots of interesting things to say about drones. And as a guest, we have Yaroslav Azhnyuk, founder of The Fourth Law and several other, drone-related startups. To get started, it is February 23rd, 2022. You are running a pet startup. You're connecting pets with their owners. Let's go in just a little bit of background. How did you get started in tech, and what were you working on before the Ukrainian war started?Yaroslav [00:01:50]: Good to be here. Thank you. On February 23rd, late in the evening, 11:00 PM Kyiv time, my wife and I landed in Kyiv. Actually, then she was a fiance. We came from Lviv, where we were looking at a church, where our wedding should have taken place. And we got into this cab ride from the airport to our home, and the driver was like, “You crazy. Like, everyone's leaving Kyiv. Why do you come?” We're like, “What? Nothing's going to happen. Dude, chill.” And then obviously, eight minutes later, or eight hours later, the bombs fell in the city. It was quite surreal. We probably landed on the last flight that landed in Kyiv, or one of those last flights. My background, I'm a tech guy. Studied applied mathematics in Kyiv Polytechnics, born and raised in Kyiv. My parents are old PhDs from academia, and grandparents too. Like, everything, from linguistics to nuclear physics. And I'm an entrepreneur, so I've built a bunch of companies. Petcube is the one you were referencing. So I lived in San Francisco 2014 to 2020, building Petcube, which is one of the leading, pet device companies in the world, selling lots of pet cameras. And then, yeah, as I say, at some point in my life I went from making cameras that fling treats to pets to cameras that fling explosives to the occupiers. So that's the short story.February 24th: Leaving Kyiv as the Invasion BeginsNoah [00:03:28]: February 24th, I guess a few hours after you, go to check out your wedding chapel, what do you do?Yaroslav [00:03:37]: We had a plan for this situation. So my parents and family live in Kyiv, and we're like, “Okay, this has actually started. The worst has, come true.” And so we basically packed our belongings and got in the car and spent 17 hours driving west. And that was pretty sure most people in our audience watched at least one apocalyptic movie in their life, so that was exactly like that. Like, felt exactly like that. Missiles are falling. Like, there was smoke in Kyiv. Like, my dad and I went, like, to central part of the cities. It's probably, likeYaroslav [00:04:20]: 800 meters from presidential office, to pick some stuff up at his workplace. Because he's, like, the head of an academic institution, so he had to get some of the things with him. And super surreal. Like, the streets are empty. Like, the gas stations are out of gas. Like, we found some gas station. We didn't have, like, spare canisters with us, so we're like, We figured out, like, the car was diesel, so like, we figured out, if it's diesel, you can actually store it in plastic, canisters, and we bought some window wash for the cars. We poured it out of the canisters, and we poured the diesel into that. Yeah, so it was like that. And then, like, helping friends get out, like my friend and his dog. Like, we found Like, my brother was also, like, riding in a separate car. We found a place for my friend who didn't have a car. It was like, yeah, it was like, totally surreal. And we didn't know of course, and you didn't know this will last for so long. You didn't know whether Ukraine will be able to defend Kyiv. And it was like, yeah, very little information and very little insight into future.From Pet Cameras to Defense Tech: Building for Ukraine and the Free WorldNoah [00:05:42]: What are your thoughts with regards to how do you, defend, Ukraine? So you eventually start building drones Like, what is the process to get from there from where you were building, devices that connect owners with pets to building drones, and what other things did you do to help the war effort in the process?Yaroslav [00:06:07]: It's definitely non-trivial, right? Like, I didn't go, to I didn't get any, like, military education when I was a student. Like, normally, in Ukraine, you would, you would go to like, this military school even if you're getting higher education in any other, sphere. I decided to skip that which is like, an unusual way to go. And I never thought that I will be somehow engaged in a war effort. Like, what is war? Of course, wars are over. It's the end of history. So one thing you got to understand about, like, many Ukrainians and like, I guess, it's also true about most of the people I met here in the US, that your who you are in terms of your nationality is a big part of your identity. So when that gets under attack, it's something deeper than just the country you live in gets under attack, right? And I Day one, I figured I'm going to I'm going to fight back with everything I can, right? But I didn't think on day one that I'm actually going to do, weapons. And a bunch of things. We were reaching out to a number of American, congresspeople and senators, and basically advocating for support of Ukraine, for voting for lend lease, which has happened in May 2022, but didn't actually work as expected. We helped start, Brave One, which is now a very important defense innovation cluster, sort of like a DIU here in the US. We helped start, a fund called D3. It's like, it was started or co-started by Eric Schmidt, former CEO of Google. So a bunch of these odd things, but then eventually I was like, “Okay,”by 2023 it was obvious this thing, A is going to last a lot more time, and B, that the whole world is shifting and that there's going to be a new arms race, that the warfare is redefined by drones as platforms. And for the first time in history, you have a platform that is software defined, that can increase your battlefield capabilities, in a in a step change just overnight. So it's like if you were able to push a software update and get all of your Roman legionnaires a new helmet? That has never been possible before. It's the first time in the history of war this is possible. So all of that and many other things like, supply chain fragilization, and the impact that AI is going to have on all of this all these things have become evident to me in 2023, and it's like, “Okay, I should do what I do best, or what I know how to do best, start a tech company, and sort of leverage the global techno capitalist machine, to provide, defensibility to Ukraine and the free world.” So that's literally the mission of the company, increase defensibility of Ukraine and the free world. And then there was some sort of soul-searching and like, asking yourself. It's like, “Okay, am I Actually, I know nothing about weapons. Am I actually, like, ready to make, things that other people use to kill other bad people?”Yaroslav [00:09:36]: When you think about what your nation, what your Compatriots are going through And think about all the terror of places like Bucha, the occupied cities in the east and south, the abducted children, the raped women, all the economic damage that's being done, and the intention to destroy a whole nation, to genocide the people of Ukraine, you realize that's the only morally right thing to do is to fight back, and it is immoral not to fight back. And then the choice becomes very clear. And look, we're just passing the ammunition. We're not doing the actual job. The actual fighters and defenders and heroes are people in the armed forces. We're just support.The Moral Question: Weapons, Responsibility, and Fighting BackNoah [00:10:33]: I have so many questions. Actually, I know you seem to have a question. Do you want to ask anything?Yaroslav [00:10:38]: No, I'm just listening. Go ahead.Noah [00:10:40]: I do want to talk about, some of let's say, the moral issues, like you just said. You endYaroslav [00:10:50]: I think there are no issues there.Yaroslav [00:10:52]: What would an example of a moral question be in this case?Noah [00:10:55]: No, I mean Okay. As you just said, you are creating the tools, but others are using them.Noah [00:11:05]: I was maybe thinking of having this conversation later, but one of the questions is like, is it actually you are going to be building them for your homeland, which you are building it for your homeland, which is I think, very a strong morally defensible position, but this technology is not going to stay with you, right?Noah [00:11:26]: This you will probably be selling these to other people Yeah. So the future is really where the moral issues may come into playYaroslav [00:11:38]: The this question becomes, easier and more complete if we ask this not about a particular technology or particular weapon, if we think that this question actually applies to any kind of technology Right? So -Knife or fire. You can use knife to do surgery and save people's lives, or you can use it as a weapon to take people's lives.Noah [00:12:06]: Cut tomatoes, too.Yaroslav [00:12:08]: Cut tomatoes too.Noah [00:12:09]: Yes, knife.Yaroslav [00:12:09]: That's helpful.Noah [00:12:10]: In Japan, sword and knife, they, call the same word.Yaroslav [00:12:14]: It's like, it's with any technology. Large language models, right? Look at how powerful they are and yet they're available to anyone in North Korea or in Russia.Yaroslav [00:12:29]: That's one side of the argument. The other side is As a maker, what is your responsibility for how the tools you're creating, will be used? There's definitely some responsibility, right? Then How should the decision process look like? Should you, like, try to calculate all the possible scenarios before starting to work on something? Or do you create something that is needed now to save people's lives, and then think about, addressing the unwanted edge cases later? In ideal world where there's like, or okay, it's not ideal world. In a mythical world where there is some one governing party and it gets to decide everything, and there is no other country, that can, decide on their own, you could say, “Well, we need to calculate for all the consequences, and only then, maybe build this building, by replacing this park because, maybe we need this park in the city,”right? So that kind of situation. But when you're in a situation where you're in a forest, in front of a wolf, you first going to deal with the wolf that wants to eat you, and then you're going to go consult Greenpeace. So that's kind of situation that Ukraine is in.The Fourth Law, Odd Systems, and Ukraine's Drone StackNoah [00:13:59]: Enough. Because this is a tech podcast, I did want to spend some time talking about, sort of the tech in that you've developed and what you've been working on. So can you explain, I guess, first of all, like, the problem that you were trying to solve from a technical standpoint? And I think, and then maybe, like, go into some of the solutions and some of the design process that led you from designing, little laser-guided, guiding lasers with a with an iPhone versus Having drones.Yaroslav [00:14:34]: Like, it so happened, that my partners and I, we sort of So I started one company called The Fourth Law, and its goal was and is to Make, massively scalable on-drone autonomy. And then In parallel with that together with my, Petcube co-founders, partners, and friends, we started another company called Odd Systems Which, was focused on making thermal cameras. Cameras, thermal cameras are seeing thermal radiation and are used to see at night. And we're now sort of those companies are getting closer and closer together and we're probably going to merge them. And this group of companies is currently the leading, team in on-drone AI and thermal imaging on the Ukrainian battlefield, and Likely one of the leading, if not the leading in the world. So We have these, like, three sort of business units, which are cameras, drone autonomy, and drones. So the cameras and drone autonomy sell daytime and nighttime cameras and different types of drone autonomous modules to other drone manufacturers, over 200 drone manufacturers in Ukraine. And then the UAV, business unit sells the drones themselves to the armed forces of Ukraine, Ukrainian government. And there are different types of drones. Those are sort of front strike, as we call them, so those are sort of FPV strike drones and the bombers, and then interceptors. And there are different kinds of interceptors. We do Shahed interceptors and we do ISR interceptors. We don't do the deep strike-FPV Drones, Interceptors, and Battery-Powered WarfareNoah [00:16:32]: What's an ISR interceptor?Yaroslav [00:16:33]: ISR is stands for intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, and those are basically drones which are which, Russians are using to watch over positions and then communicate where, the targets are coming.Noah [00:16:48]: It's a reconnaissance.Yaroslav [00:16:48]: That's, the ISR is sort of a classical term for a for a reconnaissance drone.Noah [00:16:53]: Are all of these battery-powered drones that you just described? ‘Cause I know that the sort of deep strike drones still have, like Some sort ofYaroslav [00:17:01]: Internal combustion engine?Noah [00:17:02]: Internal combustion engine. Are all the things you're talking about battery-powered?Yaroslav [00:17:06]: What we're working on is all battery-powered, right? We don't do the deep strikes, right? And then in terms of autonomy-Noah [00:17:12]: You can catch a Shahed with a battery-powered thing. It's not Fast to catch.Yaroslav [00:17:17]: No, absolutely. Look, Shahed interceptor, like ours, it's called Zero, it goes up to 326 kilometers per hour.Noah [00:17:26]: For reference, how fast is a Shahed?Yaroslav [00:17:28]: Eight, like, in internal phase it could be 280, but in cruise phase it's, like, 220-ish.Yaroslav [00:17:36]: Yeah. And sorry, I'm not like you can convert that into miles if you're interested.Noah [00:17:41]: No, that's fine.Noah [00:17:41]: Multiply by two thirds or point six or something.Yaroslav [00:17:44]: That's easy. Yeah, I was saying that for autonomy modules, right, we, -We make systems, autonomous systems for frontline, for interceptors and some for deep strikes as well, and then different levels of autonomy. So from terminal guidance, which is like lasts 500 meters, give or take, to autonomous bombing, to autonomous target detection, to autonomous navigation and all of that across day and night, different terrains, different time of the year, different platforms like quadcopters and fixed wing, and maybe some other platforms. So it's quite a wide variety of products. We also have like our own simulation. We have our own training school for the war fighters. And we're about to start construction of two, semiconductor plants to make, sensors for thermal cameras. So that's super exciting for me as a computer science guy is Doing semiconductors. Super cool.Noah [00:18:49]: Like in terms of kind of core drone technologies, you basically are one is an FPV replacement without fiber optics, and the other isYaroslav [00:18:59]: YouNoah [00:18:59]: Signal tracking with interceptorsYaroslav [00:19:00]: With or without fiber optics. Fiber optics Is just like, sort of a communication module.Yaroslav [00:19:05]: You can, you can use classical analog, video link and radio link. Those would be two separate radios. You can do digital, or you can do fiber optic, and then fiber optic Has its own advantages but also adds weight and decreases, the distance and decreases, how fast you can, sort of turn and With a drone. Yeah.Noah [00:19:33]: Do you need AI for fiber optic drones?Yaroslav [00:19:36]: Like you can use AI for fiber optic drones. AI replaces a human, right? Fiber optic is making your communication link more resilient. So those are slightly different goals. Like if you want, you can have, AI controlling hundreds of fiber optic drones instead of having 100 operators for each.Fiber Optics, Radio Horizons, and Terminal GuidanceNoah [00:20:03]: I guess I thought that the key reason that people moved to fiber optic drones was for like electronic, countermeasures. Or I guess to counter those.Yaroslav [00:20:13]: I think that's a correct assessment from sort of a public awareness standpoint. In practice it's somewhat more difficult Because besides electronic countermeasures, you have these issues of a radio horizon For FPV drones, which means that asYaroslav [00:20:36]: I believe Earth is round Some people disagree. But basically if you fly a drone and you have a land station over here and a drone flying over hereYaroslav [00:20:49]: If your drone is flying high, you have good direct radio visibility. If your drone goes low, and usually, Russian infantry and vehicles, they're on the ground and you want to hit them, you need to go low. Lower you go, maybe you'll get behind a hill or behind a forest, and if you're far enough, you'll just get behind the curvature of the earth. You get into what's called a radio shadow. And then That is a real bummer because for the last, be it 60 or 20 meters, you won't be able to see anything and it will be very difficult to hit the target. So to counter that what-- And then the distances that these FPV drones, act on they're, they can be quite large. So for example, here in the US there was this drone dominance program competition, and in drone dominance the furthest distance was about 10 kilometers.Noah [00:21:44]: What was drone dominance? What was that competition?Yaroslav [00:21:47]: Drone, the drone dominance is a is a program started, by the US government, to accelerate the development of drone technology here in the US.Noah [00:21:57]: Got it. And the longest range thing they were using was 10 kilometers.Yaroslav [00:22:00]: Was 10 kilometers, right. In Ukraine, like if your drone doesn't fly at least 20, 25, it just, no one's interested in it, and the usual hits are happening. It was like, okay, many hits are happening between 30 and 40 kilometers, and that's what expected from a regular 10-inch, FPV drone. So at that distance, even at altitudes of like 60 to 100 meters, you might start losing, the link. So some of the earlier AI technology that was fielded in FPV drone was this terminal guidance technology. That was the first product that we ever, launched that helped you as an operator, once you see the target from two, three, 500 meters, you lock onto the target and then, it just, drives the drone towards the target no matter what, even after you lost the visual connection. So optic fiber solves that. However, if you want to go like 20 kilometers with optic fiber, that will add an extra three kilos, of useful weight to your drone. SoNoah [00:23:12]: ‘Cause the cable that you have to unspool as you go weighs.Noah [00:23:15]: It is heavy.Yaroslav [00:23:15]: At first, like the spool is about 800 grams, so a bit less than a kilo, and then, and then think about 10, 10 kilometer optic fiber is another kilo, something like that. That takes away from your useful mass and then now you have like, you need a 15-inch drone and it can only carry maybe one or two kilos of explosives if you want to go, 20 kilometers. If you want to go to 30 or 40, like 30 is probably max. 40 is like very problem problematic on optic fiber. And then the problem with optic fiber is it's actually getting super expensive. So and why? Because of all the data centers for AI. That's literally the same optic fiber-Noah [00:24:01]: We're running out of centersYaroslav [00:24:02]: That's being used there.Yaroslav [00:24:02]: Like when Ukrainians and Russians come to Chinese factories to buy the optic fiber, they're like, “We're out. We sold it out to the Americans.”? That's the craziest thing. So optic fiber went up in price from like, $4 per, kilometer to like, $32 per kilometer in a few months in the beginning of this year. And I'veBrandon [00:24:26]: Claude Code is stopping the Russian drone effort here.Yaroslav [00:24:30]: Ukrainian as well. Yeah.Brandon [00:24:31]: Ukrainian. But I read somewhere that the Russians had grown more dependent on fiber optic drones relative to the Ukrainians, and that's one reason why the Ukrainians have sort of regained the initiative in drones recently.Brandon [00:24:42]: How accurate's that?Yaroslav [00:24:43]: The Russians were the first ones to scale that. I think by as of now, Ukraine has caught up. I think, like, as of maybe three months ago, Ukraine is mostly caught up on fiber optic. Yeah.Brandon [00:24:57]: What percent of damage would you say is in terms of FPV drone damage would you say is now fiber optic versus, like autonomous?FPVs as the New God of War: Tanks, Artillery, and Cost per KillYaroslav [00:25:07]: For our, for our audience, I actually, I cannot answer that question. Like, it's like I know the answer, but I would not disclose that. But for our audience, I think another interesting fact is out of all the casualties on the front line Between 70 and 80% are done by FPV drones.Brandon [00:25:30]: FPV drones are the new weapon of universal weapon of warfare.Yaroslav [00:25:34]: It'sBrandon [00:25:35]: Land warfare, anywayYaroslav [00:25:35]: They used to say that artillery is a god of war because artillery used to cause, like 80% of casualties, and now On that ranking-Brandon [00:25:46]: FPVYaroslav [00:25:47]: FPV drones rule.Brandon [00:25:48]: FPV drones are the god of war.Yaroslav [00:25:51]: Sort of. Dethroned artillery. But it's not to say that artillery is not useful, is not needed. Like, all of these systems are needed. Maybe except cavalry, although Russians still use it. I know, have you seen the videos of Russians using mules and horses?Brandon [00:26:09]: What is the usefulness-Yaroslav [00:26:10]: It'Brandon [00:26:10]: Of a tank in the in the modern-Yaroslav [00:26:11]: That's where we need Greenpeace to say a word, but they're silent. Yeah.Brandon [00:26:15]: What's the use of a tank on the modern battlefield?Yaroslav [00:26:21]: It's diminishing.Brandon [00:26:22]: Diminishing.Yaroslav [00:26:22]: However, I think there might be technologies which will, revive the tank. Look, tank still provides you armor, and armor is important. Like, you still need to armor and firepower, right? Like, you can be an armor personal carrier that provides you, armor. The challenge that currently exists is armor is not very well protected against incoming drones. However, there are ways to do to protect it. We were previously talking about this before the podcast. The CEO of Rheinmetall, recently sort of ridiculed, Ukrainian drone industry, saying that like, there is nothing interesting there, no real innovation, no to stand Compared to like, Rheinmetall or Boeing, and it's all made by housewives. There was like, obviously a ton of memes about this people ridiculing the CEO of Rheinmetall. And one of the best quotes, I heard on this topic is from my friend, Alexey Babenko, who's, the head of and founder of VIARI Drone, which is one of the largest manufacturers of FPV drones. They're our partner. They're using our autonomy. So he said that the drones we manufacture in one day will be more than enough to destroy all the tanks Rheinmetall manufactures in a year.Yaroslav [00:27:52]: Then, yeah, cost-wise, of course, a drone is like, $500 and a Rheinmetall tank is what, probably 5 million-ish or maybe more.Brandon [00:28:00]: Don't mess with those housewives.Yaroslav [00:28:03]: Drone wives.Brandon [00:28:04]: Drone wives.Yaroslav [00:28:06]: That's it.Noah [00:28:06]: There's a classic saying that everyone always fights the last war.Noah [00:28:12]: Yet do How did So from your standpoint, how did we get to the point where tanks became irrelevant in at least for now In a matter of just a few years?Yaroslav [00:28:24]: Look, I think it's the same way, how do we get to the point that calculators become irrelevant?Yaroslav [00:28:31]: Now we have iPhones. Like, why would you need a calculator? Technology progresses and its influence grows non-linearly. It's all exponential. So I can tell you that full autonomy, when you put it on a drone Look, so if you, if you think about a tank and a like, it's not a direct comparison, but even, like, a drone and a artillery shell or like, sort of cost per kill, an artillery shell for 155 caliber, which is a standard NATO caliber Currently market price is about $4,000 per piece. So compare that to say, $400 per drone. That's 10 times more expensive. Account for the amortization of the artillery gun and for how vulnerable it is and what is the sort of tactical, capabilities it gives you as compared to a drone. You'll figure out that an FPV drone is maybe three orders of magnitude, more versatile, more useful, more capable than artillery and many of than a classic artillery. Many of Because there are different types of artillery. Not just, like, one 155. You have mortars, you have all that. But give or take, roughly three orders of magnitude maybe. Again, it doesn't have that firepower. It's not one-to-one comparison still.Yaroslav [00:29:53]: Now, take that FPV drone. When you put full autonomy on that FPV drone, which can be not very expensive, like systems that we're, producing are like, in hundreds of dollars of pure bombFull Autonomy: From Human Pilots to Smartphone-Directed Drone MissionsNoah [00:30:06]: Just interrupt. You said full autonomy Just a second ago you were saying that the autonomy here is guidance, right? It's not decision-making.Yaroslav [00:30:14]: No, I was I was saying that's the f-First and sort of easiest pieces of autonomy that was fielded by us. But if you, if you add full autonomy to a droneBrandon [00:30:24]: He, I think he's asking what does it can you, for the listeners, can you explain What the term full autonomy means?Yaroslav [00:30:29]: Basically, I think a good way to think about an FPV drone is like an iPhone of warfare. It's, like, very inexpensive, very mass producible, very versatile. You don't need a bunch of other things when you have a iPhone in your pocket. You don't have, need an MP3 player, you don't need a calculator, don't need other things. All right? So FPV drone is an iPhone. Or like, okay, Apple please don't sue me, is a smartphone. And then, when you add autonomy to it sort of becomes like Uber or ride sharing. Okay? So what it means is instead of actually being a trained pilot who has this complex remote controller device which requires a couple months of training to actually pilot the drone, and then having to pilot it for 30 minutes, flying towards the target, et cetera, et cetera, now you basically, you have your smartphone, you have a drone, you pick your smartphone, you say, “We are here. The bad guys are here. Go and get them.” And the drone goes up, flies in a given direction, localizes itself on the map, finds the dedicated area where they, the bad guys are supposed to be sees the bad guys, bombs them, return, like, watches, so does a damage assessment, returns back, sits down, and then you can pick it up and watch the video if you didn't have the radio link, right?Noah [00:31:59]: That's a bomber drone.Yaroslav [00:32:00]: That's full autonomy for a bomber drone, right?Noah [00:32:03]: You're saying that no human decision is made in this entire process?Brandon [00:32:06]: That's not, that's not what he's saying.Yaroslav [00:32:07]: A human decision was made at the beginning of the process-Noah [00:32:09]: I get it. I get itYaroslav [00:32:09]: The same way as you would fire an artillery.Yaroslav [00:32:12]: When you fire an artillery, you don't stop at like, 500 meters away from a target and ask it whether, you want to strike or not. That's exactly, a human decision is always made at some point. So when you do that's full autonomy, and such full autonomy is happening as we speak. And such full autonomy increases the capabilities of an FPV drone, which is already, like, three orders more powerful than an artillery shell. Full autonomy increases its capabilities by four orders of magnitude because now you can have 100 times as many people who can use it, because you don't need to train those people, and this is important. You can have 10 times, mission success rate, and you can have 10 times utility per drone because now instead of being one-way kamikaze, it's, it can be a bomber.Brandon [00:33:05]: Now wait, let's, you said 10 times mission success rate, which means that fully autonomous bomber drones succeed in their missions 10 times more often than human piloted bomber drones do. That's an important thing to know.Noah [00:33:17]: Maybe, to push back onBrandon [00:33:19]: They're super, they're superhuman. They're, they' 10X superhuman.Yaroslav [00:33:22]: They're not vulnerable to electronic warfare. They don't care about the radio horizon. They don't lose track during navigation. They are not susceptible to human error when, an artillery shell or other drone blows up besides you and you're like, “Hell no,”like, “I'm getting out of here.” Right? That doesn't happen to an autonomous drone. Like, all of those things. Like, we have, like, one of the brigades that's using our drones with just first level autonomy They literally said that their success rates-Brandon [00:33:53]: What's first level autonomy?Yaroslav [00:33:54]: First level autonomy is just the terminal guidance.Yaroslav [00:33:57]: By the way, we have video of that. We can watch that.Brandon [00:33:59]: Terminal guidance means a human gets it nearby and then the AI takes over.Yaroslav [00:34:03]: The human flies it all the way, like 30 kilometers towards the target, and obviously the target was probably given to that human by someone who's flying some ISR drone, some reconnaissance drone, right? So all the way to the target, and once you see the target from a distance of 500 meters, you do target lock, and from there drone flies autonomous. So just that feature alone, it has increased the guy's, his call sign is Grom, so it has increased his, mission success rate, like precision of mission, yeah, mission success rate from 20% to 71%, and it also increased his kill zone from three kilometers to 10 kilometers, which means there's certain area around the front line which is designated kill zone. Whenever enemy goes into that area, it's almost guaranteed to be to be destroyed by a drone. And then obviously the drones are not launched from like, the zero line. They're usually launched from like, minus 10 kilometer-Mission Success, Failure Modes, and the Five Levels of AutonomyBrandon [00:35:03]: What is a zero line?Yaroslav [00:35:05]: Zero line is sort of an imaginary line of control, of two conflicting forces.Brandon [00:35:14]: It's important to explain these things to a lot of the listeners who areYaroslav [00:35:17]: Thank you for askingBrandon [00:35:18]: