Hi. It’s Brady again.
Everyone with hardware experience in China wants their own electric car or autonomous vehicle.
DJI is a little different from rest in that it’s going from air to ground. It started this process in 2016—years ahead of most companies that aren’t automakers.
The early move makes sense when you think about it. They’re already the most popular drone brand in the world. If the company wants continued growth, it needs to be in an entirely different sector.
But transitioning from making drones that fit into your pocket or backpack to passenger-carrying, road-ready vehicles is no easy feat. Most of DJI’s initiatives seem to have fallen apart, so it’s going at it again from scratch, and even occupied a booth at this year’s Shanghai Auto Show.
DJI will have to catch up with a lot of companies that weren’t its rivals before—Baidu Apollo, Xiaomi, Didi, and even Huawei. It’s going to be a rough ride.
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