Drone News: Autel EVO Max, PSI Changes, FCC NPRM, Ford Patent for Moving Vehicles
This week in drone news we have four stories for you; the new Autel Evo Max, PSI changing the cut for testing centers, FCC announces NPRM for UAS, and a Ford patent for operations over moving vehicles.
00:00 Introduction
00:17 NEW! Autel EVO Max
01:38 PSI Changing the Cut for Testing Providers
03:01 FCC Announces NPRM for UAS
04:21 Ford Applied for a Patent for Operation Over Moving Vehicles
EVO MAX:
PSI:
FCC NPRM:
FORD PATENT:
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Your first story this week is Autel’s new Evo Max!
The Evo is, as the name implies, a large Evo II. The Max comes with a 640 thermal sensor, 48MP zoom sensor capable of up to 10x optical zoom and 8k videos, a 4K wide camera, and a laser range finder.
Autel’s new enterprise drone comes with all-direction obstacle avoidance, and an optional millimeter wave radar.
The drone has a maximum operating altitude of 23,000 feet, a flight time of 42 minutes (38 minutes hovering), and a IP43 rating (light rain).
The Evo Max has some other cool functions such as being able to act as a repeater for other drones and possibly even swarm style missions with a single pilot.
We’re hopeful we can get our hands on one soon to test out!
Your second story this week is PSI changing the cut for testing centers.
As many of you know, PSI is the testing provider for all FAA tests.
PSI contracts with many local testing centers to provide the exam, and gets a cut of the revenue in return.
According to an AOPA letter to PSI, a “Significant Majority” of the 207,000 exams completed in 2022 were done at these contract testing centers.
PSI is now changing the amount of revenue these centers get from $65 per exam down to $22 (out of $175), a reduction of nearly 66%.
AOPA is worried that this reduction in revenue will have a direct impact on the amount of testing centers nationwide, resulting in longer wait times and longer drives to the testing centers.
Your third story this week is the FCC has started the rule making process for enabling UAS to use 5G!
The NPRM is 94 pages long, and includes a number of potential things to comment on including usage of specific bands, fees, registration, and even licensing.
The NPRM discusses both network connected and network supported UAS along with potentially adding geographic licenses and how they would affect satellite based networks.
The NPRM is a lot to digest, and we’re still going through it!
If you’d like to have a read and/or comment, the link will be below!
The final story this week is a Ford patent that details a method of safely flying drones over moving vehicles.
The patent involves communications between drones, vehicles, and numerous ground objects.
The patent also describes how emergencies may be mitigated through these systems and their communications.
This is an interesting patent, and not the first from Ford, but it will likely be a while before we see anything like this go live.
That’s it! Have a great weekend and we’ll see you next week!
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