Lily camera drone will no longer follow you
Lily, an autonomous camera drone company, that was highly successful in amassing £27m ($34m) in pre-orders, has announced failure and is shutting down. In an email to customers, the start-up said it had failed to raise additional funds to start production of the drone. It promised to reimburse all pre-order customers within the next 60 days.
The drone could have been one of the first equipped with “throw and shoot” cameras that could track users and capture a 20 minutes footage for them.
The Lily Drone is equipped with 1080p HD camera if used in wind free conditions as it has a camera stabilization, with video FOV 94ᵒ, video format H.264 codec, .mp4 file format, photo resolution 12 MP, digital gimballing, fixed focus, built –in Lithium-Ion battery, charging via 5A charger, 2 hour charge time.
The company’s co-founders Henry Bardlow and Antoine Balaresque wrote to customers “ We have been racing against the clock of ever-diminishing funds. We are deeply saddened to say that we are planning to wind down the company and offer refunds to customers.”
Their promotional video in May 2015 was watched by 12 million people, where the camera drone was shown being thrown in the air and following snowboarders and Kayakers via a waterproof device worn around the wrist. Over 60,000 people signed up paying a pre-order price of $499. They were scheduled to ship in February 2016 which delayed later until early 2017.
In the meanwhile, few Chinese companies DJI, Zero Zero Robotics and Yuneec have hit the market.
San Francisco’s District Attorney filed a lawsuit today accusing the company of false advertising and unfair business practices. Lilly was informed of the lawsuit, a move likely prompting the decision late last night to issue refunds and dissolve the company.
The drone responsible for all fancy aerial work and video, was not, in fact, a Lilly, but a DJI Inspire, something the creators failed to mention.
It may not come as surprise to crowdfunding that Lilly did not have a final product with all the advertising capabilities when it made its pitch. The DA’ suit alleges that Lily’s video is demonstrably fraudulent. The court documents describe an email chain in which co-founder Antoine Balaresque worries that people will be able to tell certain video purported to be from a Lily was in fact shot on a GoPro. “I think we should be extremely careful if we decide to lie publicly,” the email attributed to Balaresque reads.
DA’s office also filed a temporary restraining order freezing Lily’s assets to prevent it from, “ further dissipating these ill-gotten pre-order funds.” If the DA prevail, the company will also have to pay civil penalties $2, 500 for each of the violations described above