A 23-year-old DJI software engineer who was field testing DJI’s unreleased next-generation Inspire 1 UAV left the drone on a bar stool after drinking a German beer in Shenzhen, China on Tuesday.
Revealing the story behind the story on how DJI’s forthcoming drone was mistakenly left in the bar, the engineer said that he was buying one last item on Alibaba for his girlfriend before he left the bar and forgot it on the bar stool. “I underestimated how good the German Beer is” was the young engineers statement to the press. The young man had been testing the prototype in downtown Shenzhen.
“There is no perfect security,” he said. “Not when humans and German beer are involved. Humans that can lose things. You know, like the next DJI drone.”
Apparently, the drone had lost its GPS connection and was unable to return to the Shenzhen office after the unnamed engineer realized it was gone.
The bartender who found the Inspire 1 reported substantial enhanced features that really ups the ante from DJI’s line of Phantom drones. He reported that the prototype UAV had a native peer-to-peer communications network which allows the Inspire1 to communicate and coordinate aerial selfies with other Inspire drones.
The DJI Inspire1 also has a Siri-Like functionality that enables voice commands such as “take off,” “fly up 70 feet and turn around,” and “go to Starbucks and pick up my grande haff-caff soy vanilla latte with caramel drizzle… and check out with Apple Pay.”
Unlike any other drones in market, the Inspire 1 has an add-on sky writing module which will allow for up to 140 characters to be painted in the sky (the ability to construct more characters will roll out with future firmware updates).
Other features are expected, but the bartender said that he only had the drone for twenty minutes before the engineer returned to the bar.
No pictures were available.
The new drone is planned to be formally announced on April 1st November 12th so stay tuned to DRONELIFE.com for the official announcement and details.
In other news, Apple has announced its intention to file suit claiming that DJI stole their PR tactics.
Alan is serial entrepreneur, active angel investor, and a drone enthusiast. He co-founded DRONELIFE.com to address the emerging commercial market for drones and drone technology. Prior to DRONELIFE.com, Alan co-founded Where.com, ThinkingScreen Media, and Nurse.com. Recently, Alan has co-founded Crowditz.com, a leader in Equity Crowdfunding Data, Analytics, and Insights. Alan can be reached at alan(at)dronelife.com
Wow this is just brilliant! Couldn’t of done anything worse tbh.
“No images available” lol
Yep, barristas and ballistics, that’s what he said!
This is the most absurd, unbelievable story I have ever read that wasnt in the onion….. Idiots….
I believe the barman missed another of the headline features – a high intensity laser to clear a path when return to launch is triggered below 20 meters. DJI were quoted as saying “the incorperation of a weapons grade laser was less of a technical challenge than changing a line of code, we think our users will be happy with the result..”
Haha, very funny!
“the Inspire 1 has an add-on sky writing module which will allow for up to 140 characters to be painted in the sky!
“DJI Inspire1 also has a Siri-Like functionality that enables voice commands such as… “go to Starbucks and pick up my grande haff-caff soy vanilla latte with caramel drizzle… and check out with Apple Pay.”
Are you checking to see if we’re awake? Or if we just believe anything in the final hours leading up to the official launch? 🙂
Hi, Chareth here. I just came to say… that’s a cute story.