Beyond the few indicated in the findings that the report & notices were generated and agreeing that an attempt to conceal by company or Govt is possible; wouldn't approach the numbers if any substantial percentage were effected. You'd have forums, UAV business reporting loss or incidents, and you'd have an eager / ambitious media jumping on any similar accident or crash.
Has any additional incidents been in the news or forums? I haven't seen anything! Even if 80-90% were successfully "covered up", you'd have more incidents fall prey to media... where are they? This isn't a platform that has low volume sales, it's a pretty high distribution platform, and the I2 is substantially higher distribution running the same TB50's. Where's all the I2's going down, they're used in more environments around public. If these Drones were limited distributed speciality crafts like the Wind series, not sold to consumer but speciality shops I might accept the likely hood of concealing easier but that still would't shield them from media grabbing & printing any juicy story showing the drone as bad or dangerous.
I agree company & govt's tend to attempt to cover things up, but like other "leaks" in media that hasn't been successfully managed and the media will push a story anytime. In the days of media making Drones the evil craft from above, any crash would most likely be reported and any RC enthusiast disliking DJI would publicize their local newspaper incident. This conversation has ran on a Yuneec forum and minimized by professional business on DJI related sites; incidently these professionals mostly see them as tools, many aren't brand focused and would migrate to any platform that provided similar performance & profits.
There's been more reported incidents of the I2's falling from sky or going out of control due to motor adhesion problem, more incidents of the H520 dead falling due to electronics, more unexplained fly aways of various models, etc. Where's the press and safety notices on these issues? I expected an I2 recall and a notice last year to be issued, never happened? I can easily find more internet chatter on these incidents.
This battery incident started with a Govt Unit's inventory. We're already touched on SOP and delayed procedures of Govt & Military. The Notice & associated media all reference the Police CT team, no other incidents even sited within the reports. Media Story line contains: Drone, Falling from sky, Police, Counter Terrorist TacTeam, and Fear. Some stories improperly reported that the M200 series was "grounded" which wasn't accurate but possibly better story line?
When an auto model encounters a problem that even "hints" a safety concern, even with extreme counter measures by company and various govt agencies to control the media; it's suddenly rampant throughout the media and hundreds come forth with similar stories. Same for a home appliance, firearm, or new electronic device... all get the media attention that attempts to instill fear, danger or concern. Drones are clearly a media target and this incident just didn't spread as expected.
Automotive battery: More of a friendly exchange.
I wasn't focused on the battery within an automobile, more on the "primary" power train. Within a fuel based vehicle, the battery is a side module designed to provide power to start the system and then passing electrical operations over to the electronics to run the vehicle. You're correct, not a lot of intelligence in a simple storage cell, but it still has electronics supporting it beyond the simple 14.2 volt regulator, alternators a fraction of the size and 3 times power to generate current, and it lacks the old diodes and solenoid contact disk from the older days... so it's progressing. Even the Diesel that requires no electrical current to run has encountered major advancements in both fuel management and electronics.
Electric Car: When the battery is the primary form of powertrain, the electrical battery system is very intelligent and the circuits contain multiple modules of firmware. It's a bigger scale, but the battery cells mounted on frame rails are essentially the cells within an Intelligent / Smart battery.
Myself, like others are not able to see the future so it's all estimates based on the evolution of technology. When safety or Govt Management (aka: Control) get involved the technology curve accelerates eventually results in several new mandates. Take the radio frequency spectrum as example, crystals gone and electronics advanced in rapid generations. The ability to divide the frequencies into extremely small sections wasn't even considered a short time back in history and has now become mandated and classified.
I'll wait and see, but it's pretty evident the primary power source of aerial crafts are going to be a point of concern, monitoring, logs and most likely control; that's going to require intelligent electronics. Actually, I see it going further... if RC continues to be "allowed" as sport or pleasure; I see the ability of Govt or Law Enforcement having access to control newer models will be part of the new electronics from taking control, force landing, etc.
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