03-30-20 update from Skydio ... for those not yet on the official email list

skydioconvert · Mar 31, 2020

These guys really do an excellent job of keeping their customers informed.... in my MANY years of owning and flying drones from the "other" drone company there never was this kind of straight forward response to their customers. I'm going to stick with these guys and give them a chance to weather both this virus scare as well as the ups and downs of perfecting their incredible technology.

Here's a copy of the email I got last night:

Skydio friends and family,

First and foremost, we hope that everyone is staying safe and healthy in the midst of the emerging crisis.

In accordance with our local shelter-in-place directive, the Skydio team has transitioned to working remotely. This means that new Skydio 2 and accessory shipments are temporarily on-hold until it’s been deemed safe to resume operations, but we haven’t skipped a beat in terms of forward progress. Our engineers are hard at work fixing bugs and developing new features (e.g. new software release going out today!) and, as always, our customer support team is standing by if you have any questions.

We’re eager to get back to building drones as soon as possible, but we recognize that this is an incredibly complex public safety situation, and we’re committed to playing our part in preserving the health of our employees & customers, their families, and the global community.

At this point, all Batch 2 customers have already been invited to complete their orders, so we will be continuing with Batch 3 shipments as soon as the lockdown ends. We'll follow-up with shipping estimates once we’re able to resume production.

Stay safe and thank you for your continued support!

OldBlueHeron · Mar 31, 2020

Except that there is no software release today...
I agree, they communicate well, but they struggle with deadlines. I’ll stick with them as well because their product is unique and I want to see what they do with this quad.

skydioconvert · Mar 31, 2020

OldBlueHeron said:
Except that there is no software release today...
I agree, they communicate well, but they struggle with deadlines. I’ll stick with them as well because their product is unique and I want to see what they do with this quad.

Marketing guys are usually a careful lot but even they aren't immune to Murphy's Law. ??

Cicada · Mar 31, 2020

Any specifics available on what is addressed in the update?

OldBlueHeron · Mar 31, 2020

Cicada said:
Any specifics available on what is addressed in the update?

It’s Skydio so..... no.

Tony Miller · Apr 3, 2020

Just downloaded Skydio's softwear. Be no read me file. Hello Skydio what did I change with the downloading the latest softwear?

Vib.ribbon · Apr 13, 2020

This latest update is huge - over 900MB? It's far bigger than the one a week earlier....I can only assume that earlier one was an app update and the latest one was for the actual drone onboard software/engine? The beacon and controller also got updated when I hooked them up so could be some changes there as well? Am hoping so because the beacon (or at least mine anyway) has been pretty woeful so far.

Lifeisfun · Apr 13, 2020

Vib.ribbon said:
This latest update is huge - over 900MB? It's far bigger than the one a week earlier....I can only assume that earlier one was an app update and the latest one was for the actual drone onboard software/engine? The beacon and controller also got updated when I hooked them up so could be some changes there as well? Am hoping so because the beacon (or at least mine anyway) has been pretty woeful so far.

Must be probably customized what you have installed now. My controller did not require any updates, but I got all my hardware just before the shutdown.

Vib.ribbon · Apr 20, 2020

Lifeisfun said:
Must be probably customized what you have installed now. My controller did not require any updates, but I got all my hardware just before the shutdown.

Possibly - it might download what it needs to and combines the packages on a per-user basis......although this is a very odd way of proving updates. Most companies would just bundle it and not bother checking.

Lifeisfun · Apr 20, 2020

Vib.ribbon said:
Possibly - it might download what it needs to and combines the packages on a per-user basis......although this is a very odd way of proving updates. Most companies would just bundle it and not bother checking.

On the other hand Skydio updates are fairly large packages compare to other drones.

Vib.ribbon · Apr 21, 2020

Lifeisfun said:
On the other hand Skydio updates are fairly large packages compare to other drones.

Unsurprising - that bespoke Autonomy Engine is ridiculously complex. Most machine learning programs are. One of my students created a program with machine learning embedded into it and that was 30mb in size......and all it did was learn when and where to use 2 numbers!

skydioconvert · Apr 21, 2020

Would like to learn some "machine learning" programming... whats involved... what courses are available.

Can you point me in the right direction?

Vib.ribbon · Apr 21, 2020

skydioconvert said:
Would like to learn some "machine learning" programming... whats involved... what courses are available.

Can you point me in the right direction?

Not an expert in any shape or form, but this is a good place to start:

Keras.io

....assuming you are familiar with Python.

skydioconvert · Apr 21, 2020

Vib.ribbon said:
Not an expert in any shape or form, but this is a good place to start:

Keras.io

....assuming you are familiar with Python.

I'll check it out... thank you.

P.S. Some stuff I've been reading about "deep learning" and how were competing with the Chinese in Articial Intelligence is fascinating