Failed self-flying 'Lily' drone returns in less interesting fashion

[Polycount]

Back in 2015, we covered the announcement of one particularly ambitious drone project's flagship product. Created by drone start-up Lily, the cute little device by the same name set out to revolutionize the industry with an impressive list of unique features - some of which had never been seen before.

In addition to boasting "throw & go" (no remote needed) technology, the Lily drone was supposed to be fully waterproof, have 20 minutes of flight time and be capable of shooting HD (1080p at 60 FPS) video - all while intelligently following the user as they surfed, snowboarded, went kayaking or performed any number of other extreme outdoor activities.

If all of that sounds a little too good to be true, that's because it was.

Though the start-up was able to successfully raise money through both venture funding and crowdfunding efforts, it was ultimately not enough to finance large-scale drone production. As a result, the company was forced to offer full refunds to many angry backers and the project ultimately flopped.

However, the Lily project was recently revived by Mota Group, a company best known for selling both commercial and high-end consumer drones. After purchasing the Lily brand name and the failed start-up's former customer list, Mota Group has now created a much less interesting version of the original drone - named "Lily Next-Gen".

Despite boasting a few improved features like 4K video recording capabilities, the new Lily is lacking a number of the original's most iconic features such as smart follow technology, waterproofing and extended flight time.

If you're interested in grabbing a Lily Next-Gen for yourself, the drone is available now in two different packages - a $499 (discounted from $600) standard package and a $799 (down from $900) "fully loaded" package. Aside from the inclusion of a standalone remote (which ships separately) and a portable carrying case, the packages are otherwise identical.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/70842-failed-self-flying-lily-drone-returns-less-interesting.html

 

[Uncle Al]

If at first you don't succeed, strip it down, make it cheaper, add a bit of lipstick and sell the heck out of it to pay off the debts!

 

[TomSEA]

I'd be interested to know in the crowded drone market, who would be dumb enough to buy one of these.

I almost put money down for the original Lilly drone. But this? You can find drones all over the place that have similar or better capabilities and for a lot less cost.

 

[p51d007]

If it can't be had on Amazon, Best Buy, shoot, even Walmart...forget it.

 

[andy06shake]

How hard can it be to make them waterproof? I mean it works for airplanes and helicopters.

Does it still have the through and go feature, that sounds quite cool really.

 

[RevD14]

I don't think I'll ever understand why people just give money to crowd funding campaigns.

 

[mbrowne5061]

The waterproofing was the one feature they should have left in. Not too ambitious, in that it didn't require a quantum leap in embedded computer vision and machine learning technologies, but enough of a differentiating feature that some action sports people might have bought it over a competitor.

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

For that price, it would probably be cheaper and easier to hire a pilot to follow and shoot your every move from an AH-64 Apache chopper (not with the 30 mm chain gun of course). Convincing the USAF to allow it might be a little tricky though.