IT'S MONDAY, IS THERE LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL?

[JSTorsrud]

It's Monday and Do I see a Light at the End of the AUTEL TUNNEL?

NOPE! It was only a bunch of wandering souls with Flash Lights, looking for some HINT of the EVO!

 

[LuvMyTJ]

Any word on a release date?

Just wondering so I know when the Mavic Pro II will release! Just kidding.

Seriously... any news?

 

[JSTorsrud]

Nothing Yet! To be honest and probably repeat the same things being said: AUTEL should have never brought this thing out at the Vegas Show. Should have just kept it under wraps, until they were ready to ship.

 

[LuvMyTJ]

I think they showed it because it is the best place to show it and garner interest and it keeps people interested in Autel as a company as before CES we all knew the X-Star was on its death bed and the rumor of Autel getting out of the drone business.

 

[Jagerbomb52]

 

[bobthinks]

Does Autel understand PR and marketing at all. If you want people to wait you need to keep giving reason to wait. Don't want to set a deadline with an exact date because you are tweaking the software or firmware? That's fine we get it. Don't want to let to too much out off the bag about what the final camera is, that's fine. But show me a picture of a production line from an angle that obscures the camera. Tweet that the firmware has passed X of Y tests with Z remaining. Because with the Evo being 3 months late and nothing but.one guy flying one pre-prod drone and doing all the interviews,... well in the software dev world we call that vaporware.

 

[Jagerbomb52]

Although I agree with a large percentage of your statement but to be fair Autel said the release would be sometime in the 2nd quarter which is not done yet. At CES Yuneec also had the Typhoon Plus to come out in the second quarter. They are not ready yet either and they are not say anything. Seems to be the way the ball bounces when you are not on top.
It will be here , we just need to wait. Not much else we can do.

This is why I laughed when everyone tried to dump their XSP's so they would have money for the EVO. I thought they might be without a UAV for some time.
I have been into UAV's for almost 5 years now and have seen this happen a lot with the other companies. It is not uncommon at all. Heck even the industry leader screws up sometimes. There was the Mavic Pro fiasco & the people that waited months to get theirs after shelling out the $$$. Then it took months to get the firmware & camera focus issue resolved amongst other issues.

 

[bobthinks]

Although I agree with a large percentage of your statement but to be fair Autel said the release would be sometime in the 2nd quarter which is not done yet. At CES Yuneec also had the Typhoon Plus to come out in the second quarter. They are not ready yet either and they are not say anything. Seems to be the way the ball bounces when you are not on top.
It will be here , we just need to wait. Not much else we can do.

This is why I laughed when everyone tried to dump their XSP's so they would have money for the EVO. I thought they might be without a UAV for some time.
I have been into UAV's for almost 5 years now and have seen this happen a lot with the other companies. It is not uncommon at all. Heck even the industry leader screws up sometimes. There was the Mavic Pro fiasco & the people that waited months to get theirs after shelling out the $$$. Then it took months to get the firmware & camera focus issue resolved amongst other issues.

All that is fair which is why I think they (Autel) don't understand PR. Silences sends a message too, but one you cannot manage. I work in software development. Sometimes you cannot give a date, we have that issue too. But you can keeps people pretty happy and complacent with just enough information to foster a sense of progress towards delivery. Heck, I found out about them getting their FCC registration from a youtuber that crawled the FCC site. Autel should have simply said "Good news, we got I FCC registration approval for the EVO today." in a blog post and a tweet. A picture of a pallet of EVO boxes that was captioned "EVO's awaiting firmware finalization" would build excitement without setting exact deadlines and re-assure people on the fence.

Actually I think this might be a Chinese business culture thing. I've seen the same thing with tablet manufacturers.

 

[Maxheadspace]

I think they showed it because it is the best place to show it and garner interest and it keeps people interested in Autel as a company as before CES we all knew the X-Star was on its death bed and the rumor of Autel getting out of the drone business.

I’m confident you are correct about their intent, but at CES the word coming out was late March release from those viewing the Evo. And I didn’t see Autel refuting that at the time. It later seemed to morph into “second quarter”. Of course Autel wants to release as soon as they can, but rather than creating hype, failure to deliver is instilling a lack of confidence in Autel’s ability to come through. Especially after delivery failures of the Kestler, the XStar SDK, or even batteries. We all want Autel to succeed, despite their shortcomings.

 

[Autelguy]

The problem with Autel is bad management, end of story. I doubt the Evo will be released. If they do, it will be well after the Mavic Pro 2 so they can gauge what they're up against. I'm predicting 4th quarter if they even produce it at all. More than likely you'll get a message from Autel saying...

"We want to thank all our customers for being so patient. Unfortunately due to the climate of the industry and after weighing out costs, we've decided to close our doors. Thank you for your interest in Autel."

 

[Jagerbomb52]

I think if you are interested in the EVO just sit back and relax. I am not surprised by not seeing it out yet. This has been common for all brands. There were a lot of UAV's show cased at CES 2018 that have not hit the market yet either.
CES was in January. It is now May. So 4 months have passed since they first showed it. They have ALWAYS said it will be out in the 2nd quarter. The 2nd quarter is April thru June. Today is May 19. We have 12 days left in May and 30 days of June. So that is 42 days. That means they have 6 weeks exactly from today.
If you don't start seeing some signs by then maybe start to look else where.

 

[joshmentele]

I think if you are interested in the EVO just sit back and relax. I am not surprised by not seeing it out yet. This has been common for all brands. There were a lot of UAV's show cased at CES 2018 that have not hit the market yet either.
CES was in January. It is now May. So 4 months have passed since they first showed it. They have ALWAYS said it will be out in the 2nd quarter. The 2nd quarter is April thru June. Today is May 19. We have 12 days left in May and 30 days of June. So that is 42 days. That means they have 6 weeks exactly from today.
If you don't start seeing some signs by then maybe start to look else where.

It will probably be out by next month, the XSP was released in May as well.