DJI Air 3S LiDAR Drone vs The Gauntlet

This is the brand new DJI Air 3S, and that is the gauntlet tree tunnel right there. Watch out for that tree! And don’t worry, I definitely purchased the DJI Care Refresh insurance.

Now, this test has four parts to it:

1. First is the tree tunnel that you see right there.
2. After it gets past that, a bit of open area, but it’s got its own trickery to it.
3. Then we’ve got the high-speed test. This thing also now tracks at a higher speed than past drones from DJI, so that’ll be interesting to test.
4. From there, we’re going to go to a little more open area where I’m going to use the new automatic angle feature where it’ll automatically not just choose a shot but choose a composition as well, which is new for the Air 3S. If it gets through all that fun stuff, then we’re going to go to the trees. We’re probably going to have the trees either way, but we’re going to purposely go into the trees and see what happens.

Key Feature: LIDAR Sensor

Now this thing has one key feature that may allow it to finally make its way through, and this feature is the new LiDAR on the front. This little black stripe right there, this LIDAR sensor, allows it to detect objects it can’t see. That’s particularly useful in low light conditions like right now when the sun is starting to set, but also scenarios like thin branches in fall and winter as it’s coming up right now, and materials that are either reflective or transparent such as glass or some metals and stuff like that. That’s a huge boost for DJI drones, and we’re going to find out whether it was worth my money because I did buy this myself just about 2 hours ago at the DJI Store here in the Netherlands.

This will actually be its first flight and potentially its only flight. We shall see. Don’t worry, I got the Care Refresh, we should be fine with that.

Configuring the Drone

You ready for this? Let’s get rolling. Now with it up there behind me, there is one setting we need to check first, which is the obstacle avoidance settings. So I tap the little dot-dot-dot in the upper right-hand corner right there, and then you’ll see obstacle avoidance action. The default is “break.” I’ve already changed that to be “bypass.” Below that we have “normal” and “nifty.” “Nifty” makes it a little more spicy. I don’t usually see much of a difference there. We’re just going to keep it on normal for right now. Going on down, display radar map so we can see the things it’s about to crash into. The rest of the stuff is all fine there.

Starting the Test

Now what we got to do here is to go ahead and get myself in the frame. There we go. No one’s coming, no one’s all the way up ahead, which is amazing. I can make a little square around myself. We will choose active track here we go.

The Tree Tunnel Challenge

Okay, starting down this little slight hill right here, going to kind of get moving. So far so good. This is further than a lot of other DJI drones make it. I’m going to bring it down a little bit so you can see it’s already kind of struggling a little bit because of the height there, being closer to the trees. Oh, it’s getting awfully close to these tree branches here. Bring it a little bit closer. I’m going to swing it off to the side now ’cause there’s someone coming up. See if it’ll get off to the side of me there. We’ll do that. Here we go, it’s off to the side. Oh no, it’s going to go right into that tree! Oh, and that’s… we’re not off to a good start here, folks. I’m just going to move it back. Fine, we’ll go behind me for now.

There we go. Oh, that’s a tree. Oh, that’s a big tree. Okay, come on, get behind me. Don’t… watch out for that tree! Holy moly. No, just behind me. Why are you over there? Okay, there we go. Now we’re back on. You know, I’m not sure if I would credit LIDAR with any of that. It’s more just dumb luck. Oh, that’s another tree. I just heard something hit there. That sounded more just like hitting it. Clunk. “Subject moving too fast.” I’m not moving fast. I’m moving 18 km an hour. It’s just painfully slow.

Now I’m going to save you a whole lot more fussing around of basically the same thing happening over and over and over again, but I will let you briefly watch this crash because, eh, it’s worthwhile, right? Just stay there, please. That’s a lot of trees. Oh no, we’re about to lose it. And… and… oh, it saves itself! It goes back up and again. Little bugger, what are you doing? No, buddy, no. Just go down, down, please. Stay down. I promise it’s better for all of us.

Adjusting Settings

So we’re going to turn on one of the settings here which allows us to go lower. Turned on the low option basically for ground, how low it’ll go. And I don’t typically like to do this, but right now it’s really struggling. I’ve got the lower setting on now. I basically turned that on to allow it to go under 2 meters. It seems to be… no, don’t go up, dude. Stay down, TRUST me. I’m looking out for you. Don’t go up. I told you to stay down low.

