 In this day and age, people are pretty familiar with the idea of a consumer drone. But even today, the general concept of a drone remains pretty much the same. You need a wide open space, and you need a remote control to fly your drone in, and you're probably going to need some pilot experience to make sure you don't hurt anybody and wreck your device in the process. That is not the case with the Skydio R1. Instead, the device uses an array of cameras, sensors, and a powerful onboard computer to map its surroundings, predict where it's going next, and avoid people and inanimate objects. Essentially, this drone flies itself, all of the time. The company thinks it's going to be an action sport enthusiast's dream come true. Of course, hearing those claims, we felt like we had to put it through its paces. So we brought the R1 to a park just outside of San Francisco so we could test its abilities in three different situations. Hiking, skateboarding, and biking. We wanted to see how well the R1 could avoid obstacles like trees, whether it could keep up and film stable 4K at high speeds, and how well it adapts to changes in its environment. So the Skydio R1 is pretty simple. Basically, all you need is the drone itself, and a flat surface to let it take off from, and a battery, which plugs in right here. After that, everything is taken care of on the mobile app. What's surprising about the R1 is how fluid it feels. It's not stopping and starting and trying to calibrate or locate you. It basically has an image of you all the time. It's tracking you all throughout the environment with all of its cameras and sensors. And then it's just following you in a very fluid, almost natural way. Skydio says that's because the drone is predicting where it's going to go all of the time. Now it's time to try a second activity, biking. As you can see here, once it takes off, all you need to do is tap on the image of your face from the live camera feed, and the drone snaps into position and then follows you wherever you go. It's important to note that the camera sensor on the R1 isn't the absolute best. The drone's camera lacks dynamic range, and you can't set up color profiles, which would help in post-processing. And, despite being 4K, the overall quality isn't as good as what you'd get on the DJI, with some graininess and noise that you might not be able to catch with the video previews on the mobile app, but you can definitely see when you blow it up full screen on your computer. So biking with the Skydio R1 went well, but that was basically one static camera angle. So we're here at a skate park in Balboa in San Francisco to see if the R1 can keep up with lots of changing camera angles. Luckily, the company has built in a number of different shooting modes so that the Skydio R1 can keep up with you, from either following you from the front, following you from the side, it can even orbit in one giant 360. Let's give it a shot. It appears to be struggling a little bit with the speed going around the skate park, and because it's such a tight area, but it hasn't hit anything, and it pretty much recalibrates itself very quickly. Oh wait, I think it was following you. So we ran into a couple issues with the R1 here at the skate park. For one, it started following Viren instead of following me. So because the R1 basically tracks you, the shape of your body, and as you go around an environment, it can get a little bit mixed up if it sees somebody else that looks similar to you, and then it'll start following that person instead. The whole point of the R1 is that anyone can use it. I'm not an experienced pilot myself, I've only barely flown drones from, say, DJI, but I was able to use the R1 right out of the box. There are a few compromises with the R1. It's an action sports drone, but it's not waterproof, so it'd be really risky to take it skiing, and it'd be even riskier to take it surfing. It also doesn't have a micro SD card slot like some other drones from DJI, but it does have 64 gigabytes of onboard storage. That's probably more than enough for the 16 minute battery life you get on a single charge. So if you're a photographer or a videographer and you really want cool aerial shots, or say you just like piloting drones because it's really fun, the R1 is probably not for you. And also, it's $2,500. That's a lot of money for a drone, and it's also being hand assembled in Mountain View, California, where the company's headquarters are. That means it's basically only for the early adopters right now. That said, drones as smart as these, they're gonna get better, they're gonna get cheaper, and they're gonna get even smarter down the line. And Skydio has proven that it's at the front of the pack. Oh my God, my chain broke. Well, my chain just fell off, but the drone's fine.
 In this day and age, people are pretty familiar with the idea of a consumer drone.
 But even today, the general concept of a drone remains pretty much the same.
