#258 Adam Bry - Why China Fears Skydio’s Rise in AI Drone Technology

**SPEAKER_1** (0:02)
Get your mother-lovin ears on because your big-time radio DJ's got news. PayPal lets you choose how you want to pay for all the stuff. With PayPal, I can pay in store, pay online, or pay over time. What's that? You want this translated into song? I hope you're sittin down. You can pay your own way. You keep those ears on, you hear? Don't just pay, baby. PayPal. Learn more at paypal.com.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:30)
In Wal-Mart's Who Knewville, joy started to grow for online-only savings sure to steal the show. Tech treats and toys so dazzling and new. Wal-Mart Cyber Monday Deal soon ready for you. It's online-only with very little time to spare. December 1st will soon be here, so be sure to be there. The Who's are prepared. Are you ready too? A day packed with savings. Amazing.

**SPEAKER_1** (0:55)
Who knew?

**SPEAKER_2** (0:56)
Subject to availability terms and fees apply.

**Shawn Ryan** (1:05)
Adam Bry, welcome to the show, man.

**Adam Bry** (1:07)
Very excited to be here, Shawn.

**Shawn Ryan** (1:09)
Very excited to have you.

**SPEAKER_5** (1:28)
What do we have? Oh, shit.

**Shawn Ryan** (1:50)
We have a third join in us.

**Adam Bry** (1:52)
So this is the Skydio R10.

**Shawn Ryan** (1:57)
No way.

**Adam Bry** (1:58)
So this is our brand new indoor tactical drone, designed to get into dangerous situations. You don't have to send a person, and as you can tell, it's got a speaker on here. It's detected a threat.

**SPEAKER_1** (2:11)
Attention, attention.

**Adam Bry** (2:13)
Please exit the area immediately.

**Shawn Ryan** (2:16)
Is somebody behind that or is that programmed in there?

**Adam Bry** (2:20)
So you can do two-way communication. So you can actually like perch this thing and establish two-way communication if you've got a barricaded suspect or something like that, or you can just have pre-recorded audio where it says whatever you want it to say.

**SPEAKER_5** (2:33)
No shit.

**Adam Bry** (2:34)
Yeah.

**Shawn Ryan** (2:38)
That is bad. So in case you haven't figured it out, we're talking about all things drones today.
The founder of Skydio and yeah, you guys are doing all kinds of badass stuff with drones, so I can't wait to dig in. So this one is an indoor drone and we'll rove around whatever you put it in.

**Adam Bry** (2:59)
Yeah. I mean, we basically built it because a lot of the most dangerous work that our customers do happens indoors. Like in law enforcement, you got a barricaded suspect, you don't know what's in there, you don't know if they're armed or not, and typically, you'd have to send a police officer in, you know, gun drawn, they don't know what they're heading into, and this is the root cause of a lot of tragedies. So if you can send a drone, you get perfect situational awareness, you can deescalate the situation, you can establish two-way communication. So the general mantra is like send the robot, not the person. So this is a brand new product for us.

**Shawn Ryan** (3:29)
Dude, that is cool. Can you put a gun on that thing? I know you can. I know you can.

**Adam Bry** (3:36)
Well, in the US., it is illegal to put any kind of weapon on a drone.

**Shawn Ryan** (3:42)
Well, that's dumb.

**Adam Bry** (3:44)
And fly it in civilian airspace.

**SPEAKER_5** (3:47)
Just kidding.

**Adam Bry** (3:47)
But you should talk to our friends at Axon about the possibility of putting a taser on it.

**Shawn Ryan** (3:52)
Axon.

**SPEAKER_5** (3:53)
I think we have talked to them, maybe.

**Adam Bry** (3:56)
Yeah, they're the inventors of the taser and body camera.

**Shawn Ryan** (4:01)
Dude, so nobody's seen this yet?

**Adam Bry** (4:04)
Well, this product is brand new. We just announced it about a month ago, and it's just getting into customer hands now. So it'll be a steady build, but it's actually flown real missions in the hands of some of our early access customers.

**SPEAKER_5** (4:15)
Congratulations.

**Shawn Ryan** (4:17)
Who is the market for this? Is this going to be in all everybody's home?

**Adam Bry** (4:22)
So initially...

**Shawn Ryan** (4:23)
Shopping malls?

**Adam Bry** (4:25)
Yeah. Initially, it'll be heavily law enforcement. Right now, drones are used by spot, like indoor drones like this would be used by like high-end SWAT teams, and we certainly expect that the R10 will be used by SWAT teams in high-stakes situations. But our real goal with this is to build something that's much more accessible for kind of everyday patrol officers, because they're the ones that oftentimes find themselves in the most dangerous situation. They don't have backup, they're out there by themselves. So this thing really becomes like a flying robot assistant.