At least the Typhoon H didn't get recalled... But Karma just did!

[CAPTAINDRONE]

About 2,500 buyers will now have either the Typhoon H to buy or the DJI Mavic Pro.... Yuneec could benefit from this.

GoPro just announced a recall of its first-ever drone, the $799 Karma. Approximately 2,500 Karma units sold since October 23rd (meaning all of them) are impacted. GoPro says “in a very small number of cases, Karma units lost power during operation.” Thus far, there have been no reports of injuries or property damage because of the defect.

Two biggest defects of the Karma are: Loss of GPS and engines turning off in mid flight.

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[Jagerbomb52]

Well at least they stepped up to the plate and said HEY we have a problem You think Yuneec or DJI would do that? Not a chance as they just keep handing out updates till one works and carry on as if nothing happened.
I applaud Karma guys for doing this, Yuneec could learn from this in my opinion

 

[THoff]

Let's not overlook the fact that the gimbal blows.

Anyway, I won't be gloating about this. It's an unfortunate situation for any Karma owner.

 

[David Armstrong]

Ouch...

 

[Brian Mackey]

Let's not overlook the fact that the gimbal blows.

Anyway, I won't be gloating about this. It's an unfortunate situation for any Karma owner.

and the fact it cannot find the horizon

 

[Brian Mackey]

About 2,500 buyers will now have either the Typhoon H to buy or the DJI Mavic Pro.... Yuneec could benefit from this.

GoPro just announced a recall of its first-ever drone, the $799 Karma. Approximately 2,500 Karma units sold since October 23rd (meaning all of them) are impacted. GoPro says “in a very small number of cases, Karma units lost power during operation.” Thus far, there have been no reports of injuries or property damage because of the defect.

Two biggest defects of the Karma are: Loss of GPS and engines turning off in mid flight.

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Oh thats really bad

 

[PatR]

Perhaps we are seeing the difference between an American based company and one foreign based. The American based company recognizes the potential for product liability claims generated by an object falling from the sky where the foreign based believe themselves immune because of geographical separation. It's not feasible to believe that Go Pro had not fully tested their prototype systems, knowing who their initial market would be. The last three consumer drones that provided a lot of early fanfare have come out of the gate with defects that make no sense where consumer satisfaction and product reliability are concerned. Solo, H, and now Karma. Autel was much less visible with their release but had still has their share of issues. I wonder how close in proximity all these companies are to each other?

 

[Buddy Collins]

Perhaps we are seeing the difference between an American based company and one foreign based. The American based company recognizes the potential for product liability claims generated by an object falling from the sky where the foreign based believe themselves immune because of geographical separation. It's not feasible to believe that Go Pro had not fully tested their prototype systems, knowing who their initial market would be. The last three consumer drones that provided a lot of early fanfare have come out of the gate with defects that make no sense where consumer satisfaction and product reliability are concerned. Solo, H, and now Karma. Autel was much less visible with their release but had still has their share of issues. I wonder how close in proximity all these companies are to each other?

Gotta agree.

 

[THoff]

Does anyone want to guess at a possible cause and whether this can be fixed through firmware? If it can't it wouls be an absolute disaster for the company, they are already struggling.

 

[CAPTAINDRONE]

Well at least they stepped up to the plate and said HEY we have a problem You think Yuneec or DJI would do that? Not a chance as they just keep handing out updates till one works and carry on as if nothing happened.
I applaud Karma guys for doing this, Yuneec could learn from this in my opinion

Word on the street is this is the last we'll see of Karma. The company has some financial issues and the Karma issues are not helping, so it may be bye bye for good for the Karma drone.

 

[RiverRunner]

That's sad to see. We need more competition for product improvement, customer service and to keep prices reasonable.

 

[Tuna]

The rumours were that Karma was named as payback for the deal going sour between GoPro and DJI.. oh dear.

I'm sorry that GoPro are having such problems, there was high hope that they'd bring something new to the drone scene, but I'll admit to being underwhelmed by the Karma. The biggest surprise to me is that an industry leading company, apparently with big investment in R&D seems to be coasting when it comes to new products.

This review hasn't helped either

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[CraigCam]

Everything in that video is what I've worked past with drones not really designed to carry a GoPro. In the end, you realize a GoPro is a lousy flight camera. It's not balanced well for gimbals and the fisheye is a PIA to deal with in post. I have two years of GoPro vids I've shot and edited and find them pretty sad looking in both color and stability compared to what I can capture now. They could have partnered with Horizon and just used a Chroma if they wanted that much suck power.

 

[PatR]

In any event the Karma does not have a large place in the market. Realistically it fits a niche for those that previously owned a Go Pro and would provide them a dedicated platform to carry it. With the exception of high moisture environments and a setting where a camera needs to be mounted to the person recording, cameras have well exceeded the quality levels the Go Pro can provide. Using 2 year old flight platform tech was no help either. So regardless of the issues being experienced the odds were high that sales volume would be disappointing.


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[Dragonflyerthom]

Very sad for a new drone

 

[PatR]

True, but from a business perspective it's better to halt sales of a product and redirect the resources if it has low success potential. Seen too many times management makes a call that because they have so much invested already they have to continue throwing good money into something that can't succeed.


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[ActionAndo]

Sad times all round really. I want to see the industry progress, not take a step back like this. Will be interested to learn more about what actually caused the recall,; whether there were any potentially high profile accidents being smoothed over.

 

[RiverRunner]

Perhaps we are seeing the difference between an American based company and one foreign based. The American based company recognizes the potential for product liability claims generated by an object falling from the sky where the foreign based believe themselves immune because of geographical separation. It's not feasible to believe that Go Pro had not fully tested their prototype systems, knowing who their initial market would be. The last three consumer drones that provided a lot of early fanfare have come out of the gate with defects that make no sense where consumer satisfaction and product reliability are concerned. Solo, H, and now Karma. Autel was much less visible with their release but had still has their share of issues. I wonder how close in proximity all these companies are to each other?

DJI has had many issues over the years from flyaways to battery problems which caused the Phantoms to crash or drop from the sky. There never was a recall. Everything was blamed on pilot error. Now the new Mavic is having several issues including loss of control. Again, no recall, just a delay in shipments.
You may be right that as an American company, GoPro is not willing to risk the potential legal ramifications of leaving them out there. On the other hand, they may have realized that their timing in this market was too late and that they cannot compete. It will be interesting to see if they ever ship the Karma or drop it altogether.

 

[PatR]

We are not far away from the day our semi autonomous toys will be required to meet some level of performance standards. When that day arrives I believe there will be a large change in the attitude foreign manufacturers take with how they handle defective products. It may will end up a case of having a choice of being proactive or experiencing import bans on their products.


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[glider]

We are not far away from the day our semi autonomous toys will be required to meet some level of performance standards. When that day arrives I believe there will be a large change in the attitude foreign manufacturers take with how they handle defective products. It may will end up a case of having a choice of being proactive or experiencing import bans on their products.


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I think it will more regulation by local municipalities than anything that kills the hobby. For example, a small city near me I was just told passed ordinances banning operation of drones on an city property. The person who told me is a commercial pilot. He was flying at the same place I have for the last 3 years when apparently someone called the police who came out and told him he was violating a newly passed ordinance. I haven't read the law yet.

We are going to a board meeting to question them because I suspect they may be overreaching.