Software ‘bug’ pushes Autel EVO II drone release to March
Following the excitement of the new Autel EVO II drone at CES2020 in Las Vegas, drone pilots have been keenly waiting for the opportunity to purchase the new quadcopter.
Autel has been careful not to elevate expectations as the EVO II was rolled out, and told us at CES that the software was still beta…so further enhancements could be required and is why they didn’t want to provide hard dates for when the EVO 2 would be available for purchase.
Drone enthusiasts will recall that the original DJI Mavic Pro was delayed for months after buyers were allowed to purchase in Fall of 2016, and no doubt Autel has learned from DJI’s experience.
Yesterday, Autel provided an update on the EVO II status on their facebook page, indicated that “found a bug in our software that could limit flight performance under normal operation.”
Autel desperately wants to get the EVO II release right. Seen as the first serious contender to DJI’s Mavic Series supremacy, the EVO II is also the first folding quadcopter to have user interchangeable camera gimbals. With 40 minutes of battery life, 8K video and 48MP stills in the base model, Autel has found immediate favor with drone pilots.
“Hello Everyone! First, we want to thank all of our fans and followers. It doesn’t matter if you just follow one of our social channels, or if you fly our products every day. Your support and enthusiasm have always kept us going here at the Seattle office. With the announcement of EVO II at CES, the response has been absolutely crazy. This community is exploding, and we thank you for your patience with us as we are still trying to catch up on responses.”
The pending release of the Autel EVO II is one of the most noteworthy drone events of the last several years. DRN receives a steady stream of inquiries from our readers who are literally lining up mentally to purchase this drone.
We had the opportunity to experience the EVO II in flight at CES2020, and learn all about the dazzling features that set it apart from the Mavic 2 Series from DJI. You can tell from the faces of Autel staff just how hard they have been working to develop the EVO II Series and how invested they are in it’s success.
Autel’s statement continues, below, to thank the drone community their support and interest, while advising that the Autel website newsletter will be resuming again in a few weeks.
“We also want to be as transparent as possible and give you all periodic updates on the status and availability of EVO II. That way you have the most up to date information straight from us and not just rumors. Our goal at CES was to get the initial units of EVO II (8k) into the hands of dealers by the end of January. Unfortunately, during production, we found a bug in our software that could limit flight performance under normal operation. Instead of shipping the hardware with a known issue and forcing users to perform day 1 updates, we have decided to delay the rest of production and shipments until we have resolved the issue. Our projected timeline is to have EVO II available for purchase in March. This is not a set date or time frame, and things can always change. But with the information we have today, that is our goal. The team in Seattle is very small and we are adding channel support as we can. We are looking to start up our website newsletter again in the next few weeks. So for any future updates, please check our website, the official social channels, and emails coming directly from us. We thank you for your patience. If you have any questions please do not hesitate to get a hold of us at support@autelrobotics.com Thank you all again and fly safe!”
Autel’s team has done a stellar job developing the EVO II and humbly communicating both their successes and challenges along the way. This delay, which was always a quasi-expected outcome from beta-testing shouldn’t diminish the enthusiasm for the EVO II. With the seasonal challenges that tend to limit drone operations at this time of year, a March launch for the EVO II is fine and it just means we’ll all be a little warmer when we complete our first flight.
Related: Hands On with AUTEL EVO 2 at CES2020
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