Drone Mind

This is a list of the 4 drone companies that are innovating the most currently (in my opinion).

1. ANDURIL

Anduril was created by Palmer Luckey, the same man who created the Oculus virtual reality headset. Mr Luckey is a Trump supporter who was home-schooled and who dresses in shorts and Hawaiian shirts. The company has gotten many contracts from the government and makes a number of air and sea based military drones as well as sensors and surveillance towers for spotting intruders. They are highly innovative and have positioned themselves to be a prominent supplier for military technology going forward. Of all the companies on this list, Anduril is the one that would most likely be working with the Empire in Star Wars. On the other hand, the drones and weapons that they make are pretty amazing.

2. FIRE POINT

Fire Point is a Ukrainian startup that has started to help Ukraine push back Russia’s offensive by making a huge amount of long range drones made of cheap domestic materials such as styrofoam and plywood in secret locations around the country. These drones are mainly being used to hit Russia’s large economic centers such as oil refineries. Fire Point started as a casting agency linked to the Ukrainian president and has transformed into a drone company. It does not really have any clients outside of the Ukrainian military, but it gets billions of dollars in military funding and from other countries and is innovating like crazy. In addition to drones, they have made a domestically produced cruise missile. Critics have accused them of inflating the production cost of their drones.

3. ZIPLINE

Zipline is a company at the forefront of the effort to introduce drone delivery to our lives. I first got interested in drones after hearing about this company from this video and how they were helping deliver blood to hospitals in Africa. They are definitely helping advance drone technology to a point where we will all be using drones on a day to day basis in the near future thanks to them. The Zipline drones are very quiet and deliver a package in a container (called the droid) lowered by a long rope. The drones are fully autonomous and are useable in any type of weather. They are superior to the drones that are used by Amazon because of how quiet and safe they are, the drone itself does not descend but sends the droid. The drop rope is also detachable in case someone tries to steal the droid. Zipline drones are even being used in some cities by many restaurants including Chipotle, Sweetgreen, Walmart and more. So far they are only delivering in Texas, Washington, and Arkansas (in the US), but they are expanding rapidly.

4. DJI

DJI or Da-Jiang Innovations, is based in Shenzhen, China and is by far the most well known consumer drone manufacturer in the world. It has been a go-to company for any everyday person who wants to buy a drone, including me. They have a store in Manhattan where tourists and myself come to check out the wide selection of drones. DJI has also become a big part of the war in Ukraine because of the relatively cheap price (compared to high end military drones). DJI is in the news recently because the FCC is considering banning their sale because of national security issues. Basically, the FCC is concerned that these drones can be used to monitor secret military locations around the country and to transmit that information to China. What I do not understand is why just DJI? You could probably just use any drone to do that kind of monitoring. It might be that they just do not want a Chinese company to be so successful in the USA.