Leaked Autel Drones Poised to Go Head-to-Head with DJI Commercial Offerings
BY Zacc Dukowitz
9 May 2023A recent leak on Twitter revealed several new Autel drones, including one called the Autel Alpha, which look like they were designed to compete directly with various commercial platforms from DJI.
Information about two other Autel drones was also revealed in the leak—the EVO Max 4N is slated for a launch this month and the Autel Titan is slated for a July launch. (The Alpha is coming out in July too, according to the leak.)
👉An epic confrontation awaits us in the drone market between DJI(@DJIGlobal ) and Autel(@AutelRobotics ), which wants to take some positions from DJI
Autel has some interesting new products coming out.
👉Drone EVO Max 4N in May,
👉Drone AUTEL Alpha and AUTEL Titan in July pic.twitter.com/2yqSdvfDk7— Igor Bogdanov (@Quadro_News) May 1, 2023
The leaks apparently came out of Autel’s first ever Global Partner Summit, which took place toward the end of April.
The Summit showcased just how busy Autel has been making new drones and drone accessories.
Autel’s Official Statement on the Summit
According to Autel, it unveiled a huge amount of new drone technology at the Summit.
New platforms included an ISR drone (ISR stands for Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance) made for commercial applications, with a focus on sectors like public safety and inspections in fields like Oil & Gas and Power Generation.
A new eVTOL craft was also showcased at the event that “features a unique upper monoplane, V-shaped tail layout, and retractable three-point front landing gear.”
The new EVO Max 4T and EVO Max 4N were on display at the Summit, and highlighted in the press release Autel shared shortly after the event was held.
Finally, Autel demoed nests for both the Dragonfish and the EVO at the event. The Dragonfish is a massive fixed-wing drone, and the nest for it is also quite large to accommodate its size.
The Dragonfish Nest
But Autel didn’t mention two of the drones that everyone is talking about the most in its press release—the Autel Alpha and the Autel Titan leaked in the tweet above.
A leaked photo of what appears to be the Autel Alpha
What We Know about the Autel Alpha
A full spec sheet was leaked for the Autel Alpha, so we know a lot.
The Alpha looks like it will be compatible with multiple payloads and, as you can see in the image above, it will come with multiple intelligent flight functions, including 3D Flight Routes and Multi-Aircraft Cooperations.
Here’s everything we know so far:
Specs for the Autel Alpha
- Flight time. 45 minutes.
- Max flight speed. 45 mph.
- Transmission range. 12.4 miles.
- IP rating. 55.
- Obstacle avoidance. 360° obstacle avoidance.
- Cybersecurity. AES-256 encryption.
Specs for the Alpha’s camera
- 50MP Wide Camera
- 4K 25x Zoom Camera
- 640 x 512 Thermal Resolution
- 0.9 Mile (1.5 km) Measuring Range
What We Know about the EVO Max 4N and the EVO Max 4T
Autel previously unveiled the EVO Max 4T at CES 2023, but the Global Partner Summit was the first time the EVO Max 4N was on display.
Although Autel hasn’t shared much information about the Max 4N, the same leaker who shared information on release dates for the Alpha and Titan had some intel on the Max 4N as well.
Key features of the Autel Max 4N drone(Explore the dark realm):
Super night vision camera:
2.3 Mp , 0.0001 Lux ambient brightness detection
450000 ISO, 41.4mm
Wide-angle camera
50 Mp, 1/1.28″ CMOS F1.9, 85° FOV, 23mm@AutelRobotics ,can you compete with the DJI? pic.twitter.com/qmwcnv1f2Q— Igor Bogdanov (@Quadro_News) May 1, 2023
According to the leak, and to Autel’s own statements, it looks like the Max 4N is a commercial drone optimized for night ops, which comes equipped with a Night Vision Zoom Camera.
Night ops for drones has been a hot topic lately in the drone industry. U.S. companies like Teal Drones have recently taken big steps to corner that part of the market—Teal Drones’ new Teal 2 is the first drone to come with FLIR’s Hadron 640R EO/IR payload, and it’s being marketed under the tagline “Dominate the Night.”
The EVO Max 4T will also be a formidable commercial platform. The 4T will come with wide, zoom, and thermal cameras, 160 max hybrid zoom with 8K resolution, and a binocular vision system.
Making drones to compete directly with existing DJI products isn’t a new play from Autel—the Autel Evo Lite was reportedly made to compete with the DJI Air 2S and the Autel Nano Mini was reportedly made to compete with the DJI Mini 2.
And right now it looks like the Autel Alpha is poised to go head-to-head with the DJI M30. If it does in fact launch this month, we’ll know even more quite soon.
