Will follow me feature go away someday?

[dipnit]

wandering mind has me wondering if someday the 'FAA will discern the follow me feature on drones is not in line with VLOS regulation and forbid it, which in turn would cause DJI to remove the feature in a future update.

 

[Johnmcl7]

Follow me mode is not incompatible with VLOS rules and if a distance limit was enforced then the drone could stop when it reached the limit while in follow me mode.

 

[dirkclod]

Poor Skydio be out of luck if they did.

 

[Deleted member 103366]

if someday the 'FAA will discern the follow me feature on drones is not in line with VLOS regulation and forbid it, which in turn would cause DJI to remove the feature in a future update.

The FAA govern the skies in only one country. So whilst it may or may not, be a big market, the USA is not the only market for DJI drones.
It might actually be interesting to compare the size of the USA market to that of the EU or maybe even China and or India.

 

[SkyPath Studios]

Probably not, since the drone is following you in front or behind. You turn your head and can see the UASs current location. If you are tracking someone else, they can be the visual observer for your drone!

 

[DanMan32]

Actually DJI had removed Follow Me (GPS based) since M2.
They still have ActiveTrack in many models which is optical object tracking.

 

[SkyPath Studios]

Actually DJI had removed Follow Me (GPS based) since M2.
They still have ActiveTrack in many models which is optical object tracking.

Thanks I didn't know they used GPS tracking, I thought it was just optional. Good to know.

 

[Repaid1]

Thanks I didn't know they used GPS tracking, I thought it was just optional. Good to know.

As said they "Use" to have a GPS tracking called follow me, that changed on the first Mavic years ago to optical tracking only, DJI no longer offers that function/option. As for the main question, DJI cannot assume that the Optical Tracking is going to be used to track you vice any other person or object, so I doubt it is going anywhere.

 

[dipnit]

Thanks for the input. I am still newbie doing a lot of reading. Lots of stuff to sort out. Like the new operations over people rule. It states that for the first 3 categories that allow said operations that they must not have exposed rotating parts. ??? So what kind of UAV are the referring to here? Ballons? The document covering this includes night flights and flying over vehicles rules also and is over 80 pages long so I may have missed something but I have gone over portions of it more than once and don't see why they would put in the requirement of no exposed rotating parts for UAV's. So much to learn in addition to studying for part 107 certification.
I live in Florida, so we have been fortunate not to go thru the big freeze like the rest of the country, but I got my MA2 last Thursday and have not been able to take er out yet due to either rain or high winds. Its tearing me up man!

 

[dipnit]

The FAA govern the skies in only one country. So whilst it may or may not, be a big market, the USA is not the only market for DJI drones.
It might actually be interesting to compare the size of the USA market to that of the EU or maybe even China and or India.

I realize that FAA only governs US territories, but DJI has the capability to control things based on the region you are flying in.
Not only would it be interesting to compare markets,, but i would be interested to see what kind of hurdles folks in other countries have to clear to be able to fly.

 

[Repaid1]

I realize that FAA only governs US territories, but DJI has the capability to control things based on the region you are flying in.
Not only would it be interesting to compare markets,, but i would be interested to see what kind of hurdles folks in other countries have to clear to be able to fly.

Plenty of threads on this site that cover everything from Canada to the UK, to Japan to India and whatever else you want to know...just search. The rules you are reading are also not in effect and won't be for about 2+ years if I am understanding you...even the FAA has no clue what the rules are at this time.

 

[Davros007]

Thanks for the input. I am still newbie doing a lot of reading. Lots of stuff to sort out. Like the new operations over people rule. It states that for the first 3 categories that allow said operations that they must not have exposed rotating parts. ??? So what kind of UAV are the referring to here? Ballons? The document covering this includes night flights and flying over vehicles rules also and is over 80 pages long so I may have missed something but I have gone over portions of it more than once and don't see why they would put in the requirement of no exposed rotating parts for UAV's. So much to learn in addition to studying for part 107 certification.
I live in Florida, so we have been fortunate not to go thru the big freeze like the rest of the country, but I got my MA2 last Thursday and have not been able to take er out yet due to either rain or high winds. Its tearing me up man!

I know in Australia our equivalent is “balloon” - you’re likely correct. “Airships” is the word I see in our regs - like a fixed camera blimp, for example.