Skydio announces autonomous drone developer platform, new $1,999 price point

Skydio launched their self-flying R1 drone a few months back, now the company is launching a developer platform that will allow users to design and share their own skills for the device, potentially opening up the device to a lot of new use cases.

Alongside the platform launch, Skydio has also announced that they sold out of the first run of $2,499 “Frontier Edition” drones and they’ll begin selling the drone at $1,999 albeit with a few less accessories but still offer everything a user needs to get airborne.

Skydio R1 review: a mesmerizing, super-expensive self-flying drone

The Skydio Autonomy Platform is basically focused on getting developers to move past the functionality that ships in the box with the R1 and to build custom solutions for different industry problems. That could be an inspection or security use case where the user wants to run a program to have the R1 fly itself to a number of points and capture a snapshot from each while having the intelligence to avoid obstacles in the way and prioritize the most efficient safe flight path.

I had a chance to demo the technology and look at how the mode was also leveraged to suck in photogrammetry data and create a quick-and-dirty spatial map of where it had flown. A cool feature is that the company is shipping a Skydio simulator so even potential users of the device can get a peek at when a skill might look ahead of time with a lifelike virtual simulator of the R1that feeds off a 3D map and works inside a browser. This will enable some tinkering that will ensure developers aren

There are some definite hardware shortcomings that limit the possibilities of such a platform. The device runs off a WiFi connection to a user’s phone so it’s going to have to maintain a compatible distance like a few hundred feet or so. Like many other drones, you also have battery life to worry about. These hardware issues will prevent the R1 from becoming some sort of autonomous warehouse inspection bot, but there are still plenty of untapped capabilities for a self-flying drone that has the intelligence to adjust its own flight paths when necessary.

On the consumer side, the R1 is getting a couple of new 1-click skills that should make for some pretty cool shots. The company has also announced that they are partnering with camera rental company Omni to begin allowing people to rent an R1 if they’re based in the Bay Area or Portland.