When drones were introduced into the world, they were a revolutionary technology that had so much promise, in technology, photography, sports, and entertainment.
But tech start-up Skydio felt the technology in drones were lacking, and its popularity came down to nothing more than just viral videos of drone crashes. So the company has created a new and promising autonomous self-flying drone that retails at approximately $2,499 and will begin shipping to customers in two to three weeks. The company stated the inspiration for this idea came from the gap between the promise of drones and what existing manually-flown products are capable of. 
According to the tech company, the notion of self-driving drones is like the way “computers will become mobile agents that act on our behalf in the world”. In their mission statement, Skydio believes that these intelligent machines will be responsible for building the future, adding “a future where they multiply human creativity and human possibility.” This autonomous technology has been something that has been long hyped with DJI, the market leader in drone technology, having created similar drones with facial recognition and the ability to dodge obstacles and other track challenges. However, unlike DJI, Skydio’s core goal is to create a drone that requires no pilot. Adam Bry, the company's chief executive, saying “Our view is that almost all of the use cases for drones would be better with autonomy”.
The self-driving drone works in many ways, one of which is by following a specific person. It comes with a ‘cinematic mode’ that can record you from the preferred direction in which you want to be shot. This technology is likely to become cheaper, smaller, and more accessible as time passes. While the technology in this gadget is pretty impressive, one wonders if this is just a selfie-stick 2.0 situation, where narcissistic social media users can capture and share their every move. If this is the case, do we really need this kind of technology? Or will this autonomous technology actually benefit photographers with the freedom of flight? Share your thoughts in the comment box below.
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