Jonathan Downey, Founder and CEO of Airware, discusses key technological and regulatory catalysts for commercial drone adoption with Harry Stebbings.
Insight
Jonathan Downey says consumer drone innovation enables the commercial drone market
“I think we've seen a ton of innovation actually come from the consumer space, which is proving to be an incredible enabler for the commercial market, because at this point, the consumer drones, which, you know, started as fun flying toys under our Christmas tr…”
Assertion Supported
DJI dominates drone hardware manufacturing through vertical integration in China
“One is actually building the drones, and this is a space that's dominated by players like DJI, which are vertically integrated in China, really focused on being operationally excellent when it comes to manufacturing, and really focused on kind of rapidly itera…”
Insight
Jonathan Downey argues enterprise drone software must be as boring as possible
“This needs to be as boring as it possibly can be. You want your team member to be able to show up with a drone, do as little as possible, have that drone just fly the pattern that's required to collect the aerial data, and then transform that data and deliver …”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Large enterprise CIOs now evaluate drone technology like standard enterprise IT
“Large enterprises are making kind of enterprise-wide decisions, you know, in the CIO's office about adopting, evaluating, and implementing this technology just as they would a lot of other enterprise IT.”
Insight
Enterprises prefer partnering with aerial data experts over developing in-house technology
“I would say most companies, while they may begin thinking this is core to their business in terms of developing some of the drone technology, really realize this is context for them, and it's best for them to partner with a company who really brings that aeria…”
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Manual roof and tower inspections will seem archaic within five years
“I think in five years, companies are going to look back on the way things are being done today as part of their business and think about how archaic it is. People climbing up on towers, climbing up on rooftops, waiting days and weeks sometimes for accurate inf…”