Familiar with warfare.Noah [00:35:20]: Myself.Noah [00:35:20]: I'm one of those listeners.Brandon [00:35:20]: You said that level one autonomy, in other words just terminal guidance, just, like, human gets it to the finish line and then it goes over the finish line, increases mission success from 20 something percent to 71%, or something like that.Yaroslav [00:35:33]: Increases the kill zoneBrandon [00:35:34]: Increases the kill zoneYaroslav [00:35:34]: Three kilometers to 10 kilometers.Brandon [00:35:36]: Got it.Yaroslav [00:35:36]: On both parameters-Brandon [00:35:37]: What is full autonomy, dude? AndNoah [00:35:38]: Actually on real quick, can we define mission success and like, maybe in a way, what are the failure modes of missions?Brandon [00:35:44]: I have a guess what mission success is.Noah [00:35:46]: But I couldBrandon [00:35:47]: Get ‘em.Yaroslav [00:35:49]: No, but that's a very good question, in fact, because, even if you fly into the target, well, first the target can be damaged or destroyed. Those are two different modes. Then there can be different targets. A sole infantryman is one kind of target. A dugout where supposed there are some, enemies there is another kind of target, and a some mechanical equipment is another type of target. Radio emitting equipment, which, like, often, like, the targets that the military want to get more than anything else is the some enemy radio tower or something like that or some small radio dish that really makes life difficult in that area, in that combat area. So those are different targets, right? It can be destroyed, can be damaged.Then sometimes, the drone hits but doesn't explode. Like, that happens. And then, there are other failure modes. You didn't even reach the target because you were A jammed by electronic warfare; B, you lost the control over drone because of the radio horizon; C, you were jammed by a different type of electronic warfare that happens way before You hit the target area. It's, impacting your, video receiver. So like jamming on video or jamming on control are two different types of jamming. Then something malfunctioned on a drone, just a mechanical malfunction, maybe like a motor broke or like, whatever. So all of those are different failure modes. Yeah, or maybe you got lost, you're navigate navigating to your, to your target. That happens, too.Noah [00:37:41]: The Level one autonomy, basically you manage to point in a direction.Noah [00:37:49]: You go there, and then the last mile The drone taking over.Yaroslav [00:37:52]: We define this like, I define that but it sort of got picked up by the industry. We define five levels of autonomy. So level one is terminal guidance. It's what we just discussed. Level two is bombing. Level three is autonomous target detection and engagement decision. Level four is autonomous navigation. And level five is autonomous takeoff and landing.Noah [00:38:15]: Those are good things to knowYaroslav [00:38:16]: Those are five levels of autonomy. Now, if youNoah [00:38:19]: I have a question for you.Yaroslav [00:38:19]: Sorry. Like, let me finish withNoah [00:38:21]: SorryYaroslav [00:38:21]: Theoretical part.Noah [00:38:23]: What is Tesla running at right now?Yaroslav [00:38:25]: Tesla?Noah [00:38:25]: No, sorry.Yaroslav [00:38:26]: That's very good point. Like, it's exactly, it was inspired by the levels of self-driving autonomy.Noah [00:38:32]: Waymo's level five, right?Noah [00:38:35]: You just tell it where you want to go, it picks you up, and then you go there.Yaroslav [00:38:36]: I think, like, if you, if you look at the classic definitions of self-driving cars, Waymo is still, like, level four because it still requires even remote, but still, like, human control. It's like if Waymo gets in trouble, there is an operator who takes over and resolves this. So that would still be a level four. It doesn't map directly, but it's also five levels.Brandon [00:38:58]: Can I, can I interject a question here? In terms of an FPV drone that's like a suicide drone that'll just blow itself up killing something, how do what it hit? Like, does it, just transmit back, or do you sort of like, lose track of it and hope it hit? Like, what happens to that?Yaroslav [00:39:16]: That's a great question. SoBrandon [00:39:18]: You need another droneYaroslav [00:39:19]: Like, the current battlefield in Ukraine is saturated with different types of drones. So obviously you have all the FPV drones and last year alone, Ukraine manufactured about 4 million of these, and then Russia's maybe, like, 20% less than that. And for this year, the publicly voiced target was 7 million on Ukrainian side. So it's, like, serious numbers. We're getting in serious numbers here. And then besides those, there are different, reconnaissance drones, ISR as we call them, and there are sort of tactical level ISR where we, both Ukrainians and Russians usually use, Mavic, drone by DJI. And then there are a bunch of locally produced drones, which are sort of fixed wing drones that can stay in the air for much longer than Mavic, maybe, like, half an hour. And then, there are drones that can stay for many hours or even up to a day. And those drones have, are more expensive, have more expensive cameras, et cetera, et cetera. We hunt those drones that Russians launch. The Russians hunt our drones, and so on. But ideally, when you, are a group of soldiers operating an FPV, you'll have someone in your, company, or someone in your platoon who has an ISR asset that will do target designation for you. They'll say, “Oh, like, there's a Russian vehicle over there. Go and get him.”and you go there, you get it, and they're like, “Okay, confirmed.”Battlefield Surveillance and the Eight Dimensions of AutonomyBrandon [00:40:57]: Those guys are watching. They have their own drones in the sky.Yaroslav [00:40:59]: Target destroyed. They have, like, a carousel of drones because One Mavic cannot stay more than 30 minutes. ItBrandon [00:41:06]: They're constantly surveilling the battlefield.Yaroslav [00:41:07]: Almost every spot on the battlefield.Yaroslav [00:41:11]: It's not always the case. Sometimes you will not have a surveillance asset, so then you would launch another FPV just to confirm that there was a hit. Then if you see there was a hit and you're not sure if it completely destroyed, you maybe hit again for good measure.Brandon [00:41:26]: You double tap.Yaroslav [00:41:28]: That's how it works. But I was about to give you another sort of piece of taxonomy. So you have five levels of autonomy, right? Then you have sort of eight dimensions of autonomous battlefield. So what is eight dimensions? It's crucial to understand how autonomy evolves in a modern, battlefield environment. So dimension number one is level of autonomy. What are the capabilities that your asset has? Dimension number two is the platform you're operating on. So it can be a quadcopter, a fixed wing drone, different types of maybe, like, a long range drone or short range drone, but it can also be a missile. You can have autonomy even on an artillery shell or a ground vehicle or a sea vehicle. So all of those are different platforms. Level three would be domain. So it's ground to ground or ground to air as an intersection, or ground to sea or sea to air. They're all, like, all the nuances with different domains. Then level four, would be higher levels of autonomy, such as swarming, drone carriers, drone nests, et cetera.Brandon [00:42:39]: Now when you're saying level, you're talking about dimensions, not about-Yaroslav [00:42:42]: Sorry. YeahBrandon [00:42:43]: Autonomy levels. So dimension four.Yaroslav [00:42:43]: The dimension. Yeah, I used to say I was supposed to say dimension. I say dimension because each of them works with another, right? So you might have, like third level autonomy, fixed wing drone operating in land to air, and stuff like that right? And then operating in a swarm or operating from a nest. Right? Then you have, sort of dimension number five is environment. So is it day or night? Is it summer or winter? Is it, humid, cold, dry? What kind of target is it? Is your target hiding in a forest, or is it, behind a hill or within buildings? So all of that is environment. Then you have, dimension number six is command and control. How are you dealing with or like, tens of thousands of those assets around the battlefield? How are you coordinating that on the higher levels of command? How are you collecting data? All that.Yaroslav [00:43:44]: Dimension number seven would be infrastructure, so things like simulation, data collection tools, security, deployment mechanisms, et cetera. So all those systems have to be developed separately and integrate with all the others. And finally, dimension number eight is sort of distribution. Have you deployed 100 of these systems or 100,000 of these systems? Because those are two very different ballgames. So that now gives you a more broad overview of how autonomy propagates across the battle space.Targeting, Human Responsibility, and Rules of EngagementNoah [00:44:23]: As someone who has done machine learning and had gone out of distribution and had things, go horribly wrong, you were talking several of these, kind of axes of thinking about drone warfare seem like they could be very susceptible to some sort of distribution shift if you start making things autonomous.Yaroslav [00:44:41]: Like what?Noah [00:44:41]: I mean Well, first ofYaroslav [00:44:43]: If the I'm very interested Sort of sort of kinds of scenarios that you're thinking about.Noah [00:44:48]: Like the most obvious one is you, if I assume these are computer vision guided systems for at least the last mile, how do you ensure that oh, well, like you now have some fog roll in or something, and you, the drones just attack the wrong thing? Or maybe, it probably will not turn around and fly back and attack you, but youYaroslav [00:45:10]: Same, the same, the same question, how do you ensure that your mortar fire hits the right thing? Well, it's like mortar fire, give or take half a kilometer could be plus or minus. So maybe you fire one, and then you fire another. So drones are actually, much better in being precise in those scenarios. And I think, to your point, I think five to 10 years from now it will be immoral to use weapons without AI.Yaroslav [00:45:44]: ‘Cause weapons without AI will be more likely to cause, collateral damage or unwanted damage. Same way, it will be immoral to drive your own car manually on a public road because it's more likely to cause, unwanted damage.Noah [00:46:02]: Wow, I never considered that mightBrandon [00:46:04]: Really? That's definitely coming.Yaroslav [00:46:07]: Anyway.Brandon [00:46:07]: No, but that' I don't know, it's an obvious, an obvious thought. I agree with you.Brandon [00:46:12]: I, No, they, obviously they're not going to let you drive once most of the cars on the road are autonomous.Noah [00:46:17]: No, that one, don't I believe.Yaroslav [00:46:19]: No, I think you were you were talking about drones, right?Brandon [00:46:21]: The drones, right. Cool.Yaroslav [00:46:22]: The weapons, right?Brandon [00:46:23]: Friendly fire and collateral damage and stuff like that is all minimized with AI.Brandon [00:46:27]: Here's my question. Take all let's go to level six autonomy. Let's take all of the target selection. Let's take all the battlefield data, integrate it into one big AI, and have that big AI basically be in command of the battlefield And agentically do target selection.Yaroslav [00:46:44]: Be the general, right?Brandon [00:46:44]: It's a general. It's, you've cut humans out of the loop except maybe as dexterous robots, repairing drones and fastening things to drones or maybe something like that because you don't have those robots yet. How soon are we there? AI general.Yaroslav [00:46:58]: The most important thing to ask ourselves is who will be faster to that us or our adversaries?Brandon [00:47:07]: I assume us, but how fast will we be to that? I hope us.Yaroslav [00:47:11]: I hope so too.Brandon [00:47:12]: How fast can we Like when are we looking at that in terms of like horizons years?Yaroslav [00:47:18]: Like technically, it could be done now. The question is of course, there's, some engineering work to be done. The bigger challenge is deployment. Right? So okay, technically Like operation in Iran, right? They, the publicly, it was claimed that I think Palantir system was used for target designation, et cetera, et cetera. So it is not exactly as you say, the AI makes all the decisions, but basically AI goes through all the data you have, gives you these 1,027 different targets and says, “You-- To confirm, please press Okay.” And you look at the targets and you're like, “Yeah, sounds right. Press Okay.”so that's, I think that's where we are now already, or we were a couple weeks ago as we're recording this on April 10th. Another question is how massively deployable it is. Is it, like, every decision being made like that or is it, like, just some of the decisions made like that? And then different levels of command and control. There you have, like, the platoon, the company level, the battalion, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. But the tricky thing here when we get into that territory, the tricky thing is If your enemy is getting advantage of being Thousand times faster than yourself by deploying such systems What do you do?Yaroslav [00:49:10]: You got to-Brandon [00:49:12]: The if the enemy is a thousand times faster than you at deploying those systems?Yaroslav [00:49:16]: Like, if enemy starts deploying level six autonomy, as you call And you have not started doingBrandon [00:49:22]: You're in troubleYaroslav [00:49:23]: Yes, exactly. So you have to catch up. So my point is that it is very important to think about the safety of these systems, but that thinking should not slow you down in developing them because they are critical for your existential, survival, right? And like, one person who doesn't think, doesn't get to think about the ethics of the war is a dead person. That person surely doesn't get to think about that.Brandon [00:49:52]: What would be the safety risk of such a system?Yaroslav [00:49:55]: Of course-Brandon [00:49:56]: Friendly fire?Yaroslav [00:49:56]: Just wrong decisions, right?Brandon [00:49:59]: I see.Yaroslav [00:49:59]: Maybe, these decisions-AI Command Decisions, Dead Zones, and Complex BattlefieldsBrandon [00:50:06]: Skynet AI decides it's going to useYaroslav [00:50:08]: No, these-Brandon [00:50:08]: Drone army to kill usYaroslav [00:50:09]: Decisions will not only be made about drones. They are likely to made about what the humans should do on your side as well. Then obviously some environments are more like Ukrainian-Russian war, where you haveBrandon [00:50:26]: It will have to choose to risk lives. It will have to choose to sacrifice human lives-Yaroslav [00:50:28]: Of courseBrandon [00:50:29]: On your side.Yaroslav [00:50:29]: Of course. And then some environments are just, like, dead, like, dead zones and there are no civilians there, or virtually no civilians close to the front line because, like, super dangerous. Everyone has evacuated from there. But there are other environments which are more like, okay, there's a counterterrorist operation. There's, like, a group of terrorists or a group of civilians. Or like, it's like the recent operations in Iran, I imagine that the US and Israeli forces do not want to harm civilians. They only targeted the military targets there, right? So in those situations, it's a different level of responsibility for that decision-making as well. And then there is just such a big variety of those military missions, and I'm not even, like, well-informed or well-educated in military science to tell you about all those scenarios. We would need to put some general besides me, and maybe a Ukraine general and American general would have told you very different stories about these things.Brandon [00:51:34]: Got it. Can I ask a few more questions? All right. So in 2013, I wrote one of my first, paid articles ever was about how the era of drones will change human society. I was just sitting around bored thinking about things.Yaroslav [00:51:54]: You were way ahead of your time.Brandon [00:51:55]: I said, I said, “The following will happen.”Yaroslav [00:51:57]: It's, this article is real. I've read it.Yaroslav [00:51:58]: It's actually-Brandon [00:51:59]: I said small autonomous, suicide drones, will cleanse the battlefield of human infantry. Human infantry will not be able to stand against swarms of AI-powered, suicide drones. That was I didn't even know about, like, AlexNet at the time, I think.Yaroslav [00:52:19]: You're just an avid sci-fi reader.Brandon [00:52:23]: I'm an avid sci-fi reader, but also, like, it's not Like, there will be a way to do that. It's a it's a nonlinear multidimensional search problem, and you get enough compute, you'll find some search algorithm that will get you there. And soBrandon [00:52:38]: I, yeah, I think that one sentence describes the bitter lesson right there.Brandon [00:52:41]: It's just like it's a multidimensional search space. You search it somehow. I don't know. Figure out some get a grad student-Yaroslav [00:52:47]: Sooner or laterBrandon [00:52:47]: To make a search algorithm.Brandon [00:52:48]: It's not that hard. Anyway, so but then, but I guess the point is The point is that human infantry on the battlefield will be will be gone at the end. I wrote that in 2013. Many people on social media laughed at me for that called me hysterical, said things like, “Electronic warfare will knock all the drones out of the sky.”like, “You need humans to hold ground.”that's something you still hear from a lot of people on social media today. I feel that this article that I've written has never been directionally wrong. It has gotten more and more right steadily over time, and that we're very reading the battlefield reports from Ukraine, where, human infantry are basically guy, like a few guys hiding in dugouts for months, and I'm not sure what they're doing.Yaroslav [00:53:35]: That's on Ukraine's side. On the Russian side, that's just like a zerg rush.Brandon [00:53:38]: The zerg rush, and then they just die. Then, but they have some guys in dugouts too, right? Like hiding in dugouts for months.Yaroslav [00:53:45]: They have. Yeah.Brandon [00:53:45]: Like, but that like, what are those guys doing in the dugouts? Are providing, like, frontline, like, reconnaissance? Like, what are they doing?Yaroslav [00:53:54]: If there is a guy in a dugout with some bullets and automatic weapon, the other guy cannot come and take the that dugout. That'Brandon [00:54:07]: I seeYaroslav [00:54:08]: They are they're establishing control over territory.Brandon [00:54:10]: I see. So that is so there still is a use for human infantry on the battlefield as of today.Yaroslav [00:54:15]: LikeBrandon [00:54:15]: How long will that last?Yaroslav [00:54:17]: I think it will last for a while. This is funny. There's this whole Layer of the modern culture, a modern Ukraine culture built around the war-related stuff. So there is this -Punk rock band, that is called SZC, I guess in English that would be. Which stands short for like a deserter or something like that. So anyhow, this band has a song titled “2030.” It's basically about the year 2030, and the war still goes on as like the whatever, third world war or whatever. And they basically, they, sang about the AI and like cyborgs and everything, but the simple infantry is still needed, and we're still, like, getting cold in those dugouts, and we're still doing our job. That's sort of the theme of the song. And it seems like that's actually what's going to happen. There areGround Robots, Simulation, and the Limits of World ModelsBrandon [00:55:30]: Ground robots will not replace humans in the dugouts soon.Yaroslav [00:55:34]: I'm very much interested in following the whole humanoid robot theme andBrandon [00:55:39]: What about like a dog robot?Noah [00:55:41]: Or just mobile controlled platforms or something.Brandon [00:55:44]: Spider robot, yeah.Brandon [00:55:45]: Everything evolves into a crab.Brandon [00:55:46]: You build a crab robot.Yaroslav [00:55:47]: A humanoid-Noah [00:55:48]: The carcinization of warfare.Yaroslav [00:55:51]: There is a lot of utility in humanoid robots because the world is designed around humanoids. So I would not, like, 100% disqualify the possibility that sometimes 10 years in the future, humanoid robots, will be actually fighting. So that's an actual Terminator kind of scenario.Brandon [00:56:14]: Yeah, in the first Terminator movie, you look at what they've got on the battlefield, they've got flying bomber drones and humanoid robots.Yaroslav [00:56:20]: Look, the cost of large language models of running them is getting so low, you can have basically an inexpensive computer running, what was a state-of-the-art model a year and a half ago, running it locally on a device with an open source model, which also means that the Chinese can have it, the Russians can have it, the North Koreans can have it, et cetera. So that is already possible. And with when we're looking at the acceleration of the neural nets, I would've, if not the acceleration of the large language models, I would've said that I don't think that humanoid robots will be able to be useful in the battlefield earlier than in 10 years. But if you account for the exponential, it might be five years or so. The problem with all of the autonomous systems, and it's like starts with self-driving cars and even with all the AI, like modern day AI agents, to make them really, useful, you have to solve such a long tail of edge cases, that it's really difficult to make them useful. Like we were promised, self-driving cars, what, like 2007, Sebastian Thrun and Google, and even before that all the challenges, everything. And Elon of course told us it's going to be one year from 2014, and now we still don't have self-driving Teslas everywhere. We have Waymos in SF and some other places, but they're still, like, not perfect. So I think, I expect something similar from self-flying drones and fully autonomous drones, and we saw that firsthand as with each level of autonomy that we're adding, there is a very wide distance between a prototype and something that is ready to be scaled to millions of units and something that has been scaled to millions of units. But the race with like AI coding tools is just insane. So things might accelerate very fast, faster than we can imagine.Noah [00:58:46]: I think your point is that with due to this long tail behavior Level one autonomy as you've defined it, is actually very natural. Like you basically are just solving an image recognition and tracking system.Yaroslav [00:59:02]: It's actually interesting that you say it that way, and I thought about this the very same way, and we have this joke that there are like 200 companies in Ukraine which are trying to solve last mile, targeting or terminal guidance. It seems like we're like the only company that actually solved that because even that problem-Noah [00:59:22]: I'm not saying it's, I'm not saying it's trivial, but it's at least something that you imagine given our current state.Yaroslav [00:59:26]: Like us and Eric Schmidt, like Eric Schmidt's companies are pretty good.Yaroslav [00:59:29]: Like, I actually have lots of respect to what they're doing, and they're, they have been practically influential and helpful on the battlefield, and they have good engineering.Noah [00:59:38]: I wasn't, I wasn't saying it's trivial. I'm just saying this is a something naturally adaptive based upon things that we know work, well. But some of the other domains that where you do have to make decisions and you have a long tail become much harder, and you worry about edge cases more.Yaroslav [00:59:57]: Like the more, the more complex behavior you're trying to simulate, the more edge cases there are right? The more ways to do it wrong there are. And then there are different approaches. It's like if you think about, if you read academic papers about robotics, right? You sort of the robot is represented as something that has the sort of sensor input, and then you have three, levels of sort of logics or decision-making, which are perception, planning, and control, and then you have actuators as output.So pre-neural nets, you would do perception output and control all with classic logics, right? Then, with AlexNet and computer vision, you could do perception with neural nets and the rest with logic. You cannot currently do each of those separately with neural nets, each of those separately with logics, or you can just have one huge neural net that just takes lots of sensory data. It's not just pixels. Could be sound, could be accelerometer, could be everything, as input, and just outputs the controls. And some of the self-driving car companies are doing that or like, experimenting between different ways of doing that. So you can also, like, think about that and the way you implement those features, also influences how much degrees of freedom the system would have, right? Like control, you can do it classical algorithmic control with common filters and PAD filter, PAD controllers, et cetera, or you can do a neural net, that was trained in a gym with a reinforcement learning, et cetera. And those would be two different behaviors of a system.Noah [01:01:53]: I-- Maybe my point was just much more high level. It'Yaroslav [01:01:56]: Or you can If you go even like, if you go high level, you can, you can like train to like have whatever, like Feifei Li and folks who are doing like physical, sortBrandon [01:02:08]: World modelsYaroslav [01:02:08]: World models, right, physical intelligence, they're trying to make these big models and sort of understand the world and then supposedly you have such model and you can tell a drone, “Okay, like, go over that hill and like, find the bad guys and then get them,”or “Make me a video, make me a photo of the guy smiling and get back to me.” Right? That's one way. Another way you have like these subsystems, like one is navigation, another is finding the person, another is like getting to them to take a photo. And those are again, very different behaviors. And then it's not that one is necessarily better than the other, and we might have more technological ability to do one or another. But all of those systems will exist. And then again, you should always keep in mind that it's only the not only the good guys that are developing these systems, the bad guys are developing these systems as well.China's Drone Supply Chain and the West's Manufacturing GapNoah [01:03:00]: I guess where I'm going with this back to Noah's original thought with the end of the end of the soldier. And so in order to replace-Brandon [01:03:10]: Or at least the end of the rifleman.Noah [01:03:11]: Or the end of the rifleman, yeah.Yaroslav [01:03:13]: I'm not seeing that very close, and it was like I'm, as much as I'm a lover of sci-fi and all of that and a technologist, the more I try to beYaroslav [01:03:27]: Like the I try to have certain humility about these things, and like the military, domain and there was just so much human history and blood and tears, dedicated to sort of understanding this art of war and perfecting it and so on. There is so much knowledge in there that I don't feel like I even started to comprehend, a lot of that. But one thing that I really understood is that even though drones are now making eighty percent of the casualties, you go to the actual officers, you talk to the actual, like, brigade commanders, corps commanders, and they explain to you, how all of it fits together, how when you're thinking about an operation that involves a couple thousand people to get this piece of land, out of the enemy's hands, deoccu deoccupy it, how it is so complex, it involves, dozens of different types of drones and then land operations and reconnaissance operations, psychological operations and then aviations and tanks and logistics and all kinds of these different assets. So modern warfare is really very complex, and the fact that the drones are the latest, coolest thing, and then the AI is latest, coolest thing, doesn't mean that now it's that and only that right? So yeah. Whoever's looking into that I think should realize that it's not just what the press talks about, that the reality is much more difficult, much more complex.Brandon [01:05:17]: Let's talk about China and China's manufacturing capabilities. So suppose that someone, like suppose the United States went to war with China. AndYaroslav [01:05:26]: I hope not.Brandon [01:05:27]: I hope not as well. And then but suppose that drones were very essential to that war of all the types of drones that we're talking about here, and that suppose that China said, “All right, well, you need X and Y and Z, to make those drones to fight us, and we control the production of X and Y and Z, so we're just going to cut you right off, and now you have no drones.”Brandon [01:05:47]: I know that a number of countries, including Ukraine and Taiwan, have been making moves to China-proof their drone productions that China couldn't do that. Examples of things they might be able to cut off might include rare earths, fiber optic cable that you were talking about before, various other things that where even if they don't control one hundred percent of the production, they control enough of the production that would be extremely expensive to produce it without relying on Chinese sources. Or the market's fragmented enough, et cetera. What do you see as China's key bottlenecks, and how easy are those to overcome in terms of China-proofing drone production in case of a war against China?Yaroslav [01:06:30]: Let me start with a saying that -Although China does not sell directly to Ukraine and it does sell directly to Russia, a lot of Ukrainian supply chains, they start in China, right?Yaroslav [01:06:49]: We're not in a conflict with China, and we would not want to be in a conflict with China. And we'd hope that China stays a neutral power between Ukraine and Russia and the US as well. That said, the scenario that you're describing, everything is much worse.Yaroslav [01:07:11]: Think about this. Last year, Ukraine produced four million FPV drones. Ukraine is not the most industrious nation in the world.Yaroslav [01:07:19]: China can produce four billion of these FPV drones.Yaroslav [01:07:23]: China can make them not drones with propellers, but fixed-wing drones, which go not forty kilometers far, but maybe two to three hundred kilometers inland.

