Tell us a bit about your company’s background, and what you’re trying to solve in the industry.
Uplift Data Partners is the leading data capture platform for businesses to adopt drone aerial data into their business operations. Our turnkey platform strategically matches commercial drone pilots with enterprise clients, enabling them to scale their drone data capture needs. The platform seamlessly solves for compliance, airspace, and dispatch of commercially trained pilots at the touch of a button. Uplift’s pilot network is the leading commercially trained and insured pilot network, guaranteeing that every drone pilot meets our enterprise client requirements. Our network has 100% nationwide coverage of the United States, allowing us to deliver any mission anywhere. Our clients are leading brands in the construction, insurance and real estate industries with national and global recognition. Our mission is to make it a “no-brainer” for commercial businesses to outsource their drone data capture needs allowing for more streamlined, faster adoption of drones into their business operations.
What is the industry you see having the most traction from aerial data as a service in the next few years?
We believe roof inspections will be the industry that allowed the aerial data as a service market take off. The cost savings and safety increases are real and tangible today, and it’s only a matter of time before more and more roof inspections are performed with drones.
What countries besides the US do you feel are really taking advantage of drones and aerial data?
Australia, The United Kingdom, The Netherlands
What software for flight/processing etc drones sees the most use in the field by your pilots?
DroneDeploy has written and tested the most robust flight control software in the industry. It’s platform agnostic, and DD does the best job in keeping up with DJI firmware upgrades.
Where would you like to see drone hardware improve in the future?
It’s hard to imagine drastic improvements from the P4pro. This particular drone is stable, small, consistent, and an incredible workhorse. Obviously we’d like it to have a longer battery life, more and less-expensive payloads, but for $1500 the P4 pro is an incredible piece of machinery.
What regulatory hurdles do you feel need to change before great adoption of drone services commercially?
The “no flights over moving vehicles” part of current regulation is impossible to detect and prevents many safe and simple commercial applications.
What are the top things a company should consider before retaining a drone services company?
There are six areas:
- What exact outputs are they looking for? i.e. who will process the drone data?
- Which company gives me the easiest solution for integration into my business operations?
- Which company can own all aspects of the “first mile” in drone data capture, with the best turnaround?
- Who is best at managing the risk associated with the first mile; i.e. the pilot training, caliber, experience, professionalism?
- Who can scale and service my entire portfolio of needs across the country and the world?
What technologies are you most excited about being integrated into drones in the coming years?
I believe that drone data is a currency and can have enormous fluidity in the current data and data analytics trends we see. This means it can both stand alone but is most powerful when it is added to other multi-dimensional data sets. We are excited to see drone data integrate with industry specific technologies, allowing for greater data set enrichment and improved insights.