The HEXO+ is an autonomous, GoPro-toting drone designed to follow a rider as he or she moves down the trail for what promises to be incredible footage. Currently on Kickstarter, the HEXO+ is being offered for $599 (US) with a GoPro mount (camera not included).
How it works: The rider syncs a smartphone app with the HEXO+ drone and places the phone in his or her pocket. The HEXO+ uses the smartphone to mark the subject and can be set to film at a constant distance from the rider as the rider moves down the trail. With a max speed of up to 45mph, the HEXO+ should have no problem tracking all but the fastest mountain bikers.
I’m sure we’ll be seeing a lot more drone footage in mountain bike videos in the future, especially as products like the HEXO+ make it easier to launch and control these mini-helicopters. No more need to string extensive trailside cable systems or run around with bulky steady-cam rigs. But the best part is this is that it’s just one more nail in the coffin for boring first-person POV footage.
With over a million dollars raised so far, we’d say there is a lot of interest in a GoPro-ready drone! Pre-order the HEXO+ on Kickstarter through July 15.
Man, this sounds like a fantastic idea! Drone footage is way cool, and like you said: long, unedited POV footage needs to die a slow and painful death.
However, I have two questions:
1) This sounds like a great idea for clear, open air-trails, but how many of those are there? How will this perform with tree branches and cliff sides to dodge? Having your $600 drone hit a branch and crash and burn could really ruin your day.
2) At only 15min of run time, that’s not a lot of filming time, especially with multiple takes, traveling from place to place on the trail, etc. Would be cool to see an easily-changeable battery so that you can haul extra battery packs with you to change on-trail.
I had the same thought on #1. Basically I think you could just program it to stay super tight on the rider (that is, low and close) to minimize tree strike. But yeah, I’d keep this thing on wide open trails for the most part. 🙂
Unfortunately that is the problem with all drones…and this isn’t the first or only one to be programmed to follow the rider. My neighbor has a drone business, and unless you are willing to shell out thousands, there isn’t a good solution to the problems you mentioned. Also, I’d be concerned about the smartphone connection…they are unstable and weak. I can’t even keep my $400 GoPro connected to my phone within 2-3 feet, so trusting a drone/GoPro several meters away at speed seems like an expensive disaster waiting to happen. I am sure this will work for some, but there are too many limitations to fork over that kind of coin unless drones are your hobby and you know how to mod them and make them better.
I envision the trail riding early adopters doing a lot of bushwacking. But imagine how awesome this could be for slopestyle, or dual slalom, or other sports entirely. Won’t be long before we’re figuring out the ettiquette of swatting someone’s drone out of our face as we glide down the mountain on our snowboards.