Welcome to your weekly UAS News Update. We have three stories for you this week. First, the FCC extends the firmware waiver for foreign drones, the FAA announces strict No Drone Zones for the 2026 FIFA World Cup and lastly, Pierce Aerospace is building a massive Remote ID network for NASA. Let's get to it.First up this week, we have some interesting news regarding the FCC and foreign-made drones. The FCC's Office of Engineering and Technology just released Public Notice DA 26-454. This notice extends the waiver for software and firmware updates on previously authorized foreign-made drones, including DJI and Autel, until at least January 1, 2029. The original deadline was January 1, 2027, meaning after this deadline, foreign-made drones that were previously approved by the FCC, would not have been able to get software updates. This is your Mavic, Air, Mini drones that you currently have on the shelf. This extension basically allows for updates not until early 2029. The waiver covers Class I changes, which are your standard security patches and bug fixes. But it now also includes Class II changes, which are more substantial software updates intended to prevent consumer harm. The FCC is basically admitting that blocking security patches on the millions of DJI and Autel drones already sitting in American homes would create a worse cybersecurity problem than the ban was meant to allegedly fix. Ban foreign drones because they allegedly are a security risk, but allow them to get updates so they don't become a security risk.Next up, if you are planning to fly anywhere near the host cities for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, you'll want to pay close attention to this next story. The FAA and law enforcement have officially designated all World Cup stadiums and surrounding event spaces as strict No Drone Zones. During the matches, the FAA will be putting Temporary Flight Restrictions, or TFRs, in place to secure the airspace. This means taking off, landing, or flying a drone within these restricted areas is a serious violation of federal rules. The FAA is working closely with the FBI and local law enforcement, and they will be actively monitoring the airspace to detect and track unauthorized drones. Even if you are an experienced Part 107 pilot or you have a standard airspace authorization, you are not permitted to fly during these active TFR windows. The penalties for violating these restrictions are severe, including heavy fines, potential criminal charges, and having your drone confiscated.And in our third story this week, Pierce Aerospace has been selected to deploy a large Remote ID sensor network throughout Silicon Valley and the San Francisco Bay Area. They were chosen by Metis Technology, the prime contractor for NASA's Aerospace Research Technology and Simulation contract. Pierce Aerospace will be deploying their YR1 and YR2S Remote ID sensors in a layered network to support NASA's Air Traffic Management and Safety project. As a reminder, Remote ID is the FAA's requirement that drones broadcast their location via telemetry data. This new sensor network will provide regional coverage to help NASA figure out how to safely integrate new technologies like package delivery drones and electric air taxis into our National Airspace System.We'll see you on Monday for the live and on post flight in the premium community where I'm sure this week we'll be sharing some opinions… Have a great weekend! https://dronexl.co/2026/05/11/fcc-extends-foreign-drone-firmware-waiver-2029-da-26-454/https://www.faa.gov/fifaworldcup2026https://www.pierceaerospace.net/blogs/news/pierce-aerospace-selected-to-build-remote-id-network-for-nasa-paving-the-way-for-drone-and-air-taxi-flight-in-the-bay-area

