DJI has just surpassed the launch of its own DJI Air 2S drone by announcing a new sub-brand called DJI Automotive – the new home for its self-driving technology.
Rumors earlier this week had suggested that the drone maker could switch to autonomous driving, which is a good fit for DJI, given that its drones use last-minute obstacles. But DJI has just made the move official on its new DJI Automotive site.
At this stage, DJI will not produce its own self-driving cars, because, unfortunately, there are no signs of a Mavic vehicle on the site. But it explains the three areas of self-government that DJI falls into.
These three self-driving solutions are the DJI Driving D130 series (for driving on the highway and on the highway with speeds between 0-130 km / h), the D80 series (suitable for driving at speeds below 0-80 km / h in cities) and the DJI parking system.
At this point, it looks like DJI Automotive will be partnering with carmakers to integrate this technology into future cars, rather than being a consumer-oriented brand. But it is certainly a fascinating move that is based on some of the same technology that will be familiar to drone fans.
These three systems are built on technology such as geo-fencing (which DJI uses to prevent drones from taking off in dangerous areas), ultrasonic sensors (to assess distances using sound waves) and Lidar (Light Detection and Ranging) scanners, which I will find on industrial drones such as DJI Zenmuse L1 and iPhone 12 Pro.
Of course, DJI’s experience in building drone software will also play a role, with the company stating that “based on the accumulation of the algorithm in the field of UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) vision detection, it has developed stereo perception sensors that can identify “Common objects with great precision, locate arbitrary obstacles and estimate the distance”.
Strong drive
Put all these technologies and experience together and you have a promising self-driving cocktail that DJI says will offer things like hands-free driving, automatic emergency brakes, advanced overtaking assistance and (the one we enjoy the most) intelligent collision avoidance.
Somewhat more frightening, however, is the DJI driver monitoring system, which can detect the driver’s condition in four ways (face analysis, fatigue detection, distraction detection and hazardous behavior detection) and “reduce accidents caused by human error”. This probably means that if DJI Automotive doesn’t think you’re on the ball today, it could step in to show you how.
Of course, DJI is far from the only automotive technology company with autopilot, Huawei recently announcing that it is entering the growing space, along with well-known brands such as Waymo from Google.
But with its unparalleled experience in making some of the best drones around, along with its many patents in self-driving technology, DJI certainly has a great chance of being a major player in autonomous driving. Wait to find out more about it at the Shanghai Motor Show, which starts on April 19th.