DJI Zenmuse L3 LiDAR, Drone Maker in Lawsuit, New Autel Releases, & Drone Crash Wildfire

Welcome to your weekly UAS news update. We have four stories for you this week. DJI launches the new Zenmuse L3 LiDAR, which is quite impressive. A drone maker trade secret lawsuit—well, we’ll see how that unfolds. New products from Autel, which come as a bit of a surprise. And a wildfire caused by an experimental drone crash. Lots of good news this week. Let’s get to it.

DJI Launches Zenmuse L3 LiDAR

First up, as expected, DJI is launching the Zenmuse L3. This thing is a beast. It boasts a detection range of up to 950 meters (3,100 feet), which is more than double the 450 meters on the L2, the previous payload. I’m going to skip some of the detailed specs because you can look them up if you’re into LiDAR. Otherwise, it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to someone who’s not. But it achieves all of this technology with a 1,535-nanometer wavelength LiDAR, even on objects that have just 10% reflectivity.

The system also has—and listen to this, it’s crazy—a dual 100-megapixel 4/3 CMOS RGB sensor. This is a five-times increase from the L2, which had one single 20-megapixel sensor. With a 3-cm ground sampling distance at 300 meters (almost 1,000 feet), you’ll get ultra-detailed maps and models. DJI is claiming vertical accuracy of 3 cm at 120 meters of flight altitude and 10 cm at 500 meters of altitude.

The whole system weighs 1.6 kg (3.5 pounds) and is compatible with the M300, M350, and M400 RTK series. If the specs hold up in the real world, I’m going to be very impressed. This is DJI doing something crazy once again.

Legal Drama: Vector Defense Wins Early Victory

Next up, we have some legal drama in the US drone industry. A federal judge in Utah has handed an early victory to Vector Defense, a drone company co-founded by George Matus. He’s the former chief technology officer at Red Cat Holdings and also the founder of Teal Drones, which he has since left.

Red Cat, which owns Teal Drones, filed a lawsuit against him and Vector Defense, claiming that he stole trade secrets and sabotaged the business before leaving to start his own company. Red Cat was also seeking a temporary restraining order to stop Vector from manufacturing drones or competing in the industry for the next year, but the judge denied the request, stating that Red Cat failed to provide evidence to support the claim and that the assertions were merely speculative.

Matus founded Teal Drones when he was in high school, sold it to Red Cat in 2021, and then left in 2024 to co-found Vector Defense. Red Cat alleged that Matus used his position to give his new company an unfair head start. Matus countered that Vector’s drones, like their single-use FPV Hammer drone, for example, don’t even compete with Red Cat’s products.

This is a significant early win for Vector Defense, which recently landed a major contract with US Special Operations Command. We’re going to keep an eye on this one. It’s been going on for a while, and the case is still developing.

Autel Robotics Quietly Releases New Products

Third this week: Autel Robotics has quietly released several new products. This came from Joe Scaper, the director of business development at Autel. He announced several new products on LinkedIn, including the Autel Explorer, a small drone/RC car hybrid designed for GPS-denied environments indoors.

They also announced the long-awaited EVO 3, which has a mechanical shutter. Additionally, they announced the EVO Pioneer 150, a ground robot with wheels—basically like a cart with wheels, if you want to think about it that way—that has a 200-kilogram payload. Also announced were the EVO Nest 2, a docking station that would hold the EVO 3, the new platform, and then the Skyfan Interceptor.

These announcements come with very limited details at the moment. None of these products are actually on Autel’s website, so details on pricing and specs are pretty limited. But hopefully, we’re going to see these products come to the United States, and we can even test some of them out. The EVO 3, I think, is really interesting—years after the EVO 2, which was a beast and a great platform to begin with. Can’t wait to see what this new one looks like.

Experimental Drone Crash Sparks 83-Acre Wildfire

Finally this week, a story that serves as a serious reminder about the risks that come with our industry and flying experimental drones. In this case, an experimental remotely piloted aircraft with a six-foot wingspan crashed in a rural area in Calhan, Colorado, and sparked an 83-acre wildfire.

According to the Tri-County Volunteer Fire Department, the crash itself started the fire, and then the lithium battery significantly intensified the blaze—that’s a quote—making it harder to fight the fire. It spread quickly because of dry and windy conditions, starting a mandatory evacuation and destroying one small outbuilding.

Thankfully, the multi-agency response was able to get the fire under control in just about an hour. The sheriff’s office determined that the crash was accidental. They did not release the name of the company that was conducting the experimental flight.

This is a good reminder for all of us to be extremely careful, especially when flying in windy and dry conditions, and that battery fires do happen after a crash.

Coming Up on Postflight

On Postflight this week—that’s the premium community show where we share our opinions—we’re going to be covering all of these stories and also some new non-flying DJI products. We’ll see you on Monday for the live show. Have a great week and fly safe.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​