We're not afraid to share an opinion on this show. At no time was that more apparent then when Josh let his thoughts known about hookless road wheels. It caused a bit of a reaction in the industry to say the least. And while we have some firm beliefs on certain technologies, we also believe in fairness. Which is why at Sea Otter we gave some wheel brands a platform to explain what has become a somewhat divisive topic.  Our guests work for three brands: ENVE, CADEX and Mavic. Two of them stand behind road hookless as a high performance and safe feature. The third has stuck with hooked rims. All three bring a unique perspective on what it takes to secure a tire to a wheel. We also talk to these wheel makers about their brands as a whole: what's driving innovation, how pro peloton success turns into sales and for one of them, what it takes to revive a heritage brand.  

Welcome to your weekly UAS News Update. We have five stories for you this week. First, Oregon exposes the real cost of the DJI ban. Second, the FAA reveals DJI makes up 96% of US drones. Third, the Commerce Department updates drone export rules. Fourth, Indiana prosecutes illegal drone deer scouting. And finally, a drone assists in a 900-foot tower rescue. Let's get to it.First up, the Oregon Department of Aviation has released a white paper exposing the real-world cost of the federal DJI ban. They surveyed 25 state transportation departments, and the numbers are staggering. Across those states, at least 467 drones are currently grounded or restricted. The total national exposure is estimated to be anywhere from $50 million to $2 billion! Wisconsin reported that 100% of its fleet is grounded. Colorado lost 90% of its capacity, and Oregon itself has exactly ONE compliant drone still operational out of 22. The white paper is recommending a waiver until September 2027 to give our drone industry time to catch up.New FAA-funded research puts a hard number on DJI's market dominance. The ASSURE A83 2025 Annual Report analyzed Remote ID telemetry data from 64 monitoring locations. DJI platforms make up more than 96% of detected drones in US airspace. Skydio accounted for just over 1%, and all other manufacturers combined made up less than 2.4%. Looking at the specific models, the DJI Mini 4 Pro alone accounts for 19% of all detected platforms. The Air 3 sits at 13%, and the Mavic 3 Pro holds 8%. More than 93.7% of the top 22 detected platforms weigh 3 pounds or less. Heavy-lift models like the Matrice 400, Agras T50, and FlyCart 30 remain a tiny fraction of overall flights. The US Commerce Department is streamlining drone export controls. The Bureau of Industry and Security published an interim final rule that makes two big changes. It removes the license requirement for commercial drones with a maximum endurance under one hour when exported to allied nations. Second, it opens a faster pathway for certain longer-range systems, like heavy-lift 25-liter agricultural sprayers and cargo delivery drones. Previously, these drones were caught up in the Missile Technology Control Regime, which was designed to restrict systems capable of carrying a 500-kilogram payload at least 300 kilometers. The Indiana Department of Natural Resources is bringing its first-ever prosecution for illegal drone deer scouting. Under Indiana law, you can legally use a drone to recover an animal that has already been harvested, but using it to scout or locate game during the season or 14 days prior is strictly illegal. Conservation officers seized a drone and pulled the forensic data. The GPS logs, timestamps, flight paths, and other data reportedly showed hundreds of images systematically tracking a specific trophy buck to a baited area. The suspects are allegedly facing charges for drone scouting.In Texas, two people were trapped in a hot air balloon basket that collided and became snagged on a communications tower 925 feet in the air. Longview Fire and first responders had to execute a highly complex high-angle rescue, assisted by drone. The passengers were safely rescued after a four-hour operation, but the crew still had to remove the tangled balloon using a cage and cable system. That's all we've got this week, we'll see you in the community for Post Flight where we share our opinions that aren't suitable for YouTube. Have a great weekend! https://dronexl.co/2026/03/03/oregon-exposes-real-cost-dji-ban/https://dronexl.co/2026/03/02/indiana-drone-deer-scouting-prosecution/https://dronexl.co/2026/03/02/925-feet-down-one-drone-call/https://dronexl.co/2026/03/01/us-commerce-department-drone-export-controls/https://dronexl.co/2026/03/03/faa-research-dji-us-drone-platforms/

Welcome to your weekly UAS News Update, We have three stories for you this week: DJI takes the FCC to court, Apple TV sets a massive new drone light show record over Los Angeles, And BRINC teases a brand new drone, but we'll have to wait for release.First up, DJI is taking the FCC to court. They filed a petition with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, challenging the December 22nd decision that blocked new equipment authorizations for their products. DJI argues the FCC never actually proved they're a threat. Here's the full statement from DJI, and I'm not going to read it for you, but if you'd like to pause and read it, here you go. Basically, DJI says the NDAA gave the government a full year to conduct a security audit, and DJI even sent letters asking to be examined. But no audit happened. Instead, the FCC banned all foreign-made drones just two days before the deadline. So, what does this mean for you right now? Nothing changes for current operators. If you have a drone authorized before December 22nd, you can still fly it. This includes the Air 3S, Mini 4 Pro, and Mavic 3 series. However, new models are currently blocked. This is the second suit DJI has against the federal government at the moment, and we'll be watching closely. Next, Apple TV launched a 3,000-drone light show over Los Angeles to promote season two of Monarch: Legacy of Monsters. The display reached up to 500 feet above the city and stretched across an area equal to about three football fields. They recreated massive images of Godzilla, King Kong, and the new villain Titan X, and the show even integrated fireworks into the choreography for key transitions. According to Apple TV, this set a world record for the tallest aerial display of a fictional character formed by drones, surpassing a 2024 formation of Wolverine. I'm sure the approvals for this one took a bit! And third this week, BRINC Drones is teasing a brand new aircraft. They'll reveal a next-generation Drone as First Responder on March 24th, nearly a month away from this recording. The teaser campaign is called Command the Night, and it looks like this drone is built specifically for low-light law enforcement operations. Teaser images show a large dome sensor housing, which could be new sensors or upgrades to their existing thermal or visual systems. BRINC CEO Blake Resnick claims this is their best product ever. Night operations have always been a weak point for DFR programs. Standard cameras struggle in the dark, and bolt-on thermal sensors just add unnecessary weight and complexity. A purpose-built night drone could be a massive game changer. BRINC is growing fast after raising 75 million dollars last year, bringing their valuation to over 400 million dollars. It'll be interesting to see if we're able to get our hands on this new drone to test it out! That's all for this week join us in the premium community where we share our opinions for post fight and we will see you next week. Have a great weekend.https://dronexl.co/2026/02/24/dji-takes-fcc-to-court/https://dronexl.co/2026/02/23/apple-tv-drone-record-los-angeles/https://dronexl.co/2026/02/24/brinc-teases-next-gen-dfr-drone-march-24/

Sua ligação com a bicicleta começou cedo em sua vida. Pedalava com os amigos pelas ruas do bairro e viveu a mania do BMX no Brasil. Na escola, jogou voleibol, mas destacou-se mesmo em matemática e física, desenvolvendo interesse por eletrônica e computação. Cursou Engenharia Naval na Escola Politécnica da USP e, nesse período, praticou mergulho livre e autônomo, além de ginástica olímpica recreativa. Iniciou a vida profissional estagiando e depois trabalhando no marketing de multinacionais, ao mesmo tempo em que passou a se aventurar no mountain bike, que dava seus primeiros passos no Brasil. A partir do início dos anos 1990, passou a se envolver de forma mais intensa com a bicicleta. Com Daniel Aliperti, um amigo de infância, fundou a loja Pedal Power, que logo se tornou referência no mercado. Algum tempo depois, deu início à importação de marcas icônicas do segmento, como Ritchey, Santa Cruz e Rocky Mountain. Profissionalmente e pessoalmente, sua ligação com a bicicleta só aumentava. Abriu uma loja em Campos do Jordão e aproveitou para explorar as oportunidades locais no mountain bike, trekking e aventuras ao ar livre. Em 1997, começou a participar de enduros a pé e das primeiras corridas de aventura realizadas no Brasil. No ano seguinte, ao lado da esposa, integrou a melhor equipe brasileira na primeira edição da Expedição Mata Atlântica e participou da lendária Southern Traverse, na Nova Zelândia. Ao longo dos anos seguintes, competiu em mais algumas corridas de aventura até se voltar novamente ao mountain bike, geralmente em dupla com sua esposa. Em 1999, sua importadora, a Proparts, passou a representar  outras marcas fortes, como RockShox e SRAM. Nos anos seguintes, ao lado de Giancarlo Clini, idealizou o que viria a se tornar a Aliança Bike, associação que presidiu por dois mandatos consecutivos. Depois, conquistou a representação da Specialized e implantou a subsidiária da marca no Brasil. Quase uma década depois, conquistou a Mavic, a Zipp e, posteriormente, a gigante Garmin. Em 2018, decidiu então mudar-se com a família para o Canadá e, no ano seguinte, deixou a Pedal Power, focando exclusivamente no fortalecimento e crescimento das marcas que representa e em agregar novas marcas ao seu portfólio, como Vittoria, Shokz e Orbea. Conosco aqui, o engenheiro naval com pós-graduação em administração, empreendedor que tem um portfólio com 14 marcas representadas no Brasil, um dos melhores corredores de aventura brasileiros do final dos anos 1990, um amante do ciclismo e da vida ao ar livre, o paulistano Marcelo de Barros Dantas Maciel. Inspire-se! Um oferecimento @2peaksbikes A 2 Peaks Bikes é a importadora e distribuidora oficial no Brasil da Factor Bikes, Santa Cruz Bikes e de diversas outras marcas e conta com três lojas: Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo e Los Angeles. Lá, ninguém vende o que não conhece: todo produto é testado por quem realmente pedala.  A 2 Peaks Bikes foi pensada e criada para resolver os desafios de quem leva o pedal a sério — seja no asfalto, na terra ou na trilha. Mas também acolhe o ciclista urbano, o iniciante e até a criança que está começando a brincar de pedalar. Para a 2 Peaks, todo ciclista é bem-vindo.  Conheça a 2 Peaks Bikes, distribuidora oficial da Factor, da Santa Cruz e da Yeti no Brasil. @2peaksbikesla SIGA e COMPARTILHE o Endörfina no Youtube ou através do seu app preferido de podcasts. Contribua também com este projeto através do Apoia.se. SIGA e COMPARTILHE o Endörfina no Youtube ou através do seu app preferido de podcasts. Contribua também com este projeto através do Apoia.se.    

