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The next revolution will come from drones
Massive investments in parts for autonomous and electric cars have brought down prices of components like batteries, navigation, processors etc. These same components are used in drone manufacturing which has resulted in a decline in prices of drones.
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A worker inspects a drone on the ground while another one flies and sprays chemicals during an operation to reduce air pollution in Bangkok.
(Reuters/Athit Perawongmetha)
E
veryone has heard of the Titanic. Everyone has heard of JP Morgan. Not many are however aware that John Pierpont Morgan actually owned the majestic Titanic that sank in 1912 after colliding with an iceberg. Almost every expert labeled the rescue process as shoddy although they hailed the rescue effort of the Carpathia ship that eventually saved only one-third of the passengers on the Titanic.
Over a century later the world witnessed the colossal damage done to the iconic Notre Dame de Paris. The fire devastated the 850-year-old church in nine hours before it was extinguished.
While government agencies moved swiftly there is one company whose products and technology that came to their rescue — Chinese drone manufacturer, DJI. Drones are unmanned aerial vehicles that can be remotely controlled to fly autonomously — think a tiny helicopter without a pilot inside.
DJI is in a unique position in the competitive era of business. It holds a market share of 70 percent in manufacture of commercial drones that allow for aerial photography and videography. In this Notre Dame fire its drones were used by Parisian fire-fighters to find the best positions to aim the fire hoses for extinguishing the fire.
The company which has revenues of almost US$3 billion will only rise further as more sectors find relevance in its usage. The current usage has been dominantly in defense or disaster management where it is used in real-time surveillance to delivery of essential goods.
Massive investments in parts for autonomous and electric cars have brought down prices of components like batteries, navigation, processors etc. These same components are used in drone manufacturing which has resulted in a decline in prices of drones.
This has brought down the price of a basic drone to as low as $30 with the top range running into thousands of dollars. This commercialization will only rise with newer sectors being addressed by drones. A Chinese drone company, XAG, has already grabbed a 50 percent market in the nascent agricultural drone market by developing drones that can spray pesticides on vast farmlands.