And we’re going to try going through here and see if we can do this without it killing itself ’cause this has less branches above it.

Moving to Open Areas

So we’ve left the tree tunnel with, I would say, strongly mixed success. Now at this point, we’re going to get moving a little bit faster here. Why are you going up? I’ve told you… we’ve had this discussion. Do not go up. Fine, go up. Go up as you see fit.

Now try to catch up with me here. Doing a good job of catching up. It’s bouncing all over creation up there. It looks super smooth in the gimbal, but let me tell you, this guy is everywhere.

Okay, we’re doing good here. It’s got this like shrub section up there, bushes. It’s going to have to go above them ideally. But this is like a clear indication of where LIDAR would be used to go around this if it’s having problems with the obstacle avoidance sensors. Like, it should see those bushes without any problems whatsoever.

Still tracking. There we go, it got to me again. It found me. There we go. What are you going to do through here? Come on, you’re like 100 meters away. The fast zone. Can you do this? Go over. Try to find where I went to. Oh, you lost me. Oh, you lost me. Strong. Nope. So close.

Control and Future Developments

Now a couple things to note about control of the Air 3S. Unlike the cheap $200 Neo, this one requires a controller at all times. So the Neo, you can use your phone or nothing at all and just simply follow you using buttons on it. Somehow the $1,100 drone doesn’t have that functionality. I don’t really understand why, but nonetheless, this does require a controller.

However, DJI does have something in the works. It was leaked out. This thing right there, that was supposed to be a beacon for the Air 3S. Unfortunately, it didn’t make the cut. Talking to some people in the know, that sounds like that’ll be like a next year thing, probably not till April or something like that. And that’s a bummer ’cause that would have been super cool, very similar to what Hover has now for the Pro and Max series, what Skydio had before them, AirDog before them, and so on down the list.

In case you’re wondering, by the way, where my Hover Max and Pro Review is, I’m still waiting on it. It’s currently in customs jail. If someone knows someone at DHL Netherlands or Customs jail Netherlands, that would be awesome. It’s been there for a few weeks now. So once I get it out, then I’ll have a review for you. It’s as simple as that. In any case, on to the next stage.

Testing Automatic Angle Feature

Okay, now we are in the fast section, but there’s some… like 200 meters ahead. But this is perfect for the 3x lens here and doing active track. So I’m going to go and highlight myself. We’ll do active track. We’re going to stay in this case off to the side. There we go, out there. Stay there. Okay, perfect.

And I’m going to zoom back a little bit more so that we’re back a little bit more. There we go. Put myself quite a bit ways out there. We’re going to keep it, um, a couple meters off the ground, give or take. That’s as far back as it’s going to let me go apparently, which is fine. And we’ll go ahead and get going here, and we’ll speed up a bit.

I don’t know what interference it’s talking about. That’s a field. Why are you going over there? No, I’m over… Thank you. That’s what I thought. I promise I’m trying to… trying to keep you alive, my friend. If you’re behind me, you’re going to die. I… no, no, no, no, no. There. Thank you. That’s what I’m talking about. I don’t know why you’re so high, but there’s nothing over there, so you do you.

Okay, let’s get moving here. Oh no. Nope, nope, nope, nope.

Windmill Land and YouTube Analytics

And one more thing from here in windmill land. If you find this video entertaining and useful, if you can just watch it all the way through, that’s honestly all that YouTube cares about. And I promise it is entertaining. It only gets better.

I promise we’ll get back to the high-speed section. I’ve got this giant open expanse right now, and I’m going to go ahead and pop back into the 1X because that just seems like a safer thing to do right now. We’re going to hit record, and I’m going to go into full auto mode.

So I’m going to get a little bit closer to me here. We go. Tap me. Active track. Okay, and now we’re going to choose full auto. There we go. Automatic movement enabled, and it’s got the whole world to try not to crash into anything for at least a little while. Don’t worry, we’re going to go back to some trees, but I’m going to let it do whatever it wants to do. And hopefully, my controller will stay on my bike. I didn’t really think about this when I went off the beginning here, but there’s a road way up there.

Here we go. Automatic mode back on again. Let’s see if it’ll stay on this time. Not really sure why it went off, but you do you, drone. For once, you’ve got the freedom to do whatever you want, and you’re staying right… Oh, that. Good job. Finally. Just a bit of teasing helps get it moving.