Allen, Joel, and Rosemary break down the Trump administration’s sudden halt of five major offshore wind projects, including Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind and parts of Vineyard Wind, over national security claims the hosts find questionable. They also cover the FCC’s ban on new DJI drone imports and what operators should do now, plus Fraunhofer’s latest wind research featured in PES Wind Magazine. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard’s StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes’ YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! The Uptime Wind Energy Podcast brought to you by Strike Tape, protecting thousands of wind turbines from lightning damage worldwide. Visit strike tape.com. And now your hosts, Alan Hall, Rosemary Barnes, Joel Saxon, and Yolanda Padron. Welcome to the Uptime Wind Energy Allen Hall: Podcast. I’m your host, Alan Hall, and I’m here with. Rosemary Barnes in Australia and Joel Saxon is down in Austin, Texas. Yolanda Padron is on holiday, and well, there’s been a lot happening in the past 24 hours as we’re recording this today. If you thought the battle over offshore wind was over based on some recent court cases, well think again. The Trump administration just dropped the hammer on five major offshore wind projects. Exciting. National security concerns. The Secretary of the Interior, Doug Bergham announced. The immediate pause affecting projects from Ted Eor, CIP and Dominion Energy. So Coastal [00:01:00] Virginia, offshore wind down in Virginia, right? Which is the one we thought was never gonna be touched. Uh, the Department of War claims classified reports show these giant turbines create radar interference that could blind America’s defenses. Half of vineyard winds, turbines are already up and running, producing power, by the way. Uh, and. I guess they, it sounds like from what I can see in more recent news articles that they turn the power off. They just shut the turbines off even though those turbines are fully functioning and delivering power to shore. Uh, so now the question is what happens? Where does this go? And I know Osted is royally upset about it, and Eor obviously along with them, why not? But the whole Denmark us, uh, relationship is going nuclear right now. Joel Saxum: I think here’s a, here’s a technical thing that a lot of people might not know. If you’re in the wind industry in the United States, you may know this. There’s a a few sites in the northern corner of Colorado that are right next to Nebraska, [00:02:00] and that is where there is a strategic military installations of subsurface, basically rocket launches and. And in that entire area, there is heavy radar presence to be able to make sure that we’re watching over these things and there are turbines hundreds of meters away from these launch sites at like, I’ve driven past them. Right? So that is a te to me, the, the radar argument is a technical mute point. Um, Alan, you and I have been kind of back and forth in Slack. Uh, you and I and the team here, Rosemary’s been in it too, like just kind of talking through. Of course none of us were happy. Right. But talking through some of the points of, of some of these things and it’s just like basically you can debunk almost every one of them and you get down to the level where it is a, what is the real reasoning here? It’s a tit for tat. Like someone doesn’t like offshore wind turbines. Is it a political, uh, move towards being able to strengthen other interests and energy or what? I don’t know. ’cause I can’t, I’m not sitting in the Oval Office, but. [00:03:00] At the end of the day, we need these electrons. And what you’re doing is, is, is you’re hindering national security or because national security is energy security is national security, my opinion, and a lot of people’s opinions, you’re hindering that going forward. Allen Hall: Well, let’s look at the defense argument at the minute, which is it’s, it’s somehow deterring, reducing the effectiveness of ground radars, protecting the shoreline. That is a bogus argument. There’s all kinds of objects out on the water right now. There’s a ton of ships out there. They’re constantly moving around. To know where a fixed object is out in the water is easy, easy, and it has been talked about for more than 15 years. If you go back and pull the information that exists on the internet today from the Department of Defense at the time, plus Department of Interior and everybody else, they’ve been looking at this forever. The only way these turbines get placed where they are is with approval from the Department of Defense. So it isn’t like it didn’t go through a review. It totally did. They’ve known about this for a long, long time. So now to bring up this [00:04:00] specious argument, like, well, all of a sudden the radar is a problem. No, no. It’s not anybody’s telling you it’s a classified. Piece of information that is also gonna be a bogus argument because what is going along with that are these arguments as well, the Defense Department or Department of War says it’s gonna cause interference or, or some degradation of some sort of national defense. Then the words used after it have nothing to do with that. It is, the turbines are ugly, the turbines are too tall. It may interfere, interfere with the whales, it may interfere with fishing, and I don’t like it. Or a, a gas pipeline could produce more power than the turbines can. That that has nothing to do with the core argument. If the core argument is, is some sort of defense related. Security issue, then say it because it, it can’t be that complicated. Now, if you, if you knew anything about the defense department and how it operates, and also the defenses around the United States, of which I know a little bit about, [00:05:00] having been in aerospace for 30 freaking years, I can tell you that there are all kinds of ways to detect all kinds of threats that are approaching our shoreline. Putting a wind turbine out there is not Joel Saxum: gonna stop it. So the, at the end of the day, there is a bunch, there’s like, there’s single, I call them metric and intrinsic, right? Metric being like, I can put data to this. There’s a point here, there’s numbers, whatever it may be. And intrinsic being, I don’t like them, they don’t look that good. A pipeline can supply more energy. Those things are not necessarily set in stone. They’re not black and white. They’re, they’re getting this gray emotional area instead of practical. Right. So, okay. What, what’s the outcome here? You do this, you say that we have radar issues. Do we do, does, does the offshore substation have a radar station on it for the military or, or what does that, what does that look like? Allen Hall: Maybe it does, maybe it doesn’t, but if the threat is what I think it is, none of this matters. None of this matters. It’s already been discussed a hundred times with the defense [00:06:00] department and everybody else is knowledgeable in this, in this space. There is no way that they started planted turbines and approve them two, three years ago. If it was a national security risk, there is no chance that that happened. So it really is frustrating when you, when you know some of the things that go on behind the scenes and you know what, the technical rationales could be about a problem. And that’s not what’s being talked about right now that I don’t like being lied to. Like, if you want to have a, a political argument, have a political argument, and the, if the political argument is America wants Greenland from Denmark, then just freaking say it. Just say it. Don’t tie Massachusetts, New York, Connecticut, new J, all, all these states up until this nonsense, Virginia, what are we doing? What are we doing? Because all those states approved all those projects knowing full well what the costs were, knowing how tall the turbines were, knowing how long it was gonna take to get it done, and they all approved them. This [00:07:00] is not done in a vacuum. These states approve these projects and these states are going to buy that power. Let them, you wanna put in a a, a big gas pipeline. Great. How many years is that gonna take, Doug? How many years is that gonna take? Doug Bergham? Does anybody know? He, he doesn’t know anything about that. Joel Saxum: You’re not getting a gas pipeline into the east coast anytime soon whatsoever. Because the, the east, the east coast is a home of Nimbyism. Allen Hall: Sure, sir. Like Massachusetts. It’s pretty much prohibited new gas pipelines for a long time. Okay. That’s their choice. That is their choice. They made that choice. Let them live with it. Why are you then trying to, to double dip? I don’t get it. I don’t get it. And, but I do think, Joel, I think the reason. This is getting to the level it is. It has to do something to do with Greenland. It has something to do with the Danish, um, uh, ambassador or whoever it was running to talk to, to California and Newsom about offshore tournaments. Like that was not a smart move, my opinion, but [00:08:00] I don’t run international relations with for Denmark. But stop poking one another and somebody’s gotta cut this off. The, the thing I think that the Trump administration is at risk at is that. Or instead, Ecuador has plenty of cash. They’re gonna go to court, and they are most likely going to win, and they’re going to really handcuff the Trump administration to do anything because when you throw bull crap in front of a judge and they smell it, the the pushback gets really strong. Well, they’re gonna force all the discussion about anything to do with offshore to go through a judge, and they’re gonna decide, and I don’t think that’s what the Trump administration wants, but that’s where they’re headed. I’m not sure why Joel Saxum: you’d wanna do that. Like at the end of the day, that may be the solution that has to come, but I don’t think that that’s not the right path either. Right? Because a judge is not an SME. A judge doesn’t know all of the, does the, you know, like a, a judge is a judge based on laws. They don’t, they’re, they’re not an offshore wind energy expert, so they sh that’s hard for them to [00:09:00] decide on. However, that’s where it will go. But I think you’re correct. Like this, this is more, this is a larger play and, and this mor so this morning when this rolled out, my WhatsApp, uh, and text messages just blew up from all of my. Danish friends, what is going on over there? I’m like, I don’t know what you want me to say. I’m not in the hopeful office. I can’t tell you what’s going on. I’m not having coffee in DC right now. I said, you know, but going back to it, like you can see the frustration, like, what, why, why is this the thing? And I think you’re right though, Alan, it is a large, there’s a larger political play in, in movement here of this Greenland, Denmark, these kind of things. And it’s a, it’s. It’s sad to see it ’cause it just gets caught. We’re getting caught in the crossfire as a wind industry. Yeah. It’s Allen Hall: not helping anybody. And when you set precedents like this, the other side takes note, right? So Democrats, when they eventually get back into the White House again, which will happen at some point, are gonna swing the pendulum just as hard and harder. So what are you [00:10:00] doing? None of, none of this matters in, in my opinion, especially if you, if you read Twitter today, you’re like, what the hell? All the things that are happening right now. RFK Jr had a post a few hours ago talking about, oh, this is great. We’re gonna shut off this off shore wind thing because it kills the whales. Sorry, it doesn’t. Sorry. It doesn’t, if you want, if you wanna make an argument about it, you have to do better than that. A Twitter post doesn’t make it fact, and everybody who’s listened to this and paying attention, I don’t want you to do your own research, but just know that you got a couple of engineers here, that that’s what we do for a living. We source through information, making sure that it makes sense. Does it align? Is it right? Is it wrong? Is, is there something to back it up with? And the information that we have here says. It is. It’s not hurting anything out there. You may not like them, but you know what? You don’t want a coal factor in your backyard either. Delamination and bottomline failures and blades are difficult problems to detect [00:11:00] early. These hidden issues can cost you millions in repairs and lost energy production. C-I-C-N-D-T are specialists to detect these critical flaws before they become expensive burdens. Their non-destructive test technology penetrates deep to blade materials to find voids and cracks. Traditional inspections completely. Miss C-I-C-N-D-T Maps. Every critical defect delivers actionable reports and provides support to get your blades back in service. So visit cic ndt.com because catching blade problems early will save you millions. Joel Saxum: When it comes down to sorting through data, I think that’s a big problem. Right? And that’s what’s happening with a lot of the, I mean, generalizing, a lot of the things that are happening in the United States in the last 10 years give it. Um, but people just go, oh, this person said this. They must be an authority. Like, no, it’s not true. We’ve been following [00:12:00] a lot of these things with offshore wind. I mean, probably closer than most. Uh, besides the companies that are developing those wind farms, simply because it’s a part of our day job, it’s what we do. We’re, we’re, we’re looking at these things, right? So. Understanding the risks, uh, rewards, the political side of things. The commercial side. The technical side. That’s what we’re here to kind of feed, feed the information back to the masses. And a lot of this, or the majority of all of this is bs. It doesn’t really, it doesn’t, it doesn’t play. Um, and then you go a little bit deeper into things and. Like the, was it the new Bedford Light, Alan, that said like, now they’re seeing that the turbines have actually been turned off, not just to stop work for construction. They’ve turned the turbines off up in Massachusetts or up off of in the northeast area? No, that they have. Allen Hall: And why? I mean, the error on the side of caution, I think if you’re an attorney for any of the wind operations, they’re gonna tell you to shut it off for a couple of days and see what we can figure out. But the, the timing of the [00:13:00] shutdown I think is a little unique in that the US is pretty much closed at this point. You’re not gonna see anything start back up for another couple of weeks, although they were doing work on the water. So you can impose a couple hundred million. Do, well, not a hundred million dollars, but maybe a couple million dollars of, of overhead costs in some of these projects because you can’t respond quick enough. You gotta find a judge willing to put a stay in to hold things the same and, and hold off this, uh, this, uh, b order, but. To me, you know, it’s one of those things when you deal with the federal government, you think the federal government is erratic in just this one area? No, it’s erratic in a lot of areas. And the frustration comes with do you want America to be stronger or do you want nonsense to go on? You know? And if I thought, if that thought wind turbines were killing whales, I’d be the first one up to screaming. If I thought offshore wind was not gonna work out in term, in some long-term model, I would be the first one screaming about it. That’s not Joel Saxum: reality. [00:14:00] Caveat that though you said, you’re saying if I thought, I think the, the real word should be if I did the research, the math and understood that this is the way it was gonna be. Right? Because that’s, that’s what you need to do. And that’s what we’ve been doing, is looking at it and the, the, all the data points to we’re good here. If someone wanted to do harm Allen Hall: to the United States, and God forbid if that was ever the case. That wouldn’t be the way to do it. Okay. And we, and we’ve seen that through history, right. So it, it’s, it doesn’t even make any sense. The problem is, is that they can shield a judge from looking at it somewhat. If they classify well, the judge isn’t able to see what this classified information is. In today’s world, AI and everything on the internet, you don’t think somebody knows something about this? I do. And to think that you couldn’t make any sort of software patch to. Fix whatever 1965 radar system they have sitting on the shorelines of Massachusetts. They could, in today’s world, you can do that. So this whole thing, it [00:15:00] just sounds like a smoke screen and when you start poking around it, no one has an answer. That is the frustrating bit. If you’re gonna be seeing stuff, you better have backup data. But the Joel Saxum: crazy thing here, like look at the, the, the non wind side of this argument, like you’re hurting job growth. Everybody that goes into a, uh. Into office. One of the biggest things they run on all the time, it doesn’t matter, matter where you are in the world, is I’m gonna bring jobs and prosperity to the people. Okay. How many jobs have just been stopped? How many people have just been sent home? How much money’s being lost here? And who’s one of the biggest companies installing these turbines in the states? Fricking ge like so. You’re, you’re hurting your own local people. And not only is this, you stand there and say, we’re doing all this stuff. We’re getting all this wind energy. We’re gonna do all these things and we’re gonna win the AI race. To the point where you’ve passed legislation or you’ve written, uh, uh, executive order that says, Hey, individual states, if you pass legislation [00:16:00] that slows or halts AI development in your state, the federal government can sue you. But you’re doing the same thing. You’re halting and slowing down the ability for AI and data centers to power themselves at unprecedented growth. We’re at here, 2, 3, 4, 5% depending on what, what iso you ask of, of electron need, and we’re the fastest way you could put electrons to the grid. Right now in the United States, it’s. Either one of those offshore wind farms is being built today, or one of the other offs, onshore wind farms or onshore solar facilities that are being built right now today. Those are the fastest ways to help the United States win the AI race, which is something that Trump has loud, left and right and center, but you’re actively like just hitting people in the shins with a baseball bat to to slow down. Energy growth. I, I just, it, it doesn’t make any logical sense. Allen Hall: And Rosemary just chime in here. We’ve had enough from the Americans complaining about it. Rosemary Barnes: Yeah. I mean, it’s hard for me to comment in too much detail about all of the [00:17:00] American security stuff. I mean, defense isn’t, isn’t one of my special interests and especially not American defense, but. When I talk about this issue with other Australians, it’s just sovereign risk is the, the issue. I mean, it was, it’s similar with the tariffs. It’s just like how, and it’s not just for like foreign companies that might want to invest in America. American companies are affected just, uh, as equally, but like you might be anti wind and fine. Um, but I don’t know how any. Company of any technology can have confidence to embark on a multi-year, um, project. Now, because you don’t know, like this government hates wind energy, but the next one could hate ai or the next one could hate solar panels, electric cars, or you know, just, just anything. And so like you just can’t. You just can’t trust, um, that your plans are gonna be able to be fulfilled even if you’ve got contracts, even if you’ve got [00:18:00] approvals, even if you are most of the way through building something, it’s not enough to feel safe anymore. And it’s just absolutely wild. That’s, and yeah, I was actually discussing with someone yesterday. How, and bearing in mind I don’t really understand American politics that deeply, but I’m gonna assume that Republicans are generally associated with being business friendly. So there must be so many long-term Republican donors who have businesses that have been harmed by all of these kinds of changes. And I just don’t understand how everyone is still behind this type of behavior. That’s what, that’s what I struggle to understand. Joel Saxum: This is the problem at the higher levels in. In DC their businesses are, are oil and gas based though. That’s the thing, the high, the high power conservative party side of things in the United States politics. The, the lobby money and the real money and the like, like think like the Dick Cheney era. Right. That was all Weatherford, right? It’s all oil and gas. Rosemary Barnes: So it’s not like anybody [00:19:00] cares about the, you know, I don’t know, like there’d be steel fabricators who have been massively affected by this. Right? Like that’s a good, a good traditional American business. Right. But are you saying it’s not big enough business that anyone would care that, that they’ve been screwed over? Joel Saxum: Not anymore Allen Hall: because all that’s being outsourced. The, the other argument, which Rosemary you touched upon is, is the one I’m seeing more recently on all kinds of social medias. It’s a bunch of foreign companies putting in these wind turbines. Well, who the hell Joel Saxum: is drilling your oil baby? This is something that I’ve always said. When you go go to Houston, Texas, the energy capital of the world, every one of those big companies, none of ’em are run by a Texan. They are all run by someone from overseas. Every one of ’em. Allen Hall: You, you think that, uh, you know, the Saudis are all, you know, great moral people. What the hell are you talking about? Are you starting to compare countries now? Because you really don’t wanna do that. If you wanna do that into the traditional energy marketplace, you’re, you’re gonna have [00:20:00] a lot of problems sleeping at night. You will, I would much rather trust a dane to put in a wind turbine or a German to put in a wind turbine than some of the people that are in, involved in oil and gas. Straight up. Straight up. Right. And we’ve known that for years. And we, we, we just play along, look. The fact of the matter is if you want to have electrons delivered quickly to the United States, you’re gonna have to do something, and that will be wind and solar because it is the fastest, cheapest way to get this stuff done. If you wanna try to plant some sort of gas pipeline from Louisiana up to Massachusetts or whatever the hell you wanna do, good luck. You know how many years you’re talking about here. In the meantime, all those people you, you think you care about are gonna be sitting there. With really high electricity rates and gas, gas, uh, rates, it’s just not gonna end well. Speaker 5: Australia’s wind farms are growing fast, but are your operations keeping up? Join us February 17th and [00:21:00] 18th at Melbourne’s Poolman on the park for Wind energy o and M Australia 2026, where you’ll connect with the experts solving real problems in maintenance asset management. And OEM relations. Walk away with practical strategies to cut costs and boost uptime that you can use the moment you’re back on site. Register now at W OM a 2020 six.com. Wind Energy o and m Australia is created by wind professionals for wind professionals because this industry needs solutions. Not speeches if Allen Hall: you don’t have enough on your plate already. Uh, the FCC has panned the import and sale of all new drone models from Chinese manufacturers, including the most popular of all in America, DJI, uh, and they clo. They currently hold about 70% of the global marketplace, the ban as DGI and Autel Robotics to the quote unquote covered list of entities deemed [00:22:00] a national security risk. Now here’s the catch. Existing models that are already approved for sale can still be purchased. So you can walk down to your local, uh, drone store and buy A DJI drone. And the ones you already own are totally fine, but the next generation. Not happening. They’re not gonna let ’em into the United States. So the wind industry heavily relies on drones. And, and Joel, you and I have seen a number of DJI, sort of handheld drones that are used on sites as sort of a quick check of the health of a, or status of a blade. Uh, you, you, I guess you will still be able to do that if you have an older dj. I. But if you try to buy a new one, good luck. Not gonna happen. Joel Saxum: Yeah. I think the most popular drone right now in the field, of course two of ’em, I would, I would say this, it’s like the Mavic type, you know, the little tiny one that like a site supervisor or a technician may have, they have their part 1 0 7 license. They can fly up and look at stuff. Uh, and then the [00:23:00] other one is gonna be the more industrial side. That’s gonna be the DJ IM 300. And that’s the one where a lot of these platforms, the perceptual robotics and some of the others have. That’s their base because the M 300 has, if you’re not in the, the development world, it has what’s called a pretty accessible SDK, which software development kit. So they’re designed to be able to add your sensors, put your software, and they’re fly ’em the way you want to. So they’re kind of like purpose built to be industrial drones. So if you have an M 300 or you’re using them now, what this I understand is you’re gonna still be able to do that, but when it comes time for next gen stuff, you’re not gonna be able to go buy the M 400. And import that. Like once it’s you’re here, you’re done. So I guess the way I would look at it is if I was an operator and that was part of our mo, or I was using a drone inspection provider, that that’s what comes on site. I would give people a plan. I would say basic to hedge your risk. I would say [00:24:00]basically like, Hey, if you’re my drone operator and I’m giving you a year to find a new solution. Um, that integrates into your workflows to get this thing outta here simply because I can’t be at risk that one day you show up, this thing crashes and I can’t get another one. A lot of companies are already like, they’re set and ready to go. Like all the new Skys specs, the Skys specs, foresight, drone, it’s all compliant, right? It’s USA made USA approved. Good to go. I think the new Arons drone is USA compliant. Good to go. Like, no, no issues there. So. Um, I think that some of the major players in the inspection world have already made their moves, um, to be able to be good USA compliant. Um, so just make sure you ask. I guess that’s, that. Our advice to operators here. Make sure you ask, make sure you’re on top of this one so you just don’t get caught with your pants down. Allen Hall: Yeah, I know there’s a lot of little drones in the back of pickup trucks around wind farms and you probably ought to check, talk to the guys about what’s going on to make sure that they’re all compliant. [00:25:00] In this quarter’s, PES Win magazine, which you can download for free@pswin.com. There is an article by Fran Hoffer, and they’re in Germany. If you don’t know who Fran Hoffer is, they’re sort of a research institution that is heavily involved in wind and fixing some of the problems, tackling some of the more complex, uh, issues that exist in blade repair. Turbine Repair Turbine Lifetime. And the article has a number of the highlights that they’ve been working on for the last several years, and you should really check this out, but looking at the accomplishments, Joel, it’s like, wow, fraud offer has been doing a lot behind the scenes and some of these technologies are, are really gonna be helpful in the near future. Joel Saxum: Yeah. Think of Frown Hoffer of your our US com compadres listening. Think of frown Hoffer as and NRE L, but. Not as connected to the federal government. Right. So, but, but more connected to [00:26:00] industry, I would say. So they’re solving industry problems directly. Right. Some of the people that they get funding research from is the OEMs, it’s other trade organizations within the group. They’re also going, they’re getting some support from the German federal government and the state governments. But also competitive research grants, so some EU DPR type stuff, um, and then some funding from private foundations and donors. But when you look at Frow, offerer, it’s a different project every time you talk to ’em. But, and what I like to see is the fact that these projects that they’re doing. Are actually solving real world problems. I, I, I, Alan and I talk about this regularly on the podcast is we have an issue with government funding or supportive funding or even grant funding or competitive funding going to in universities, institutions, well, whoever it may be, to develop stuff that’s either like already developed, doesn’t really have a commercial use, like, doesn’t forward the industry. But Frow Hoffer’s projects are right. So like one of the, they, they have [00:27:00] like the large bearing laboratory, so they’re test, they’ve tested over 500 pitch bearings over in Hamburg. They’re developing a handheld cure monitoring device that can basically tell you when resin has cured it, send you an email like you said, Alan, in case you’re like taking a nap on the ropes or something. Um, but you know, and they’re working on problems that are plaguing the industry, like, uh, up working on up towel repairs for carbon fiber, spar caps. Huge issue in the industry. Wildly expensive issue. Normally RA blade’s being taken down to the ground to fix these now. So they’re working on some UPT tile repairs for that. So they’re doing stuff that really is forwarding the industry and I love to see that. Allen Hall: Yeah. It’s one of the resources that. We in the United States don’t really take advantage of all the time. And yeah, and there’s a lot of the issues that we see around the world that if you were able to call f Hoffer, you should think about calling them, uh, and get their opinion on it. They probably have a solution or have heard of the problem before and can direct you to, uh, uh, a reasonable outcome. [00:28:00] That’s what these organizations are for. There’s a couple of ’em around the world. DTU being another one, frow Hoffer, obviously, uh, being another powerhouse there. That’s how the industry moves forward. It, it doesn’t move forward when all of us are struggling to get through these things. We need to have a couple of focal points in the industry that can spend some research time on problems that matter. And, and Joel, I, I think that’s really the key here. Like you mentioned it, just focusing on problems that we are having today and get through them so we can make the industry. Just a little bit better. So you should check out PES WIN Magazine. You can read this article and a number of other great articles. Go to ps win.com and download your articles today. That wraps up another episode of the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. Thanks for joining us and we appreciate all the feedback and support we receive from the wind industry. If today’s discussion sparked any question or ideas, we’d love to hear from you. Just reach out to us on LinkedIn and please don’t forget to subscribe so you [00:29:00] never miss an episode For Joel, Rosemary and Yolanda, I’m a hall. We’ll catch you next week on the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast.

Le deuxième invité de cette série spéciale réalisée en live au Roc d'Azur à l'occasion des 20 ans de Canyon en France, c'est Maxime Brunand, chef produit en charge de la nouvelle gamme de roues chez CanyonEn tant qu'ancien de chez Mavic, Maxime est allé à bonne école et il applique aujourd'hui chez Canyon tout son savoir faire pour développer les roues avec lesquelles vous allez rouler demain.Pendant cet échange, il nous partage:• L'intention derrière le développement du projet roues• Comment il s'attache à insuffler l'esprit Canyon dans une paire de roues• Ce qu'il peut réaliser chez Canyon qu'il ne pouvait pas faire auparavant• Les principaux défis qu'il a rencontrés au cours du projet• Quelques infos sur la gamme actuelle et perspectives d'évolutionEt pleins d'autres chosesBénéficiez de 30% de remise sur votre abonnement à Shifter grâce au code Enrouelibre30 sur https://www.app-shifter.com/enrouelibreChaque mois, une boutique parmi celles ayant utilisé ce code sera tirée au sort pour gagner 1 an d'abonnement offert.Retrouvez En Roue Libre sur le web:- Soutenez le travail d'En Roue Libre sur la plateforme Tipeee: https://fr.tipeee.com/enrouelibre- Abonnez-vous à la newsletter En Roue Libre ici: https://enrouelibre.kessel.media/- Suivez En Roue Libre sur Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/enrouelibrepodcast/- Suivez-moi sur Linkedin : linkedin.com/in/taillo/- Visitez le site https://enrouelibre.cc/

Welcome to your weekly UAS News Update. We have three stories for you this week: the FCC is set to vote on new rules that could impact covered list entities, DJI is appealing the "Chinese Military Company" court ruling, and we have a drones-for-good story out of New York. Let's get to it.First up, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr announced that the agency will vote on October 28th to close two major loopholes that companies on the "Covered List" have been using. The proposed rules would do two things. First, they would prohibit the authorization of any new devices that contain component parts from a Covered List company. And second, they would give the FCC the power to revoke previously issued authorizations in specific cases. This vote is happening just as DJI faces a December 23rd deadline from the National Defense Authorization Act. If a security review isn't completed by then, DJI automatically gets added to the FCC's Covered List. This is a direct shot at the strategy we've been discussing, with companies like Skyany, Skyrover, and Jovistar popping up with what are essentially rebranded DJI drones. According to the press release from the FCC, there may be an NPRM to follow, but the new rules could also prevent the import and sale of devices already approved.Next up, in a related story, DJI is appealing a federal court decision that kept it on the Pentagon's “Chinese Military Company” list. This is a really interesting case because DJI is in a legal paradox where it seems to have won based on the facts but lost in court. On September 26th, a D.C. District Court judge ruled that DJI would remain on the list, BUT the judge's decision explicitly rejected most of the Defense Department's core allegations. The court found no evidence that DJI is owned or controlled by the Chinese Communist Party or that it's linked to a military-civil fusion enterprise.The court only upheld two of the Pentagon's claims. The first was that DJI holds a "National Enterprise Technology Center" status, which the court acknowledged is widely granted to innovative tech companies, including U.S. ones. The second was that DJI products have "substantial dual-use applications," which is true for tons of off-the-shelf technology. Critically, the court found no evidence of actual misuse by the Chinese military. Despite all this, the judge deferred to the Pentagon's “broad discretion” on national security, keeping the label in place. This designation restricts federal contracts and spooks the private sector, which is a major problem when DJI still controls about 76% of the U.S. consumer drone market. And finally this week, a drones-for-good story! The Olean Police Department in upstate New York used a thermal drone to rescue three kayakers in distress on the Allegheny River. The distress call came in just before 8 p.m., and in the darkness, a traditional search would have been incredibly difficult. Instead, police and fire personnel quickly deployed their drone, which appears to have been a Mavic 3 Thermal. Within minutes, the drone's thermal sensor picked up the heat signatures of two of the kayakers in the cool water. This dramatically cut down the search time and likely prevented hypothermia. The search teams then shifted to the surrounding woods and located the third person on land. And this week on Post-flight, the show in the Premium Community where we share our opinions, we'll talk about these stories and a $500 million counter-drone program for the upcoming World Cup. Have a great weekend, and we'll see you on Monday for the live! https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DOC-415068A1.pdfhttps://dronexl.co/2025/10/14/dji-appeals-court-ruling-pentagon-chinese-military-company/https://dronexl.co/2025/10/12/fcc-vote-kill-dji-shell-company-strategy-december-ban-deadline/https://www.wgrz.com/article/news/local/olean-police-rescue-kayakers-in-distress-with-drone-technology/

