Yuneec drones for hard times
As the polish writer, Wyspianski, wrote at the turn of the 19 and 20th century: "The Chinese are holding strong" – it’s ever more substantial and true, particularly in the field of new technologies. This includes the the drone industry, where almost 70% of sales are generated by Chinese companies. I would even dare to say that there is no drone in the world at the moment in which we will not find Chinese technology, if only in the form of BLDC motors or a whole range of semiconductors. Without China, the industry would not be developing so fast and probably would not be so innovative.
WHAT ARE THE COSTS OF THIS?
For a long time, we have been receiving information that the American administration has discouraged or prohibited the purchase of DJI drones. During this time, they have managed to prove that DJI not only cooperates with the Chinese government - but is also funded by it. So how deep is this cooperation, and what are the responsibilities of the parties? This we do not know. But we can suspect that for this money, DJI is providing the Chinese government with technology and/or information - and when it comes to the latter: it has a lot to provide.
The brand's drones send a a lot of data to China. DJI claims this is needed for product development, and we may or may not believe it. In any case, on DJI's Chinese servers, there is a large amount of data from all over the world, including geotagged photos and videos in excellent quality, which China can make an unknown use of. These are the costs we need to keep in mind when choosing this brand.
IS THIS WHAT ALL CHINESE MANUFACTURERS DO?
No! The extent of data collected varies from brand to brand, not all companies work with the Chinese government and not all are funded by it. This is exactly the case with Yuneec drones. How are Yuneec drones different when it comes to data collection? Well, they are entirely different!
No Internet? You can fly too!
That's the primary difference. Yuneec drones doesn’t need a network connection for regular operation. This doesn't conflict with how they work - because Yuneec drones don't send any information/recordings or photos to any server.
The data collected with such a drone is yours – and nobody else's but yours. Internet is not even needed to activate the drone - we can use it without logging in, informing anyone about our location or sharing personal information. Your data belongs to you! That is Yuneec’s filosophy.
This difference is due to a simple fact: Yuneec is a Chinese drone controlled by European/Swiss software. The manufacturer uses the open-source PX4 platform (px4.io), provided by the Swiss-based Dronecode Foundation (dronecode.org), which is part of the Linux Foundation (yes, the one from Linus Torvalds, the independent software guru - linuxfoundation.org).
The last link - a developer who adapts PX4 software for Yuneec platforms also comes from Switzerland - is ATL company (atl.ch). The fruits of their labor - i.e. software finally installed on Yuneec hardware - goes via Yuneec Europe (based in Kaltenkirchen near Hamburg) to Amazon servers, and from there is downloaded by users during firmware upgrade. ATL works with Dronecode, PX4, Intel and Yuneec.
WHAT ABOUT NO-FLY ZONES?
Since the software is European - will we be hit with the No-Fly Zones we know from DJI drones? No. In the latest models - H520, H520E and H520E RTK - you will not find any No Fly Zone restrictions at all. These are drones for professionals, who are aware and responsible enough for Yuneec. Be that as it may - the location of a Yuneec drone will not be communicated to anyone unless we explicitly want it and communicate it ourselves."
The sheer simplicity and transparency of these solutions are one of the important reasons why customers choose Yuneec for their professional application.
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