Unless it's the Real Sense model, upon which it won't back up. At least not that I could tell. I added my RS module afterwards and duplicated this test. Pre-real sense with the sonar avoidance, it would back away from me. Now with the real sense module it will make the controller beep but won't back away. I may have been doing something wrong though, and I didn't test it much. It would keep me from flying it into something but would not back up on it's own. perhaps it will in smart mode or something? I was in angle mode.