Welcome to your weekly UAS News Update. We have three stories for you this week; DJI loses lawsuit against the Pentagon, DJI unveils new Mavic 3 Thermal Advanced, Freely releases the Ember FPV, and an Ohio bill to ban foreign made drones. Let's get to it.First up, DJI has lost its lawsuit challenging the Pentagon's "Chinese Military Company" designation. On September 26th, a U.S. District Judge rejected DJI's challenge, upholding the national security threat classification. The ruling leaves DJI facing major business restrictions and the very real possibility of an automatic product ban.This is because its technology has "substantial theoretical and actual military application," regardless of DJI's own policies against military use. DJI argued that its founder and early investors control 88% of the stock and over 99% of voting rights, but the judge ruled that the ownership structure was "difficult to discern."This is a massive disruption, considering DJI accounts for over 76% of registered drones in the U.S. For public safety agencies, the costs are staggering. The Department of Interior documented price increases from $2,600 to over $15,000 per unit when switching from DJI to approved domestic drones.The biggest threat, however, is a looming deadline. The 2025 National Defense Authorization Act mandates a security review by December 23, 2025. If no federal agency completes this review, DJI will automatically be added to the FCC's Covered List.In some new product news, DJI has quietly launched the Mavic 3TA, an advanced thermal version of its Mavic 3 Enterprise series. This seems to be an iterative update focused on boosting real-world utility for professionals in search and rescue, public safety, and inspections.The Mavic 3TA features an uncooled VOx microbolometer with an 8-micrometer pixel pitch. This smaller pixel pitch should provide finer detail and more accurate temperature readings. The thermal lens also has a longer 60-millimeter equivalent focal length, compared to the 40-millimeter on the 3T. The temperature measurement range is still robust, from -20 to 500 degrees Celsius.It keeps the same compact, foldable design, weighing 920 grams. It has a 45-minute flight time, omnidirectional obstacle sensing, and an IP54 weather resistance rating. The visual cameras are the same as the 3T, with a 48-megapixel wide-angle camera using a 1/2-inch CMOS sensor and a 12-megapixel telephoto lens with a 56x hybrid zoom.Next up, Freefly released the Ember FPV drone, a 500g FPV drone with a high-speed camera on it. By high speed, I mean somewhere between 600 and 3000 fps. While specs aren't yet public on this guy, it looks to be a huge upgrade from the exiting cinelifters we see carry larger cameras.There's also a new bill in Ohio this week, which would ban drones made by a foreign adversary. Of course, AUVSI is in support of stripping public safety agencies from using the best possible equipment, as they've pushed for in other states. If you haven't yet written your comment for Part 108, time is running out. You have until Monday at 11:59PM ET to get your comments in. It's extremely important that you voice your opinions.Like every week, we'll discuss these stories in depth and share our opinions on Post Flight in the premium community. We'll see you there and we'll see you on Monday for the live! https://www.legislature.ohio.gov/legislation/136/sb180https://search-prod.lis.state.oh.us/api/v2/general_assembly_136/legislation/sb180/00_IN/pdf/https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7378982847786823682/?originTrackingId=WoVXzy9%2B7TVAhS3oVQkgHA%3D%3Dhttps://www.regulations.gov/document/FAA-2025-1908-0023/commenthttps://dronexl.co/2025/09/29/dji-unveils-mavic-3ta-enterprise-drone-with-upgraded-thermal-tech/https://dronexl.co/2025/09/26/dji-loses-pentagon-lawsuit/

What happens when decades of Bigfoot obsession finally lead to one moonlit night in the shadow of Mount Baker — and a creature that defied every expectation? In this gripping episode of Bigfoot Society, we sit down with Robert Evans, a longtime researcher whose journey spans Florida, Georgia, Washington, Canada, and beyond.Robert recounts his early brush with the unknown in the Chattahoochee mountains, his years of fruitless treks through the Cascades, and the moment everything changed in 2012 — when a massive figure on all fours glided across a floodplain and leapt over a fallen log in front of him. You'll also hear the untold story of the Finding Bigfoot drone expedition that captured incredible thermal footage… only to lose it to a string of failures.From Walla Walla roars to high-tech drone hunts in Ohio and California, Robert's story reveals both the triumph and heartbreak of chasing evidence of the elusive Sasquatch. More than just a sighting, this is a saga of obsession, technology, and the mystery that refuses to let go.Robert currently uses a Mavic 2 Thermal drone at 640x512. 

Alberto Morgando is the CEO of the iconic brand Mavic. Alberto shares his fascinating journey from studying mechanical engineering in Turin, Italy to leading multinational companies and private equity turnarounds before taking the helm at the legendary French wheel manufacturer.Arriving at a precarious moment when Mavic was struggling with significant losses amid cycling's market downturn, Alberto faces the critical task of returning this storied brand to profitability and long-term health.We explore his management philosophy, the unique challenges of revitalizing a storied brand, and his strategic approach to navigating the volatile cycling industry. With his outsider perspective and proven turnaround expertise, Alberto offers fresh insights into brand revival, market dynamics, and the evolving future of cycling.Introduction & Background0:00 – Introduction to Alberto Morgando and his background in engineering and management.Early Career & Moving Abroad1:14 – Alberto's decision to study engineering, early career in logistics, and moving from Italy to France.Small vs. Large Companies5:45 – Experiences in small companies vs. large corporations, and the value of both.Transition to Consulting & MBA12:50 – Pursuing an MBA, entering consulting, and the impact on his career trajectory.Leadership Philosophy & Management Roles18:46 – Alberto's approach to leadership, impact, and moving into executive roles.First CEO Experience & Private Equity22:06 – Taking on CEO roles in mid-sized companies, challenges, and successes.Joining Mavic & Brand Revitalization27:07 – How Alberto became involved with Mavic, the brand's challenges, and his mandate.Cycling Industry Challenges & Strategy36:37 – The unique challenges of the cycling industry, market cycles, and Mavic's strategy for growth.Product Innovation & Market Approach43:09 – Focus on product development, innovation, and balancing OEM and aftermarket business.Retail, D2C, and Channel Strategy53:54 – Mavic's approach to retail, direct-to-consumer, and online channels.Closing & Contact Information59:17 – Final thoughts, how to contact Alberto, and closing remarks.Read the latest 'The Business of Cycling' BlogSign up for 'The Business of Cycling' Newsletter

Welcome back to your Weekly UAS News Update. We've got three stories for you this week. First, the Neo 2 has been spotted in FCC filings, Insta360 is jumping into the drone game with a new brand called Antigravity, and the CEO of DroneUp seems to be pushing for digital airspace authorizations.First up, it looks like DJI might have some serious new competition. Insta360, the company known for its 360-degree cameras, has launched a new drone brand called Antigravity. And their first drone sounds pretty revolutionary: it's reportedly the world's first 360-degree drone that weighs less than 249 grams and can shoot in 8K.Antigravity says its focus isn't on raw specs, but on creating an "immersive flight" experience that makes storytelling easy for everyone, from beginners to experts. The drone will reportedly include smart safety features, like payload detection to deter misuse or modifications. The full, official unveiling is scheduled for this August. We've seen other companies like GoPro and Skydio struggle to challenge DJI's dominance, so it will be interesting to see if Insta360 and Antigravity's approach.Next up, a new DJI drone, the Neo 2, has surfaced on the FCC website, which is usually the first major step before a product can be sold in the US. The filing reveals a notable upgrade: a 1606 milliamp-hour battery, which is about a 12% increase from the original Neo. This should translate to longer flight times than the original's 18 minutes. While FCC approval is a promising sign, it doesn't guarantee the Neo 2 will be available in the US. Since last October, US Customs has been detaining some DJI shipments, citing the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act. DJI firmly disputes any connection to forced labor, but the issue has already prevented the official US release of other products, like the Mavic 4 Pro. So, even with the FCC's green light, the Neo 2's future in the American market remains uncertain.And finally, Tom Walker, the CEO of DroneUp, published an opinion piece for Fox News where he pointed to a recent, dangerous incident during the Texas floods. A private drone reportedly collided with a rescue helicopter, forcing the crew to land and grounding a vital asset during a life-or-death situation.Walker says this isn't an isolated problem. He cited FAA data showing that illegal drone incursions near US airports jumped by 25% in the first quarter of this year compared to 2024. He warns that our current systems for detecting and responding to these threats are, in his words, "fractured, outdated, and dangerously inadequate."So what's the solution? Walker wants a unified, real-time tracking system for all low-altitude air traffic. He's also pushing for secure digital credentials to link drones to their pilots, and for expanding the authority of local law enforcement to counter drone threats. He argues that the technology to do this already exists, but says we need to act now before one of these incidents becomes a national tragedy.I can tell you that we at Pilot Institute will oppose any sort of technology that introduces ANY cost to access the national airspace system. Access to the NAS must remain free for ANY and ALL users. We'll be watching this closely. And on Postflight, our show where we share our opinions in the premium community, we'll discuss the SkyRover X1 and how drones are being used to drop mosquitos in Hawaii. We'll see you on Monday for the live and for post flight in the community! https://dronedj.com/2025/07/25/dji-neo-2-drone-fcc/https://dronexl.co/2025/07/28/insta360-antigravity-drone-360-8k/https://dronexl.co/2025/07/21/drone-ceo-warns-of-escalating-airspace-risks/

In this episode of Your Drone Questions. Answered, host Chris Breedlove talks with Josh Matheson from Duke University's Marine Robotics and Remote Sensing Lab. They explore how affordable, off-the-shelf drones like the DJI Phantom and Mavic series are being used in groundbreaking science—from tracking elephant health in Zambia, to monitoring shark behavior with AI, to modeling oyster reefs and 3D mapping seals and whales.Josh shares real-world stories of students and researchers using consumer drones to collect high-quality scientific data, proving that you don't need a $30K drone to do meaningful work. This episode highlights how accessible tech, paired with creativity, is making cutting-edge research more inclusive and powerful than ever.

Seekordses saates uurime, mida uut pakub hiljuti Pixeli telefonidesse jõudnud Android 16. Vaatame millega üllatab uuendatud Mirko raaamatukoguäpp. Kõrvutame keskmise hinnaklassi mobiilide suure testi tulemusi ja võtame vaatluse alla DJI uusima drooni Mavic 4 Pro. Saate lõpus kuulutame välja auhinnamängu!Saate teemad:· Android 16 on kohal, aga mida uut see kaasa toob?· Raamatukoguäpp Mirko on nüüd kasutajasõbralikum.· Digi suures testis võtsid mõõtu nutitelefonid hinnaga 300-500 eurot.· Lennutasime DJI Mavic 4 Pro drooni ja saime teada, mille poolest on see eelkäijast parem.· Kuulutame välja auhinnamängu – kuula saateid ja võida!Kui sul on meile küsimusi või tahad jagada oma kogemusi tehnikamaailmas, kirjuta meile: digisaade@geenius.ee.Saadet teevad Hans Lõugas, Glen Pilvre ja Meelis Väljamäe.Tunnusmuusika: Glen Pilvre, Paul Oja

Seekordses saates uurime, mida uut pakub hiljuti Pixeli telefonidesse jõudnud Android 16. Vaatame millega üllatab uuendatud Mirko raaamatukoguäpp. Kõrvutame keskmise hinnaklassi mobiilide suure testi tulemusi ja võtame vaatluse alla DJI uusima drooni Mavic 4 Pro. Saate lõpus kuulutame välja auhinnamängu! Saate teemad: ·       Android 16 on kohal, aga mida uut see kaasa toob? ·       Raamatukoguäpp Mirko on nüüd kasutajasõbralikum. ·       Digi suures testis võtsid mõõtu nutitelefonid hinnaga 300-500 eurot. ·       Lennutasime DJI Mavic 4 Pro drooni ja saime teada, mille poolest on see eelkäijast parem. ·       Kuulutame välja auhinnamängu – kuula saateid ja võida! Kui sul on meile küsimusi või tahad jagada oma kogemusi tehnikamaailmas, kirjuta meile: digisaade@geenius.ee. Saadet teevad Hans Lõugas, Glen Pilvre ja Meelis Väljamäe. Tunnusmuusika: Glen Pilvre, Paul Oja

We continue discussing Panasonic's recent announcements by talking about the Lumix S1 IIe as well as the new 24-60 f/2.8 L-mount lens. Also, DJI's new Mavic 4 Pro caught our eye, but will we ever be able to buy one? If you enjoy the show and want to contribute to our hosting costs, we'd welcome your support on Patreon. You can check it out here: https://www.patreon.com/cameragearpodcast Want to send us a question or comment, or just learn more about the show? Check out our website at https://cameragearpodcast.com, or email us directly at cameragearpodcast@gmail.com. Notes: Synology 8TB BeeStation Plus Panasonic Lumix 24-60 f/2.8 [B&H] DJI Mavic 4 Pro [B&H] Mavic 4 Pro Review from PetaPixel

Have new tariffs been signed and what are the implications for pilots. Today's podcast is brought to you by Drone U's Experience Training in June. Our first three Experience Training events sold out in less than a week; and it's time to take flight again! Our all-inclusive 5-day training paired with a 2-day competition will challenge you, inspire you, and prepare you. In this unique training event, limited to no more than 10 participants, you will be immersed in an experienced-based learning environment. You'll take flight daily and often, and you'll master cutting-edge drone techniques along the way. You'll learn from experienced pilots who've been where you're trying to go; and you'll build repeatable systems to scale your business. Click HERE to book your seat today !! On today's episode we discuss about the impacts of the changing tariff environment for drone pilots and what it means for regulations and options that pilots have to navigate tariffs. We discuss about the details of regulations surrounding tariffs and if it impacts existing drones and specifics of the soon to be signed tariffs. We look into the timing to procure drones with the ups and downs of tariff conversations with nations esp China and if future deals will impact pricing of drones. We also discuss some upcoming DJI drones and if it makes sense to purchase new drones vs purchasing an used drone. Tune in today on this short information packed episode !! 5-Day Free Course: Thriving Drone Real Estate Business Transform your drone operations into a thriving real estate-focused business. Learn client management, pricing for profit, and creating high-value deliverables. Grow My Drone Business Get your questions answered: https://thedroneu.com/. If you enjoy the show, the #1 thing you can do to help us out is to subscribe to it on iTunes. Can we ask you to do that for us real quick? While you're there, leave us a 5-star review, if you're inclined to do so. Thanks! https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/ask-drone-u/id967352832. Click here for access to Skywatch for all your drone insurance purposes ! Become a Drone U Member. Access to over 30 courses, great resources, and our incredible community. Follow Us Site – https://thedroneu.com/ Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/droneuADU 1382: Build my own drone to do photogrammetry work? Instagram – https://instagram.com/thedroneu/ Twitter – https://twitter.com/thedroneu YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/c/droneu Timestamps: [00:55] What should you do now considering the changes in tariffs [04:08] Drones already owned by pilots - Do tariffs impact them [06:34] Today's question on tariffs and impacts to flying drones [07:43] Section 1709 and why it matters to pilots [16:33] Why it is not a good time to purchase drones [23:01] Is the Mavic 4 Pro a good purchase? And how does it compare with Inspire [27:05] A summary of our response to today's question

DJI's new Mavic 4 Pro brings true D-Log to all three cameras and a 360° rotating gimbal – but is it enough to replace your camera? Nino and Johnnie also dive into Panasonic's LUMIX S1II and S1IIE, covering ProRes RAW, a stacked sensor, and CineD's lab test results. Brought to you by CineD.com – your source for filmmaking tech news, reviews, and education. Tune in and get all the details! Sponsor: This episode is sponsored by FUJIFILM. Check it out at (28:13)   Chapters & Articles Mentioned in This Episode:   (00:00) -  Intro (01:53) - DJI Mavic 4 Pro First Look Review – D-Log 10-Bit on All Cameras, 6K Video, and a Fully Rotating Gimbal https://www.cined.com/dji-mavic-4-pro-first-look-review-d-log-10-bit-on-all-cameras-6k-video-and-a-fully-rotating-gimbal/   (29:13) - Panasonic LUMIX S1II Camera Released – Partially Stacked Sensor, 5.9K 60fps, Open Gate, Internal ProRes RAW, and More https://www.cined.com/panasonic-lumix-s1ii-camera-released-partially-stacked-sensor-5-9k-60fps-open-gate-internal-prores-raw-and-more/ Panasonic LUMIX S1II Review - First Impression and a Mini-Documentary https://www.cined.com/panasonic-lumix-s1ii-review-first-impression-and-a-mini-documentary/    (47:26) - Panasonic Future Firmware Updates for the LUMIX S1II, S1IIE and S1RII Annou nced https://www.cined.com/panasonic-future-firmware-updates-for-the-lumix-s1ii-s1iie-and-s1rii-announced/   (48:47) - Panasonic LUMIX S1IIE Camera Announced – the “Essential” Version of the S1II https://www.cined.com/panasonic-lumix-s1iie-camera-announced-the-essential-version-of-the-s1ii/   (52:09) - Panasonic LUMIX S 24-60mm f/2.8 Standard Zoom Lens for L-Mount Released – Compact and Lightweight https://www.cined.com/panasonic-lumix-s-24-60mm-f-2-8-standard-zoom-lens-for-l-mount-released-compact-and-lightweight/   (56:31) - Panasonic LUMIX S1II Lab Test – Rolling Shutter, Dynamic Range, and Exposure Latitude https://www.cined.com/panasonic-lumix-s1ii-lab-test-rolling-shutter-dynamic-range-and-exposure-latitude/ We hope you enjoyed this episode! You have feedback, comments, or suggestions? Write us at podcast@cined.com   

In this episode I talk about the release of DJI's Mavic 4 Pro and some disappointing news that went along with it.More Content:prestonjensen.comB&H link referenced:https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1886937-REG/dji_cp_ma_00000847_01_mavic_4_pro_drone.html/overviewDrone DJ article referenced:https://dronedj.com/2025/05/13/the-dji-mavic-4-pro-is-here-but-u-s-buyers-are-left-grounded/

Welcome to your weekly UAS News Update. We have four stories for you this week.First, DJI teases the Mavic 4 Pro, and we have a release date!Second, a heartwarming story out of Michigan where a thermal drone played a key role in saving a 74-year-old woman.Third, we've got more DJI news with a leaked launch window for the Mini 5 Pro.And finally, a drone reportedly crashed while attempting to smuggle contraband into a South Carolina prison.First up this week, DJI is at it again, officially teasing the upcoming Mavic 4 Pro! They dropped a "Spin Your World" teaser and, in a bit of a surprise move for DJI, actually showed the drone itself in the teaser. This is probably because, let's be honest, the leaks have been coming for months now. The official launch is slated for May 13th, so mark your calendars!Next up, we have a fantastic real-world drones-for-good story coming out of Michigan! A 74-year-old woman who experienced a vehicle fire got lost in the woods without her phone last month. She sought shelter under a tree and endured 27 degrees temperatures, along with rain and winds, less than 450 feet from where her vehicle burned. It's unclear when searching began, but the woman was located alive, and too frozen to move, 3 days after going missing by a Mason County Sheriff's thermal drone. Great use of the drone to save a life!And in our third story this week, more news from the DJI rumor mill! It looks like the DJI Mini 5 Pro might be on the horizon, with a potential launch window now pointing towards September 2025. This information comes via trusted X leaker HakaSushi (hah-kah-SOO-shee), who apparently confirmed an earlier rumor from Jasper Ellens at DroneXL. So, while it's still a ways off, the anticipation is definitely building. The Mini series, as you know, has been incredibly popular. This is especially true for those of us who want a capable drone that stays under that 250-gram weight limit, avoiding a lot of registration hassles in many places. Speculation on improvements includes changes to the sensor size, enhanced obstacle avoidance, better wind resistance, or even longer flight times.Let us know in the comments what features YOU'D like to see in a Mini 5 Pro!And finally this week, your “Don't be that guy” segment. Reports indicate that a drone crashed while allegedly attempting to smuggle contraband, specifically methamphetamines, into a prison in South Carolina. Details about the specific type of drone or the quantity of contraband involved haven't been widely released yet, and the investigation is likely ongoing. Unfortunately, this isn't an isolated incident. We've covered stories like this before. Correctional facilities around the world are increasingly battling attempts to use drones to deliver drugs, cell phones, weapons, and other illegal items over prison walls. It's a serious security concern, and it highlights the 'cat and mouse' game being played between those trying to exploit the technology for criminal purposes and the authorities working to stop them. Don't be that guy, and for anyone watching that is thinking about doing this: These facilities have Drone detection systems. They will find you and they will catch you, so just don't. Alright, that's all for this week. We have the live Q and A on Monday and in post-flight on Monday in the premium community, so we'll see you then.

