Skydio 2: the self-flying future of drones starts at $999

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Skydio 2: the self-flying future of drones starts at $999
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That drone was the $2,500 Skydio R1.
In almost every way, the Skydio 2 is the drone I wished I’d played with last year.
With an iffy camera and no remote controller, the original Skydio R1 was a one-trick pony that couldn’t fly out and take gorgeous photos and videos like your average DJI.
But the new Skydio 2 not only has a host of Sony 4K cameras for improved navigation, photos, and video, but it has two different optional remote controllers to choose from that let you fly out multiple kilometers of instead of being tied to your phone.
You can fly the drone with a bona fide set of joysticks this time at up to 36 miles per hour, with Skydio’s second-gen autonomy engine promising to keep the drone from crashing into anything while you do.
Skydio says it’s the first drone that’s safe enough that I could hand my three-year-old the controller, and it’s willing to back up that promise with a warranty: if you manage to crash it while flying within the company’s Safe Flight guidelines (not at night, not in rain or fog or high winds, etc.), it will repair or replace your drone for free.
In short, Skydio’s no longer pitching a productized proof of concept; this might be the first self-flying drone you may actually want to buy.
As he shows us, every single Skydio drone is hand-assembled and tested in Redwood City as well.
And that’s just the office; a few doors down the street is Skydio’s actual “factory,” a miniature computerized assembly line with six drone building stations and a gauntlet of automated tests, including an industrial robot arm that swings a propeller-less Skydio 2 around at various angles to test that its cameras are working and closet-sized rooms where drones run through both real and simulated flight experiences.
An hour later, in a nearby park, I’m flying the Skydio 2 for the first time — rather, the drone is flying with me as copilot

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