 You need a wide open space, and you need a remote control to fly your drone in, and you're
 probably going to need some pilot experience to make sure you don't hurt anybody and wreck
 your device in the process.
 That is not the case with the Skydio R1.
 Instead, the device uses an array of cameras, sensors, and a powerful onboard computer to
 map its surroundings, predict where it's going next, and avoid people and inanimate objects.
 Essentially, this drone flies itself, all of the time.
 The company thinks it's going to be an action sport enthusiast's dream come true.
 Of course, hearing those claims, we felt like we had to put it through its paces.
 So we brought the R1 to a park just outside of San Francisco so we could test its abilities
 in three different situations.
 Hiking, skateboarding, and biking.
 We wanted to see how well the R1 could avoid obstacles like trees, whether it could keep
 up and film stable 4K at high speeds, and how well it adapts to changes in its environment.
 So the Skydio R1 is pretty simple.
 Basically, all you need is the drone itself, and a flat surface to let it take off from,
 and a battery, which plugs in right here.
 After that, everything is taken care of on the mobile app.
 What's surprising about the R1 is how fluid it feels.
 It's not stopping and starting and trying to calibrate or locate you.
 It basically has an image of you all the time.
 It's tracking you all throughout the environment with all of its cameras and sensors.
 And then it's just following you in a very fluid, almost natural way.
 Skydio says that's because the drone is predicting where it's going to go all of the time.
 Now it's time to try a second activity, biking.
 As you can see here, once it takes off, all you need to do is tap on the image of your
 face from the live camera feed, and the drone snaps into position and then follows you wherever
 you go.
 It's important to note that the camera sensor on the R1 isn't the absolute best.
 The drone's camera lacks dynamic range, and you can't set up color profiles, which would
 help in post-processing.
 And, despite being 4K, the overall quality isn't as good as what you'd get on the DJI,
 with some graininess and noise that you might not be able to catch with the video previews
 on the mobile app, but you can definitely see when you blow it up full screen on your
 computer.
 So biking with the Skydio R1 went well, but that was basically one static camera angle.
 So we're here at a skate park in Balboa in San Francisco to see if the R1 can keep up
 with lots of changing camera angles.
 Luckily, the company has built in a number of different shooting modes so that the Skydio
 R1 can keep up with you, from either following you from the front, following you from the
 side, it can even orbit in one giant 360.
 Let's give it a shot.
 It appears to be struggling a little bit with the speed going around the skate park, and
 because it's such a tight area, but it hasn't hit anything, and it pretty much recalibrates
 itself very quickly.
 Oh wait, I think it was following you.
 So we ran into a couple issues with the R1 here at the skate park.
 For one, it started following Viren instead of following me.
 So because the R1 basically tracks you, the shape of your body, and as you go around an
 environment, it can get a little bit mixed up if it sees somebody else that looks similar
 to you, and then it'll start following that person instead.
 The whole point of the R1 is that anyone can use it.
 I'm not an experienced pilot myself, I've only barely flown drones from, say, DJI, but
 I was able to use the R1 right out of the box.
 There are a few compromises with the R1.
 It's an action sports drone, but it's not waterproof, so it'd be really risky to take
 it skiing, and it'd be even riskier to take it surfing.
 It also doesn't have a micro SD card slot like some other drones from DJI, but it does
 have 64 gigabytes of onboard storage.
 That's probably more than enough for the 16 minute battery life you get on a single charge.
 So if you're a photographer or a videographer and you really want cool aerial shots, or
 say you just like piloting drones because it's really fun, the R1 is probably not for
 you.
 And also, it's $2,500.
 That's a lot of money for a drone, and it's also being hand assembled in Mountain View,
 California, where the company's headquarters are.
 That means it's basically only for the early adopters right now.
 That said, drones as smart as these, they're gonna get better, they're gonna get cheaper,
 and they're gonna get even smarter down the line.
 And Skydio has proven that it's at the front of the pack.
 Oh my God, my chain broke.
 Well, my chain just fell off, but the drone's fine.