Welcome to your weekly UAS News Update. We have four stories for you this week. First, DJI officially ends the Phantom line, SiFly releases the Q250 and Q12, more leaks surface about the potential DJI Mavic 4, and researchers develop a 'flying squirrel' drone with foldable wings.first up this week, it's the end of an era for one of the most iconic drone series ever. DJI has officially announced the retirement of its Phantom 4 Pro and Phantom 4 Advanced drones. It set the standard for prosumer drones for years. It's a bit sad to see the Phantom line go, but technology marches on. We've seen DJI focus heavily on the Mavic, Air, and Mini series for consumers and prosumers, and the Matrice line for enterprise. So, while the Phantom might be taking its final flight into the sunset, its legacy in shaping our drone industry is undeniable. Pour one out for the Phantom!Next up, SiFly has released the Q12, a medium-sized, long-endurance aircraft. The Q12 offers a two-hour continuous hover, three-hour forward flight time, and 90-mile range while carrying a 10lb payload. SiFly also released the Q250, a heavy-lift drone with a 200lb payload and a 100-minute endurance. Both of these look like pretty cool drones with maybe the best flight times we've seen from a multi-rotor. Also, both drones are NDAA compliant, making them a possible replacement for those entities that require compliant aircraft. Specifics on battery, connection link, and available payloads aren't currently available. We'll keep you updated if we see more about the SiFly Q250 or the Q12!Now for another DJI story, the rumor mill is churning again, this time about the potential DJI Mavic 4. According to Jasper Ellens, the Mavic 4 is becoming, in his words, "the world's most leaked drone." Recent reports suggest leaked promotional images, potential pricing details, and even photos of the retail boxes have surfaced online. Now, take this all with a grain of salt, as these are just leaks. One particularly interesting tidbit is the mention of a possible new controller, the RC Pro 2, which might feature a vertical screen. A vertical screen could be interesting for how information is displayed, maybe better for certain types of flight data, or even social media integration, who knows? Along with the leaks, there was a list of supposedly cancelled features, including no Pro Res, no electronic ND filters at launch, and no RC Track, which, for those who may not remember, is the rumored tracking beacon.And last up this week, we have a cool research story out of South Korea. Researchers at Pohang University of Science and Technology, or POSTECH, have developed a drone inspired by flying squirrels! This isn't your typical quadcopter. It features foldable wings designed to give it significantly more agility, especially when it comes to braking or making sharp turns mid-air. You know how quadcopters can feel a bit floaty sometimes when stopping? The idea here is that these foldable wings can deploy rapidly to act like air brakes, allowing for much quicker deceleration than propellers alone can manage. This mimics how a flying squirrel uses its membranes to glide and maneuver. Or the ornithopter in Dune... While it's still in the research phase, this kind of bio-inspired design is fascinating. It pushes the boundaries beyond standard drone configurations and could potentially lead to drones that can navigate complex environments much more effectively. https://dronexl.co/2025/04/29/flying-squirrel-drone-foldable-wings/https://dronexl.co/2025/04/26/dji-mavic-4-canceled-features-rc-pro-2/https://dronexl.co/2025/04/27/drones-drop-super-clams-florida-indian-river/https://dronexl.co/2025/04/29/dji-phantom-4-takes-final-flight/

Want to grow your drone business, book high-paying contracts, and get FAA-authorized for restricted airspace? This episode reveals how Jason Flakes did it—step by step. In this episode of Elevating Drone Life, Rob talks with Jason Flakes, the award-winning founder of Visual 14, about how he turned a career setback into a thriving commercial drone business. You will discover how he uses cinematic storytelling, strategic proposals, and FAA-compliant flight operations to build his six figure drone business.  From filming Amazon Prime documentaries to winning a 3-year aerial contract over a 16-mile metro line, Jason shares hard-won insights on: Pricing drone services with confidence Getting FAA authorization in restricted zones Submitting winning RFPs (and how to ask for a debrief) Capturing footage that looks like it came from a Hollywood set Turning raw content into recurring revenue Whether you're just starting out or looking to scale, this episode is a masterclass in real-world drone success. Want to fly like a pro and get paid what you're worth? Discover 40+ industry-leading courses right from FAA Part 107 prep to advanced mapping, modelling and inspections.  Go here ? https://www.thedroneu.com Timestamps: [00:00] Learn about our guest, Jason Flakes and his background [06:00] Laid off ? Launched business [13:00] From architecture to drone media [19:00] Discovering the power of drone storytelling [28:00] Behind the 3-year metro rail aerial contract [34:00] FAA drone rules explained (and how to build trust) [42:00] How to price drone jobs the smart way [48:00] Licensing, deliverables, and protecting your work [52:00] Gear talk: Mavic 3 Pro vs Inspire 2 + DJI ban [57:00] Upcoming documentaries and mindful filmmaking Resources & Links - Jason's Website – https://visual14.com - Instagram – https://instagram.com/jasonflakes - Mocktail Monday – Buy the Book - TED Talk – Putting Hustle Culture to Rest ? Watch - The Hustle Equation – Buy on Amazon (replace with live link) Want free tools to jumpstart your drone career? Download our Drone Pilot Starter Kit Learn to Master the Skies and Build Your Confidence as a Drone Pilot. The Drone Starter Kit is a collection of 3 amazing courses worth $97 - all for free. https://learn.thedroneu.com/bundles/drone-flying-starter-kit  Stay Connected Like this episode if it helped Subscribe & turn on notifications for weekly pro tips Share this video with a friend who's trying to break into the drone industry #DroneBusiness #DroneFilmmaking #FAA107 #DronePilotLife #DroneContracts #StorytellingWithDrones

Welcome to your weekly UAS News Update. We have four stories for you this week. First, the DJI Mavic 4 Pro's launch date, specs, and pricing have been leaked. Second, a research team developed a battery that lets drones fly in extreme cold. Third, a missing woman in Wisconsin was found quickly, thanks to a drone. And finally, President Trump nominates a new FAA Administrator.And first up this week, we have exciting leaked information about the DJI Mavic 4 Pro. According to sources, the drone is set to launch on Thursday, April 24th, 2025. Expect an official teaser from DJI around April 17th. This is pretty much in line with previous leaks, giving us confidence in this date.The Mavic 4 Pro will boast three cameras with focal lengths of 28mm, 70mm, and 168mm. That's 2.5x and 6x which is slightly different from the current 3x/7x configuration. It will reportedly record in 6K, with a larger sensor than the Mavic 3, promising even better image quality. The gimbal is getting a major redesign, with 360-degree multidirectional movement. An unexpected feature... The Mavic 4 Pro will reportedly feature an electronic ND filter system so no more carrying ND filters around. If that is true, I will be impressed!DJI is claiming a flight time of 52 minutes. As far as charging: three batteries in only 90 minutes, aligning with the leaked 240W charger specs. And it looks like a new controller is coming – the DJI RC Pro 2, featuring a 7-inch tilting touchscreen.Price-wise, the leaks suggest the Mavic 4 Pro with the DJI RC2 will be $2,250. The Fly More Combo with the RC2 is priced at $3,200. And the top-tier 512GB Creator Combo, including the new DJI RC Pro 2 Controller, will cost you $4,400. Next up, a research team from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics has made a breakthrough in battery technology. They've successfully flown a hexacopter drone in temperatures as low as -32.8 degrees Fahrenheit, or -36 degrees Celsius. This is a big deal because standard lithium-ion batteries struggle in extreme cold, often losing 30% to 50% of their capacity.This new battery, however, retains over 90% of its nominal capacity at -40 degrees Fahrenheit, with endurance loss under 10%. Beyond drones, this tech could also benefit electric vehicles and remote power stations.And in our third story, a real-world drones-for-good story! In Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin, a 59-year-old woman was quickly located by a drone after ground searches failed. She had been outdoors for about three hours and was unable to stand. Rescuers reached her within one minute of detection, just before a storm rolled in. The interesting part here is that the Wisconsin Rapids Police Department didn't own the drone. They relied on Wings of Hope, a non-profit organization. This highlights the financial challenges many smaller departments face in acquiring this life-saving technology. As we see affordable drones becoming harder to get because of regulation, this might prevent small departments from getting ANY drones at all.Finally, this week, the White House nominated Bryan Bedford, CEO of Republic Airways, to head the Federal Aviation Administration. Bedford, a pilot with over 30 years of experience, faces significant challenges if confirmed. These include decisions on Boeing 737 MAX production, approval of new 737 variants, and addressing a shortage of approximately 3,500 air traffic controllers.https://dronexl.co/2025/03/19/dji-mavic-4-pro-launch-date-features-prices/https://dronexl.co/2025/03/17/chinas-breakthrough-battery-powers-drone/https://dronexl.co/2025/03/17/drone-missing-woman-wisconsin-rapids/https://transportation.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=408316#:~:text=Joint%20statement%20of%20Transportation%20and,Administrator%20of%20the%20Federal%20Aviation

Should we emphasize getting the latest drone for business or bootstrap? Today's episode is brought to you by Drone U in-person training, a unique in-person training event that is focused on developing a holistic drone pilot, where you will be hands-on learning environment. Launching 2 new in-person mapping bootcamps that covers all aspects of mapping projects training you on softwares, flight missions, data acquisitions, desktop or laptop based processing, flight mastery and much much more. Reach out to us to book your seat today. View our recent review of the Matrice 4 Enterprise and learn why we believe the M4E lives up to the hype. and Our latest NEWS show on all the hottest news and updates in the drone industry. On today's episode we discuss about timelines in products for drone business and developing the right mindset for ensuring success in your drone business. Our question for now is from Nick who would like to know how to manage the ever evolving field in drone tech, software updates and upgrades and keeping up to date with regulations. Thank you Nick for the detailed question. We kick off today's podcast about drones, the Phantoms specifically, and compare the development of drones and their tech and how it is relevant for the industry. We delve into approximate times for drone upgrades and aspects that should drive purchasing decisions for drone pilots. Specific to Nick's question we discuss and compare the Matrice 4E vs the Mavic3E and also answer everything about RTK modules in different drones and learning from experience. Tune in and get to know more about how to better plan and decide on purchasing drones, managing tech in drones and more !! 5-Day Free Course: Thriving Drone Real Estate Business Transform your drone operations into a thriving real estate-focused business. Learn client management, pricing for profit, and creating high-value deliverables. Grow My Drone Business Get your questions answered: https://thedroneu.com/. If you enjoy the show, the #1 thing you can do to help us out is to subscribe to it on iTunes. Can we ask you to do that for us real quick? While you're there, leave us a 5-star review, if you're inclined to do so. Thanks! https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/ask-drone-u/id967352832. Click here for access to Skywatch for all your drone insurance purposes ! Become a Drone U Member. Access to over 30 courses, great resources, and our incredible community. Follow Us Site – https://thedroneu.com/ Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/droneu Instagram – https://instagram.com/thedroneu/ Twitter – https://twitter.com/thedroneu YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/c/droneu Timestamps: [06:31] Today's question on time to upgrade your drones [08:51] Learn more about drone development and tech and how they compare to past models [13:13] Matrice 4 Enterprise vs the Mavic 3 Enterprise [15:50] Aspects that can drive purchasing decisions for Enterprise drones [19:19] Learn more about RTK modules in various drones [24:30] How to stay updates on all the regulatory changes in the drone industry

A sad first story, the industry pioneer and public safety visionary Romeo Durscher has sadly passed away.Romeo was a pioneer of drones for public safety, with the mantra "Drones for good".He worked for DJI, as their Director of Public Safety Integration, where he led and assisted departments getting started with drones.In 2018, the Camp Fire in California destroyed an entire town.Romeo led 15 drone teams to create high-definition maps of over 17,000 acres in days, saying “After Santa Rosa, I thought I'd seen it all. Then came Paradise… It's beyond what one could imagine.”This was just one of many ways Romeo helped to cultivate drones is public safety.Romeo then moved from DJI to Auterion, pushing interchangeably to ensure public safety could use the best tool for their mission.Earlier this year, Romeo was given the Law Enforcement Drone Association's Lifetime Achievement Award. He was also named one of the 25 most influential people in the drone industry and given the Golden Medal from the Estonian Chamber of Commerce.Haye, from DroneXL, put it best: "Romeo Durscher's passing leaves a void, but his vision soars on. The drone industry stands at a crossroads—poised for growth, yet challenged by regulation and ethics. Romeo showed us the way: technology must serve purpose, not profit alone."Next up, a Texas bill would allow drones to be shot down if flown over private property.There are several things wrong with this bill, starting with 18 USC 32.This law protects civil aircraft, both in the air and on the ground."Whoever willfully—(1)sets fire to, damages, destroys, disables, or wrecks any aircraft in the special aircraft jurisdiction of the United States or any civil aircraft used, operated, or employed in interstate, overseas, or foreign air commerce......shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than twenty years or both."We also know how bad people are at identifying aircraft, with several of the NJ "drones" actually being airliners.And not to mention, what goes up must come down.If you're in Texas, please reach out to your state legislature and let them know this is a BAD idea.Next up, Mavic 4 Leaks!DroneXL and Jasper Ellens is reporting a new rumor that the Mavic 4 may be able to roll its gimbal up to 180 degreens in both directions. You heard that right, ROLL. This would mean you could take native vertical with all lenses and even upside down video.This would make quite an interesting function that we haven't seen on small drones.Well have to wait and see!We'll see your for the Monday live next week, no Friday live, it's finally time to move into our new building!https://dronexl.co/2025/03/05/dji-mavic-4-pro-vertical-and-beyond/https://dronexl.co/2025/03/05/romeo-durscher-drone-visionary-good/https://thetexan.news/issues/second-amendment/texas-bill-would-allow-property-owners-to-shoot-down-trespassing-drones/article_7a86e40e-f2f0-11ef-8321-33c28a01e369.html

Юрій Федоренко, командир батальйону ударних безпілотних авіаційних комплексів АХІЛЛЕС 92 Окремої штурмової бригади імені Кошового Отамана Івана Сірка, на Radio NV про ситуацію на Куп'янському напрямку, як погода впливає на дії ворога, про максимальну активність рашистів на цьому напрямку та якою ціною їм вдається просування, про задачі пілотів БПЛА, про катастрофічну нестачу дронів MAVIC та РЕБ росіян, про мільйон дронів, державу, її роль в постачанні БПЛА військовим підрозділам та чому їх не вистачає.Ведучий – Василь Пехньо

In this episode of Your Drone Questions Answered, David Young, founder of Drone Launch Academy, sits down with Rut Patel, a mapping expert who works with survey firms to integrate drone technology into their workflow. They dive deep into how drones are revolutionizing the surveying industry by reducing project timelines, improving data accuracy, and offering cost-effective solutions compared to traditional methods.Root shares insights from his hands-on experience, explaining the step-by-step process of using drones for surveys—from project planning and flight execution to data processing and deliverables. He also highlights the types of drones and software commonly used, such as the Mavic 3 Enterprise with a DRTK station and photogrammetry tools like Pix4D.Whether you're curious about how drones are being used in geomatics, the benefits they offer for surveying, or what the future holds for this field, this episode is packed with practical knowledge and expert advice.Learn how drones are becoming an essential tool for surveyors and discover why this technology is reshaping the industry!

Today we're bringing you the most effective strategies for commanding any stage or room, as we take you inside the mind of another powerhouse member of our 7-figure Performance Mastermind group, Mavic Bright!  Mavic is a manifestation and leadership performance coach who hosts an incredible event with over 2,000 people, and in this episode, she reveals what goes into preparing for an event of this scale, along with the way she is able to rest, restore and recharge afterwards. She also shares the importance of self-acceptance and embracing your unique qualities, along with her insights on overcoming self-doubt, handling criticism, and maintaining balance in both your personal and professional life, and so much more. If you've ever struggled with the thought that “you're too much”, Mavic's inspiring journey serves as a reminder of how living into your feminine power and leading from your full self (while taking bold action!) can help you achieve YOUR version of success!  For the past 8 years, I've had the privilege and honor to host an intimate 12-month mastermind experience for emerging leaders and online experts in our industry, called the Performance Mastermind, and many of those members are individuals you know and follow today. As you also know, true and real masterminds are the most effective and powerful containers for creating explosive growth in your business and your life! I'll stand by this claim that the Performance Mastermind is the best mastermind for 7-figure online experts in the entire industry, and this is the one time of year that I recruit new members. So, if you are approaching or you're already at that 7-figure a year mark in your business and you're looking for a catalyst, a community and a quantum leap, then I invite you to apply. Simply visit www.jameswedmore.com/performance to get all the details. Hurry though as the Performance Mastermind is limited to just 30 seats every year and I only have a few spots open!  Snap a screenshot of the episode playing on your device, post it to your Instagram Stories and tag us, @jameswedmore, @jeunejenni and @mavicbright. We'd love to hear what resonated with you the most!  In this episode you'll hear: Mavic's definition of power and a specific question you can ask when facing resistance to claiming your own power  Why she says that intuition is powerfully feminine and she doesn't need to express herself in a masculine way  The way that Mavic shifted her perspective about her events to think of them as creating an experience for all who attend  A deeply personal and emotional experience she had and the conscious choice she made at that time to step into her power Mavic's advice for handling criticism from people who may not like the message you have to share  Her best practices for supporting herself before a big event and how she rests, restores and recharges after the event wraps up  The dynamic that Mavic and her husband have that allows them to co-create their family together while she is in the spotlight in her business  Mavic's experiences inside the Performance Mastermind and why she likes to call it the “Accelerated University for Success”  A significant breakthrough from the mastermind that changed everything for her and her business What to keep in mind if you're feeling like you're “too much” for others  For full show notes and links, visit: www.mindyourbusinesspodcast.com/blog/723 

AWP Episode 193 “For the Grom's” w/Greg Stafford & Emily Baker (Northern Aspects Film Festival)   Daniel Buitrago, Brandon Fifield & Jack Lau are joined by outdoor life style photographer Greg Stafford and “BIG AIR BAKER” Emily Baker of Northern Aspects Film Festival   Jacks new gig, working as a team and achievements, having structure and the benefits, the dirt bag award, The Northern Aspect Film Festival 2024, The Grom's, Ski porn, ocean base vs. Lake based water skiing, thanks to Jeff Lund @ On-Step Podcast & the new book “Big Wild Life”, back country ice skating, Jack's AZ Trip, lava tubes, Kennedys sweet 16, Daniels new sled, the history of tailgate in Valdez & Thompson pass, poor mans helicopter, back country access by snowmobile and the transition, Snow Bros movies, the new alliance and cross over of winter sports brought together throughout safety, Sarah Glauser new film festival poster for 2024, truck house, hair pin spine, the  new onesie's for the event, designing a film festival, the bear tooth venue, the art of film making, reviewing submissions, Greg's proposal to Emily in the jungles of Peru, Mavic air drones, International Pack Rafting Festival announcement, May 2025 packrat adventures, 6-mile, Tatshenshini River pack raft, Snow river glacier,        Visit our Website - www.alaskawildproject.com Follow us on Instagram - www.instagram.com/alaskawildproject Watch us on YouTube - www.youtube.com/@alaskawildproject $upport the show on Patreon - www.patreon.com/alaskawildproject

With the recent reveal of M4 MacBook Pro, etc, Apple continues to compare new generations of its "M" SoC to its original M1. Why?Also, I suspect a massive improvement to DJI Neo video quality settings is inbound. Here's why.Beyond Bones Podcast https://www.hmns.org/podcast/ :00 Intro8:33 M4 Thoughts21:36 DJI NEO Future Firmware Video Settings Thoughts

In this episode, Sean discusses the latest Mavic E-Deemax wheelset, a newly designed wheelset specifically for e-bikes. The E-Deemax is Mavic's modern take on the classic D-Max, famously known for its bright yellow rims on downhill bikes back in the 26-inch days. Now, optimized for e-bike durability and versatility, these wheels are designed to handle the extra torque and weight of electric bikes. Sean shares insights from his long-term review, where he has tested the wheelset's durability, build quality, and ease of maintenance.Link to full show notes HERE.Want to immerse yourself in community and a year long learning programme in bike maintenance? Check out our Team Camp membership program.

