Company Founders Say Deliveries Now Expected In The Summer Of 2016

The founders of San Francisco-based UAV startup Lily say software issues will delay shipments of the waterproof flying camera until next summer.

In a post on the company website, Lily founders Antoine Balaresque and Henry Bradlow said that the team is working relentlessly on Lily Camera’s flight control software. But "we’ve hit some challenges there, but rest assured, it’s nothing our team can’t handle. We just need more time. To accommodate flight software optimization, hardware improvements, and additional rounds of testing, we will be delaying pre-order shipments until Summer 2016. This was not a decision taken lightly."

The company said that component optimizations required them to redesign core parts of the flight software to achieve smoother and more stable flight, which turned out to be a larger undertaking than expected. Due to the enhancements we made, Lily Camera now has more stable and responsive flight capabilities.

The company has also added a waterproof sonar sensor for flight stability, and upgraded the computer vision processing unit to enhance tracking performance. Lily Camera’s internal structure was also redesigned to reduce weight and increase strength.

The company has produced a total of 200 units so far and has started taking these out into the world. "In order to thoroughly test the software and hardware updates we’ve developed over the past few months, we need to test Lily Camera in the most extreme conditions your adventures will take it. This includes (but is not limited to) high altitudes, breakneck speeds, rough and tumble waves, and beyond."

The company, which says it has secured $15 million in private funding, adds that anyone who has pre-ordered one of the UAVs can request a full refund at any time up to 30 days after the aircraft is delivered to the buyer.

(Source: Lily website. Images provided by Lily)

FMI: www.lily.camera/shipping-fundraising-update