Bringing an autonomous camera-equipped drone to the consumer market has proved challenging. Amazon’s Ring Always Home Cam, which flies around inside your house for security reasons, was announced in 2020; it’s still listed as “Coming soon.”
Snapchat’s Pixy, a drone meant to do away with the selfie stick, was on the market for just four months before they axed it.
Now a startup called HoverAir is taking a crack at it. Their X1 is an 8K flying camera targeted at the action market.
The object can fold its wings in for storage.
The claims made are incredible: It can hit 37 mph as it follows you, shoot stabilized video, transmit video over a distance of 1km (0.62 miles), avoid obstacles, and respond to voice commands.
You can monitor the footage in realtime with the company’s Beacon device, which can be carried or clipped to handlebars.
You can also attach the Beacon to this joystick for manual control. And you can then attach this two-part device to a smartphone if you need a larger display.
Here’s the demo video:
The units start at $429, and response on IndieGogo has been rabid. At press time they’d passed $3.1 million in pledges, with 28 days left to pledge.
