After absolutely dominating the consumer drone market, it looks like DJI‘s next step could be bringing FPV (first-person view) drone racing to the mainstream as reports start streaming in about a potential DJI FPV drone. Filings for a DJI FPV drone were spotted earlier on the FCC and appears to be part of a set which includes a remote controller and FPV goggles.
Now, there’s no official confirmation that the drone is a racing drone just yet, but the fact that it comes in a set with the names “DJI FPV Air Unit”, “DJI FPV Remote Controller”, and “DJI FPV Goggles”, seems to hint that this will only go one of two ways. The first, and maybe most exciting is that DJI could be introducing a proper racing drone for the average consumer.
Drone racing, while exhilarating to watch, isn’t what I’d call a mainstream sport just yet. But, with a company that has as much widespread recognition as DJI, things could change should they introduce their very own racing drone.
That being said, this FPV Air Unit could also simply be a more maneuverable, free-flying first-person video drone that’ll let you be more creative with aerial videography. Something along the lines of what drone pilot Johnny FPV does, for example. Or what we often also see in Formula Drift.
And this wouldn’t be the first time DJI’s dabbled with FPV drone flying before as they previously launched an FPV headset that you could use to fly with a couple of different DJI drones. But, this doesn’t really give you the kind of experience a racing drone can because modern consumer drones are stuffed full of safety tech and is designed to keep steady so your videos don’t shake. In fact, most of DJI’s new drones are so smart that they can basically fly themselves.
FPV drones, on the other hand don’t have this luxury. They’re designed to fly as loose and as fast as possible, and requires skilled pilots to operate properly. Even then, these drones are well-known for crashing all the time because if there’s even a little interference in the video signal, the drone could fall out of the sky. There’s no automatic hover or return to home function here.
In any case, most of this is speculation at this point, and it remains to be seen just what kind of FPV drone DJI have up their sleeves. It will be interesting to see though, so stay tuned!
