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Comment by blackeyeblitzar | Hacker News Reader

I’m not very familiar with drones but apparently this company makes some models in the US, which is great for those of us concerned about privacy / security with Chinese companies like DJI: https://www.parrot.com/us/drones/anafi-usa

But I can’t seem to buy these directly from them? So only through third party resellers? Or is it discontinued?

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Like most drone companies (Skydio etc.), they haven’t been able to keep up with DJI and have moved out of the consumer space and into the regulatory captured space with Blue UAS/NDAA compliant drones and high end enterprise offerings for organizations who can’t buy DJI. Their products are available only through dealers/resellers and only their expensive enterprise options are still in production.

Parrot were quite cool; they had one of the only fixed wing consumer drones (Disco) and always offered some of the most open APIs and best SDKs for their drones. Unfortunately their products don’t really hold a candle to modern DJI in terms of flight characteristics and especially wireless link.

Skydio are the ones leaning on Stefanovik and others to push the DJI ban, stoking xenophobic fears just so they can corner the market with an inferior product.

Stefanik would rather have her husband, the gun lobbyist, push to let kids have more guns.

https://www.timesunion.com/news/article/Stefanik-s-husband-K...

From what I understand, they exited the consumer market entirely because they just couldn't compete on quality with DJI.

My first drone was a Parrot purchased at a Verizon store ~10 years ago. They definitely have been around for a while but not sure about the current state of the company.

All of "USA" variants of drones are government/large institutions only at >10x price. They aren't consumer products.

Curious why “enterprise” would need capabilities that seem tailored to hunting down people

DJI drones can already do all the stuff that's not tailored to hunting down people, and they can't compete on quality with DJI, so they're trying what little niche remains.

well there are many enterprise farming use cases, or security use cases that can be useful for them. I think the fact that parrot's been working with the army too much they dont know really how to sell to enterprises so thats all the marketing they have.

They should start by comparing their Anafi to a DJI Mavic for mapping. If I make a map with an Anafi, how does it compare to one made with a Mavic?

Because even a 10k Anafi USA does actually compete with the Anzu Robotics alternative. So if it's good enough for surveyors, there is definitely a market in the US.

I just don't understand why Parrot doesn't do that.

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