Layoffs Reflect New Turbulence At High-Flying 3D Robotics

BVBigelow quotes a report from Xconomy: 3D Robotics, the drone maker that began life in Tijuana and San Diego, has been consolidating its operations after stumbling in its bid to go head-to-head against China's DJI, the world's biggest maker of consumer drones. In an interview with Xconomy, CEO Chris Anderson confirmed that 3DR has been reorganizing to focus its drone business on enterprise customers, but downplayed the significance of the high-flying robotic company's layoffs over the past six months.

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[U2xhc2hkb3QgU3Vja3M]

Yes we are. [google.com]

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[U2xhc2hkb3QgU3Vja3M]

3D printers are not Star Trek replicators. Desktop 3D printers can replace some milled/injected plastic parts. They can also produce parts that are nearly impossible to make with traditional methods.

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[U2xhc2hkb3QgU3Vja3M]

There is 3D-printed houses. And no, not everything in the house is 3D-printed. Just like when someone says he has a log house cabin, not everything is made of freakin' logs.

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[U2xhc2hkb3QgU3Vja3M]

No the house is not completely made of logs. There's windows, hinges, metal wood stove, etc.

Any my initial reply was to your "Since obviously we live in the post-game-changed society now, with 3D printed houses everywhere and people downloading cars all the time, surely we are 3D printing drones at home too?"

And yes, people are 3D printing drones. I never implied that all parts were 3D printed and your question didn't either.

As for 3D-printed houses, there's something called Google. You should try it someti

from open to closed.

[andydread]

They had a vibrant community around their products when they were open but since they came out with a new closed system they have basically been abandoned by the community. Good luck to them.

Chris Anderson is the only reason they exist

[BitZtream]

His name and ability to sucker people into venture capital money is the only reason they exist.

They hired the guys who wrote ardupilot and promptly subverted it.

Their website sucks ass and stock indications are ALWAYS wrong.

Their customer service flat out lies to customers about items being in-stock or shipped.

Their DIY drones are sub par quality and way over priced. Their COTS drones are heavy, slow, and have short flight times (guess why).

Their good features, their flight management software and ArduPilot ... aren't theirs. They bought the ArduPilot guys, and the GOOD flight management software for ArduPilot doesn't even come from anyone at 3DR. The 3DR flight management software, while cross platform (the other software is Windows only :(), its slow, buggy, crashes, doesn't support all the features of the other system and is much more difficult to use which is impressive considering they tried to make it look and act the same.

They deserve to die, they do not deserve to suck venture capital out of anyone else.

Chris Anderson has no fucking clue what he's doing as far as running a company. He was a shitty editor in chief at wired and that is the ONLY REASON 3dr exists, because of wired and his name there. He is more than capable of making his bank account fatter, but as far as running a business, he's as worthless as a used douchebag.

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[DNS-and-BIND]

I think you don't know what a douchebag is. They are fully reusable.

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[waTeim]

Nah, don't think so. You sound disgruntled. For one thing, the Solo is quite a bit faster than the Phantom; but it does feel expensive and it does have a shorter flight time. I think you have to cut them some slack for attempting to take on a vastly larger company (though they messed up doing it). The lack of the gimbal early on hurt them greatly.

I've looked at the ARDUpilot (frontend) stuff -- admittedly very briefly -- and it just looks old (like mid 2000's kind of old) and are you saying it (ARDUp

We do not need robots

[ziliac]

What we need is for the bankers who caused the 2008 meltdown to go to jail.