so autel quietly pushed a pretty significant firmware update for the Evo Max 4T a couple weeks back and from what ive seen on youtube it actually fixed a bunch of the tracking issues people were complaining about. the thermal + zoom combo on that thing has always been impressive on paper but the earlier software was apparently pretty rough in real use, at least for the thermal side.

ive been a DJI guy basically since the Phantom days and im not really looking to switch just for the sake of it but the fact that autel isnt subject to the same potential federal procurement restrictions that are making some agencies move away from DJI is genuinely interesting to me. i do some contract work with local government types and a few of them have started asking about alternatives.

not sure if this is the right thread for it but also heard Skydio has been having some financial turbulence lately which is kind of a bummer because competition is good for all of us. anyway just curious what people think about the current landscape, feels like things are shifting a bit

the Skydio thing was pretty rough to watch honestly. their autonomous tracking tech was genuinely ahead of everyone else for a while there and then the whole enterprise pivot kind of left the consumer community hanging. i still think their obstacle avoidance approach was better than DJIs in cluttered environments but thats not much comfort if the company isnt putting resources into that side of the business anymore.

on the Autel question ? i handled an Evo Max 4T at a trade show earlier this year and the build quality felt solid, noticeably chunkier than equivalent DJI stuff but not in a bad way. the controller interface was a bit unfamiliar but nothing you couldnt get used to. if youre doing government contract work the non-DJI angle alone might make it worth a closer look depending on what your clients are requiring

tbh i tried an autel once and went back to DJI pretty fast, the app ecosystem and third party software support just wasnt there for what i needed. but that was like two years ago so maybe things have changed. the DJI restrictions conversation is getting hard to ignore though, especially seeing more RFPs that specifically call out NDAA compliance