This week's episode is shorter than usual, but no less geeky. Join Dave and Brad as they discuss some of the bigger tech news.Within, the geeks discuss Mavic's new US$999 Cosmic S 42 Disc carbon road wheels. Pivot has wholly overhauled its Vault gravel bike. Wolf Tooth has a new free app for dialling in off-road tyre pressures. The iconic folding bike company Brompton goes gravel. And of course, there's a quick discussion of that new RAF1 backpack thing.You'll also hear Dave and Brad share some tips and their favourite bike cases for when flying with a bike. And then, the episode wraps with two member-submitted Ask a Wrench questions.Time stamps:4:24 - Mavic's US$999 carbon road wheels8:25 - Pivot's new Vault gravel bike12:30 - Wolf Tooth introduces a free tyre pressure app for off-road purposes14:45 - Brompton goes gravel17:15 - An aero backpack to burn with fire20:00 - On our mind and picking one: travel cases29:50 - Ask a Wrench: Why isn't 650B more popular in gravel?34:50 - Ask a Wrench: Storing tubeless tyres through the winter

Welcome to your weekly UAS news update we have 5 stories for you, New DJI Action 5, Air 3S hits FCC Database, Pilot Institute Community, a Drone finds missing Louisiana girl, and a press release on drone incursions into wild fire aircraft operations. First up, DJI has released the new Action 5! The action 5 comes with a new 1/1.3” sensor (the same size as the Mini 4 Pro), 10-bit D-Log M, HLG, horizon steady, subject tracking, a barometer/hydrometer, 47GB of internal storage, magnetic mounting, 4 hour battery life, 113 degree max operating temperature, and connection with the DJI Mic 2s! Whew, lots cool specs, we'll be getting on to check out and post some content on! Next, the Air 3S has hit the FCC database! We've seen quite a few leaks about the Air 3S, including some images with an RC-N3 series controller, what appears to be a larger sensor in a dual camera setup, and potentially larger batteries. Rumors have also included that batteries may be compatible with the current Air 3. We've seen some decent images of the Air 3, we'll have to wait and see if DJI publishes an announcement any time soon! Third up, a big Pilot Institute update. This week we launched the Premium Community with the goal to help part 107 pilots use their certificate to get paid work. In premium you'll find tons of interviews and workshops, we'll be releasing exclusive content every month. And, if you're a fan of News Update, we have an extended version every week called Post Flight. Each episode we discuss News Update stories in more detail and give our personal opinion on the facts. Visit Pilotinstitute.com/community to check it all out! Third up, a drone in Louisiana located a missing child this week. A 10 year old Louisiana girl was reported missing early in the day on Sunday. Searchers were unable to locate the girl, and a company from Arkansas, Drone Management Services, stepped in to assist. Using what appears to be a Mavic 3 Thermal, Co-Owner Josh Kolber located the girl sleeping on the ground. Great use of the drone Josh! Last up, the National Interagency Fire Center has published data this week about 21 incidents where drones have operated near wildfires. In 10 of these events, firefighting aircraft operations were suspended. Generally, firefighting aircraft operate within a TFR, meaning other aircraft including traditional aircraft are not permitted in that area. Be sure to check the TFRs before you take off, especially in wildfire prone areas. Alright, that's all we've got! Greg will be back on Monday, so he'll see you then for the live Q&A!

Send us a textRedefining Tech Recruiting: Insights from Mavic Ventures Founder Darren KoontzIn this episode of Recruiting Trailblazers, host Marcus Edwardes welcomes Darren Koontz, the founder and CEO of Mavic Ventures. Darren discusses his journey from playing football at Boise State University to establishing Mavic Ventures in 2018, a company focused on providing flexible recruiting solutions for startups. Darren explains the unique on-call model Mavic offers, allowing startups to use recruiters on a flexible, hourly basis. He also touches on the challenges faced by recruiting agencies in today's market, emphasizing the importance of maintaining quality relationships and adapting to the evolving industry landscape. Darren shares his innovative approaches to candidate outreach, including the use of benchmarking and personalized messaging to cut through the noise in candidates' inboxes. He also delves into the mental and emotional aspects of the recruiting business, highlighting the importance of resilience and adaptability for recruiters in a challenging market.00:00 Introduction and Guest Welcome00:29 Darren Koontz's Background and Career01:07 Favorite Film and Concert02:01 Introduction to Mavic Ventures03:13 Mavic's On-Call Model and Market Fit06:44 Challenges and Opportunities in Recruiting10:17 Effective Candidate Outreach Strategies20:45 Crafting Effective Outreach Messages22:19 Building Relationships with Candidates24:33 Understanding Company Culture28:31 Challenges in Leadership and Recruitment35:24 Leveraging Technology in Recruitment38:59 Future Opportunities and Market Outlook41:34 Conclusion and Final ThoughtsConnect with Marcus https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcusedwardes/

I discuss my thoughts on DJI Mics in general and give my experience after crashing my Mavic 3 Pro.johnny@geektherapyradio.com

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The first story this week is not the best one, a man was arrested for flying a drone over the SpaceX launch facility in Cameron County, Tx. The man was identified as 32 yr. old, Reynold Daniel Chavez, admitted he was flying his drone to see the rockets and said he didn't know the airspace was restricted. At this stage, we're unsure what legal ramifications Chavez will face. But he was charged with “operation of an unmanned aircraft over a critical infrastructure facility.” The incident highlights the need for all UAS pilots to know the rules and regulations as well as the airspace they fly in. Whether flying under part 107 or recreationally, flying safely helps protect the industry we love. We'll share updates on this story as more information comes in. Alright, in our next story some more exciting news. We have some new leaked photos and even a video of two new drones. First, what looks like a new DJI Air. It was first speculated to be an DJI Air4 and then later an DJI Air3s. Either way, these new leaks appear to show a much larger gimbal and dual cameras. Could we be getting a 1 inch sensor? The original DJI Air3 came out almost exactly one year ago, on July 25th 2023. And, it's a great drone we still fly today, so we're excited to see what kind of upgrades we'll get with a newer model. This time, several pictures showing a possible Mavic 4 prototype. What is clear is the very visible Hasselblad name branding and a design that looks similar to the current Mavic 3 series. The leaks seem to show a larger gimbal with a 3 camera setup, which could indicate bigger image sensors. You can also see several sensors on the top and bottom of the drone, another possible upgrade could be to obstacle avoidance or tracking features. Again, we'll have to wait and see. But the possibilities are exciting! Next up, an accusation involving drones at the Olympics. A drone was seen flying over the New Zealand women's soccer team during practice. The New Zealand Olympic Committee stated, “Team support members immediately reported the incident to police, leading to the drone operator, who has been identified as a support staff member of the wider Canadian Women's football team, to be detained,” A formal investigation has been launched to review the event. The Canadian Olympic Committee responded with a statement saying, “The Canadian Olympic Committee stands for fair-play and we are shocked and disappointed. We offer our heartfelt apologies to New Zealand Football, to all the players affected, and to the New Zealand Olympic Committee,” We'll have to wait to see what information is uncovered from this story, but we will report back with any updates. Lastly, as mentioned, Greg is at the EAA airshow with a lot of team. This year we have booths 209,210 and in Hangar B booth 2141. No live on Community today and no live on Monday. But, Greg will be back for next week's News Update we'll see you then! https://dronexl.co/2024/07/24/man-arrested-drone-spacex-texas/ https://dronexl.co/2024/07/22/dji-mavic-4-prototype-drone/ https://dronexl.co/2024/07/22/dji-air-3s-drone-video/ https://dronexl.co/2024/07/22/dji-air-3s-drone-video/

Is the Mavic Cine 3 suitable for smooth motion shots? On Today's podcast, we discuss about the Mavic 3 capabilities and if it is worthy drone for smooth motion shots. Tune in today !! Get your questions answered: https://thedroneu.com/. If you enjoy the show, the #1 thing you can do to help us out is to subscribe to it on iTunes. Can we ask you to do that for us real quick? While you're there, leave us a 5-star review, if you're inclined to do so. Thanks! https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/ask-drone-u/id967352832. Become a Drone U Member. Access to over 30 courses, great resources, and our incredible community. Follow Us Site – https://thedroneu.com/ Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/droneu Instagram – https://instagram.com/thedroneu/ Twitter – https://twitter.com/thedroneu YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/c/droneu  

Welcome back to another episode of "Your Drone Questions. Answered"! Join John Dickow from Drone Launch Academy and David Young, founder of Drone Launch Academy, as they tackle a question- which remote ID modules are recommended for older drones like the Mini 2 and Mavic 2 Pro used in his school. Discover the top three remote ID module recommendations based on price, ease of use, and compliance with FAA standards in this insightful discussion.In this episode, you'll learn about:Recommendation 1: Z.R.I.D. Light by Zing DronesRecommendation 2: Drone Beacon DB120 by Blue Mark InnovationsRecommendation 3: Drone Tag Beacon by Drone TagIf you're interested in drone technology, compliance, and best practices, this episode is for you! Don't forget to subscribe to our channel for more valuable insights and discussions on all things drones. Got a drone question? Visit YDQA.io or join the Drone Launch Connect community through our website. Happy flying!

There has been a slew of wheel introductions recently, with some of the most interesting ones being from Zipp (lightweight carbon XC!), DT Swiss (“Aero for All”!), and Mavic (hookless aluminum gravel!). Wait, what? Yep, Mavic is now so progressive that its new aluminum gravel wheels feature a hookless profile, and we have some thoughts on the idea.Timestamps:1:37 – A close at DT Swiss's new “Aero for All” aluminum wheels8:27 – This most definitely is not the Mavic of yesteryear15:04 – Zipp enters the XC wheel market (and their carbon road wheels have quietly gotten heavier)25:56 – Bontrager cozies up with Look for a new range of clipless MTB pedals32:57 – Wahoo Fitness continues to streamline its operations35:58 – Brighter days are hopefully ahead for Parlee Cycles41:35 – The indomitable and indestructible Surly Cross-Check is no more46:30 – Dave is obsessing about what spare parts and – of course – tools to carry on his new bike52:59 – James's safety rules of the road57:52 – More power or less weight for eMTBs?1:02:08 – Choosing the right chain lube is about saving money, not watts Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

There has been a slew of wheel introductions recently, with some of the most interesting ones being from Zipp (lightweight carbon XC!), DT Swiss (“Aero for All”!), and Mavic (hookless aluminum gravel!). Wait, what? Yep, Mavic is now so progressive that its new aluminum gravel wheels feature a hookless profile, and we have some thoughts on the idea. Timestamps: 1:37 – A close at DT Swiss's new “Aero for All” aluminum wheels 8:27 – This most definitely is not the Mavic of yesteryear 15:04 – Zipp enters the XC wheel market (and their carbon road wheels have quietly gotten heavier) 25:56 – Bontrager cozies up with Look for a new range of clipless MTB pedals 32:57 – Wahoo Fitness continues to streamline its operations 35:58 – Brighter days are hopefully ahead for Parlee Cycles 41:35 – The indomitable and indestructible Surly Cross-Check is no more 46:30 – Dave is obsessing about what spare parts and – of course – tools to carry on his new bike 52:59 – James's safety rules of the road 57:52 – More power or less weight for eMTBs? 1:02:08 – Choosing the right chain lube is about saving money, not watts

Legendary French wheel brand Mavic is rumored to be gearing up to come back to the US market – but is the US market ready for them to come back? The Geek Warning crew also had a mountain of new gear to discuss this week, including new bikes from Orbea, GT, and Polygon, stunning road wheels from Syncros, and updated cross-country suspension from RockShox. And what's up with this giant pile of new go-fast gear the UCI just revealed? Ronan did some digging.

Legendary French wheel brand Mavic is rumored to be gearing up to come back to the US market – but is the US market ready for them to come back?The Geek Warning crew also had a mountain of new gear to discuss this week, including new bikes from Orbea, GT, and Polygon, stunning road wheels from Syncros, and updated cross-country suspension from RockShox. And what's up with this giant pile of new go-fast gear the UCI just revealed? Ronan did some digging. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Is the Mini2 a good drone for drone pilots? How does it compare to the M30T? and how can pilots get better at their craft? Today's episode is brought to you by Drone U Experience Training scheduled for October 2023 in CO. For Drone Pilots Who Want the Confidence to Fly Close...Fly Low...Fly in Challenging Environments, and Turn Those Skills into High Paying Recurring Revenue Clients. In this unique training event, limited to ONLY 8 participants, you will be immersed in an experienced-based learning environment. You'll take flight daily and often, and you'll master cutting-edge drone techniques along the way. Learn from experienced pilots to get the most out of your drone. Also, build repeatable systems to scale your business. Learn more at our Experience Training site. Today's show is about discussing about Mini 2 and M30T and ways by which a drone pilot can be more skillful and experienced to conduct a variety of drone jobs. Our question for today is from LJ who works at a car showroom and owns a Mini 2 and wants to know how he can extract the best from the drone while also wanting to know what one can extract from a drone like the M30T. He would also like to know the best way for a pilot to grow in their field. Thanks for the question LJ, we start off today's show by discussing about the Mini 2 and explain its capabilities and where pilots can use the Mini 2 for projects and missions. We also share tips for performing better drone shots and cinematic shots with a drone and speak about scenarios that pilots can plan and fly cinematic mission shots. We then jump into discussing the M30T, its many capabilities and how the M30T can be the go-to drone for large volume jobs and its inherent advantages compared to drones like the Mini and the Mavic. We also discuss about some additional jobs that the M30T can effectively perform and accomplish. Tune in today to learn more about the Mini2 and M30T and how they can be effectively used for drone jobs and missions and how to be a better at shooting cinematic shots on your drone. Get Your Biggest and Most Common Drone Certificate Questions Answered by Downloading this FREE Part 107 PDF Make sure to get yourself the all-new Drone U landing pad! Get your questions answered: https://thedroneu.com/. If you enjoy the show, the #1 thing you can do to help us out is to subscribe to it on iTunes. Can we ask you to do that for us real quick? While you're there, leave us a 5-star review, if you're inclined to do so. Thanks! https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/ask-drone-u/id967352832. Become a Drone U Member. Access to over 30 courses, great resources, and our incredible community. Follow Us Site – https://thedroneu.com/ Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/droneu Instagram – https://instagram.com/thedroneu/ Twitter – https://twitter.com/thedroneu YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/c/droneu Timestamps: [08:30] How does M30T fare as a go-to drone for large volume of jobs vs other commercial drones available in the market [14:03] What other jobs can M30T drone perform?

Episode 392 of the Lens Shark Photography Podcast   Featured: Landscape photographer, Joseph Viola   In This Episode If you subscribe to the Lens Shark Photography Podcast, please take a moment to rate and review us to help make it easier for others to discover the show. Show Opener:Landscape photographer, Joseph Viola. Sponsors: - Fujifilm's Create With Me program.  Build Your Legacy with Fujifilm - Shop with the legends at RobertsCamera.com, and unload your gear with UsedPhotoPro.com - Get 20% OFF with code SHARKY20 at BenroUSA.com- Get 20% OFF with code SHARKY20 at KupoGrip.com - More mostly 20% OFF codes at LensShark.com/deals. Stories: A photographer gets shot at in Dallas, and how to avoid that. (#) Canon's new 100-300mm f/2.8. (#) Sony's worst-kept secret. (#) ProGrade Digital's software is incredibly useful. (#) Angelbird's new CFexpress Type A cards. (#) State of Photography 2023. (#) AI companies get sued. (#) DJI's Mavic 3 Pro. (#)   Connect With Us Thank you for listening to the Lens Shark Photography Podcast! Connect with me, Sharky James on Twitter, Instagram Vero, and Facebook (all @LensShark).

The UK is blocking Microsoft's Activision Acquisition. A quick rundown of Microsoft and Alphabet earnings. The new Mavic drone is a beast. Cruise has actually expanded its self-driving taxi service. And a look at the mounting pressure on Binance and CZ.Sponsors:Mindbloom.com/techmeme and promocode: techmemeMiro.com/podcastLinks:UK Blocks Microsoft's $69 Billion Activision Deal (Bloomberg)Microsoft Q3 2023: Windows, devices, and Xbox down again (The Verge)Google's cloud business turns profitable for the first time on record (CNBC)Apple Plans AI-Powered Health Coaching Service, Mood Tracker and iPad Health App (Bloomberg)DJI's latest Mavic drone is a beast (TechCrunch)Cruise continues to burn GM's cash as robotaxis expand to daylight hours (The Verge)OpenAI Offers New Privacy Options for ChatGPT (Bloomberg)Binance Faces Mounting Pressure as U.S. Crypto Crackdown Intensifies (NYTimes)See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.