Seems like obstacle avoidance is not very reliable.  A Chiense reviewer was able to crash her Mavic in auto-follow mode.  

YouTube link to crash:

For those who don't want to watch the whole thing, the 'crash' seems to be at 5:42. Phantom owners - Would your Phantom have avoided this? The Mavic seems to dodge the trees in the preceding test, but not so much in this one.

Not only the leafs, that can be explained by the fact that the obstacle wasn't exactly solid.. but the girl did some other crazy thing, too careless (I guess the drone was sent for free for the review) even for a brave pilot... at 5:53 she uses the follow mode while in a car on a public road with not enough height, with trees and poles, the car does a U-turn and the drones goes backward not hitting a light pole for a matter of luck because it doesn't have any sensor on the rear!

skyrider420@out Posted at 2016-10-25 06:29
wow ........

She even says (boldly) that she can do whatever she wants since she didn't pay for this.  The nerve of some people...

She did hit the tree good thought...  LOL

T_A_Rogers Posted at 2016-10-25 06:35
She even says (boldly) that she can do whatever she wants since she didn't pay for this.  The nerv ...

Honestly I'd rather have someone like her testing the abilities of it without caring than me finding out that on my own and crashing it. I'm sure there will be others that buy one and will have crashes where the obstacle avoidance didn't work but for now I know to not be near any thin trees with leaves.

trance728 Posted at 2016-10-25 06:50
Honestly I'd rather have someone like her testing the abilities of it without caring than me findi ...

Exactly!  Someone needs to be a jerk to wash away the Marketing gloss DJI has put on Mavic product launch.

Check out the "SamiLuo" channel on YouTube: they have some fantastic videos of testing Mavic in narrow corridors and trying to do indoor stunts and obstacle avoidance.



My favorite of course is the torture test of Phantom:

PS: OK I watched through more critical reviews, and found examples of when Obstacle Avoidance fails.  It seems like obstacle avoidance fails to display distance meter against:

• White walls
• Low contrast environment like mild fog
• One-dimensionalish objects like poles or wires
• Lack of pattern: think flat colored obstacles
• And low light environments.
  

A lot of first time DJI buyers are going to be in for a shock if they were planning to rely on Mavic's obstacle avoidance.

Y7a2ebIZVfCK Posted at 2016-10-25 09:02
PS: OK I watched through more critical reviews, and found examples of when Obstacle Avoidance fails ...

Well hopefully they read the manual where it states that, hopefully.

Y7a2ebIZVfCK Posted at 2016-10-25 09:02
PS: OK I watched through more critical reviews, and found examples of when Obstacle Avoidance fails ...

There's a very simple solution to this. People should learn how to fly properly rather than relying on technology to stop them from crashing. It isn't intended to prevent a collision in all scenarios, it's a mitigation feature.

People that rely solely on the obstacle avoidance system to prevent a crash shouldn't be flying any form of RC aircraft.

Y7a2ebIZVfCK Posted at 2016-10-25 09:02
PS: OK I watched through more critical reviews, and found examples of when Obstacle Avoidance fails ...

The Mavic is truly an incredible aircraft with amazing features and functions, BUT it also has it's limitations and I really hope EVERYONE reads the manual cover to cover a few times so they fully know how the features and functions work, but to also memorize it's limitations.

AusAir Posted at 2016-10-25 09:09
There's a very simple solution to this. People should learn how to fly properly rather than relyin ...

I couldn't agree any more.
New users coming into this hobby and the Mavic being their first aircraft is great BUT you just need to fully understand the aircraft first.
People who have been in the hobby for years really appreciate the technology as even a few years ago most of this was not possible in a hobby grade aircraft.
What the DJI aircraft can do it truly amazing, please take the time to learn all that you can about your aircraft.
Please don't open the box, charge it up and take it in your backyard to check out how Sport mode works. Work your way up to it and only use Sports Mode in a large open area.

Y7a2ebIZVfCK Posted at 2016-10-25 12:02
PS: OK I watched through more critical reviews, and found examples of when Obstacle Avoidance fails ...

And pink shirts




And its good that the SamiLuo pushes the Mavics Limits and not caring.

Here are 4 screenshots when Obstacle avoidance doesn't show distance meter.  Second screenshot shows couple of situations when distance meter actually works.

Y7a2ebIZVfCK Posted at 2016-10-24 21:02
PS: OK I watched through more critical reviews, and found examples of when Obstacle Avoidance fails ...

The list is not surprising to anyone who works on image recognition. That's expected for quick algorithms. An ultrasound distance meter pointing forward would help, just like that one at the bottom. They cost less than $1 in bulk orders...

Looks like pure luck the Mavic didn't hit that light pole at 6:00 while backing up in auto-track mode (no reverse sensors).

Y7a2ebIZVfCK Posted at 2016-10-24 17:02
PS: OK I watched through more critical reviews, and found examples of when Obstacle Avoidance fails.  It seems like obstacle avoidance fails to display distance meter against:

How does it compare to other brands? (same price).
Do they share the same problem?

Juan01 Posted at 2018-5-30 10:58
How does it compare to other brands? (same price).
Do they share the same problem?

This is a very old thread but we can not talk about brands here, as DJI is practically self-reliant on the drone market when we talk about GPS drones with camera and gimbals in this caliber. So yet nothing to compare it with.

While the Mavic Pro is king, it's not yet quite like Skydio. Soon maybe with an upcoming firmware release? LOL.

trance728 Posted at 2016-10-24 14:50
Honestly I'd rather have someone like her testing the abilities of it without caring than me finding out that on my own and crashing it. I'm sure there will be others that buy one and will have crashes where the obstacle avoidance didn't work but for now I know to not be near any thin trees with leaves.

I think these agility maneuvers aren't designed for drones with the Mavic Pro composition. After someone first handles a Mavic Pro and adequately tests its capabilities, it should be intuitive what are the limitations, not exploratory. I think most who have a Mavic Pro are sophisticated enough not to overestimate what it can't under-deliver.