Hi.
Time for another beach time rant.
Sorry about any wind noise.
I do have the wind reduction filter on this, but
audio always gonna be an issue in somewhere like this
Yes. I do have a Thunderbirds t-shirt on. Look at that.
Awesome.
Anyway.
Ive just got an e-mail from Lily Drones
You might
remember the name.
They, about ... more than a year and a half ago,
I think it was May 2015. They made a big splash
with this autonomous tracking drone thing.
You would have like a wrist transmitter or whatever
and it would transmit your position to the drone,
Which you know, fitted in the palm of your hand
Just let it go and it flies up in the air
And it follows you around, you know if you are skiing
Down a mountain or something like that
It will fly around your head and follow you around
All sorts of whizz-bang stuff
Uh... the wind's picking up
know it looks fantastic that a real
slick video and always actually are
courting quiet type in the time and i
thought they're probably not going in i
love this there could be a lot of issues
with this thing but you know that way
get like I thought it was any life 500
box or something which is a fair amount
for driving but for what the capability
of what it was i go it what they claimed
that this thing was going to do and I
thought yeah why not all and I all back
it'll be good love material and all that
sort of stuff if they ever to liver
thing I can remember the original
delivery schedule and all that time
anyway this was unusual in that it was
not a crowdfunding campaign wasn't
Kickstarter was an IndieGoGo they
actually had two or three orders on
their website now this was a venture
back at all back venture capital-backed
company they had got i believe was like
a million in the first rather than 40
million said like 50 million total
venture capital funding and then this
video went viral of these United
interesting sucked in 60,000 people and
to pay like 500 bucks of driving so they
got about 30 million dollars in three
orders for this thing so this was a
cashed-up company this was like the
United like a 45 million dollar cash top
company working on a year before that or
something like that
oh yeah the winds bring it out sorry
anyway gonna name our today that sorry
the journeys over want what I want and
they haven't delivered
I'm not going to say that happened to
live it anything but haven't delivered
any backers have delivered baby units to
be the testers I was not one of mine
asked him in fact i think i believe i
even inquired for advertising on my
website or thinking maybe on my youtube
channel or something they didn't know
that I was a backer of this thing and
down anyway I send my rights and
everything and they didn't them didn't
get back to me and said hey you know I
can be part of the video program or
whatever you know I've got a big YouTube
channel and all that sort of jazz and
you know they didn't really hear back
from them anyway they just sent out an
email today and I think it's hit the
news anywhere else yet but done yet the
journeys over and we're not going to
deliver anything sorry
apparently the reason is is they were
hoping to get some new funding some new
vc funding in order to deliver the
actual units because as of december 23rd
on Twitter on the twitter account they
were saying year we're on track for
delivering they said they're going to
deliver in december and like us orders
in December everyone else in january so
they're all saying this
right up until the last minute when what
the wheels fell off the Billy card they
couldn't get the funding they had to
admit that
sorry journeys I have a lot to their
credit my are offering refunds but i'm a
little bit skeptical of this cuz I don't
know where they're going to get the
30-yard million dollars from as if they
had 30 million bucks to refund the
60,000 backers at 500 bucks apart it was
even more than that he paid for it later
it was like a thousand bucks or
something i think was much more
expensive winter I don't know where
they're going to get their money from
the rerun everyone for this thing so I
yeah the verdicts still out anyway fuel
in a form to get my refund whether or
not I'll never see my money I'd Ivan
this just is a classic example of a
company that got too big for their boots
instead of just focusing on the product
and delivery and focusing on delivering
and when you got that much adventure
back in funding you should have had a
product almost ready to go into
production that's going to sound like
I'm I can't remember the exact details
and have to go through this is not going
to be published in a video is just a
single taking I can't do any other post
research before i upload
classic example of just you know I
getting too big for their boots and
trying to be you know the best I mean
they created by this may be the best
drug there are some thing with doesn't
matter what real artist deliver was that
job so he stole the line from somebody
else 10 anyway yeah real engineering
companies deliver that could just die
like a pro right up until the last
minute promising as typical corporate
stuff right right up until like just
like a week ago what is it now twelfth
of generally and in 20-30 December this
to tweeting out that year where we're
delivering all that sort of stuff but it
all hinged on I thought they were gonna
get some more venture capital funding
and they didn't know what they find him
they just tied him money went to their
head I don't either got too much money
there are two popular i try to do too
much would be my guess would be
interesting to get the inside story of
this one actually because it's basically
and I 50 million 45 million bucks in
funding 30 million bucks in pre-orders
and they took the money from your credit
card it's not like it was just don't you
know the money vanished from my account
you know said I actually got the money
upfront about rush
coming up big time to be interesting to
hear the story this one I think was a
background but they had a genuine go
this wasn't a scam or anything like that
I think they just and I tried to be
corporate you know the one to be the
shoes being drunk and stupid just
focusing on delivering the actual
product is being tested haven't been I
don't know where my notorious actually
knowing the real operation of it and I
saw it I know about the original video
how photoshop the fight that was with
all their capabilities that might have
been reopened want to be real wear
something and I don't know it was a
firmware issue in the end because this
is a lot of smart inside this thing it
is just like a united as basically it's
just a drug right but it's all the
smarts have been able to track someone
figure out where they are
how far they are which camera angle to
get an independent around them like this
is a skiing down the hill and stuff like
that and I so I thought it'd be really
good for adventure stuff maybe on the
beach
here's something like this you know like
you're running down the beach or you
doing something whatever you know you're
playing frisbee or whatever you want
this drone tracking you from 10 meters
away just getting the optimum shot and
that's gonna be
yeah I think they're beautiful than I
can chew their that's that's complex
algorithm stuff and probably very
difficult denial and denied the chance i
like to do this take everyone taking its
name or epoxy venture capital funny
30 million bucks in three orders it's an
enormous i don't know if you know but
bigger pre-order campaign so I think
there's been a crowdfunded that because
they're at 30 million box but yeah this
was pre orders on the website so it's
probably near record breaking in that
aspect and well they didn't deliver
Jones anyone thought that was really
interesting if you got any inside in
five
you know what's going on there if you
got any ideas of what we were on I
reckon it was mostly the tracking stuff
except when otherwise it's just a drug
right it works as a true sure that's
right before road isn't and flies and
hovers and you know it's got a pen to
your thing
the camera whatever fried all basic
stuff and I run-of-the-mill stuff you
buy for a couple hundred bucks
off-the-shelf these days so it's going
to be the automated tracking algorithms
and everything else how they're doing
the tracking i think was a watch wasn't
i'm not entirely sure of the details but
yeah that the new how far away it was a
thing it didn't visually maybe they
pivoted in the engineering this thing
maybe they thought all year will use
watching it somebody against and I some
smiles came in and went all we can do
all this and I've just visually we can
track and target with an object and then
run a little something because
why you lied i was just kissing ride but
might be like having too many times
didn't focus on their original solution
of the original technical solution
really trying
1111 next time that be a lesson to you
when you take another big party at least
name going to try refund will 33 bucks
coming from and I catch you next time