Okay, let’s see what it does. Let’s see if it does something. There goes my pedal. Okay, this is kind of… you know, it’s doing its thing. It’s obviously capturing some interesting shots, I guess. It’s kind of pretty, but I wish it would just do something else now. There we go. Hey, I guess it’s listening to me.

Okay, off to the side. I mean, if it was me right now… That was a little slippery. If it was me right now, I’d be off to the side getting those sunset shots like that right there. There we go. That’s… that’s what I’m talking about. That is a very pretty shot.

Please don’t slip in this. I’m having to go slow because the mount situation is properly wonky, and I don’t want it to bounce off and me run over it ’cause I’ve got enough stuff to probably replace after this day. We’re only halfway through the course right now.

High-Speed Test

Okay, now I got the wide-open road. Me and you, speed test time. Speedies. It’s going to be a bit of a headwind right now. Where’d he go? Okay, we’re at… I’m doing 35, just letting it do its thing. It’s keeping up, which is nice. Usually, it struggles. I’d go faster if I wasn’t into the wind, but it’s getting some pretty shots, usable shots.

I’m going to go now. Okay, that’s kind of cool. Here comes all these trees down here behind you. Oh, don’t hit that tree, please. Not that one. Now here we go. It’s got the freedom to do whatever it wants right here. There’s trees every 10 meters, including… yield to that one, but… Oh, that’s a close one. Good call.

Okay, around the tree. Good job. Avoid the trees. You got one job: avoid the trees. It’s trying to find a gap. Can do it. Trying to find it in between these two. Pull off at 360. It wants to. Come on, you can do it. But don’t just… don’t hit the tree. Tree’s getting bigger. Getting close to it. That was close.

Hey, you got like six trees left. Come on, you can do it. That tree behind you is pretty big. You’re about to hit it. Whoa, good job. You ducked down. Duck for cover. Okay, you… you could go up. Up would solve your problem. You can’t find a spot, can you?

Here, I left the car back behind me. Watch this because I’m still in Spotlight mode as I pedal around it. Or just scooter around it, it’s following me. Okay, I’ll stop teasing it.

Assessing the Damage

So in looking at things now, we’ve got a little bit of damage. We’re missing the tips of the props entirely on this one here, on that one there as well.

The Finale: Tree Club

But it’s time for the finale now. The rules of Tree Club are really simple: do not go up. If you go up, you die. It’s as simple as that. The challenge this thing is going to have is that LIDAR is only good for forward detection. That’s it. For upward detection, it’s going to use the obstacle avoidance cameras.

DJI says in all their marketing that it can avoid all the things at night, like full-on night. And obviously, this is not full-on night. This is still exactly an hour before sunset. So let’s get this in the air and find out what’s going to happen.

I’m not terribly sure this is going to work. In fact, I am 100% sure this is not going to work. But we are going to try it. We’re going to test. There’s no way. This is like… I’m going to be ducking, but you know what? Let’s see what happens.

I’m going to go super slow. I’m going to give it all the room in the world to see if it can do this. I will be blown away if it gets through this. Holy cow, it’s doing it! You don’t realize how dark it is in here. I’m not even sure where I’m going. It is super dark. Uh, let’s see, this way. Sure. What? That is impressive. Holy cow. Let’s go this way. I’m not sure it’s even a trail anymore, but we’re going to go this way. This… come on. This is impressive.

Oh, did it lose me? Nope, it’s got… Come on, it got me. It found me. Can it go through that? Under that? Oh, good job, DJI. You’re not super like obedient, but you know, you’re… you’re pulling it off. You’re like the… I don’t know, the teenager that won’t listen but still… Oh Lord, that is not going to end well at all. I don’t know how you get yourself out of that pickle. Oh no, that’s in the trees. That’s deep in the trees. That’s… that’s… that’s going down.

Oh no. I wish I… I don’t have a good way to… Where am I… You got yourself in one heck of a pickle over there, my friend. How are you going to get out of… How am I going to get you out of that? Okay, you’re deep inside that mess. Okay, yeah, I just would stay there if I was you too. See if I can get this out of here. We’re going to go… I don’t… How do you even get in there?

I think we can just fly… Oh no, no, no, no. Just don’t… Don’t do your own thing. No. Promise me you’re not going to do your own thing. I promise you I can get you out of this if you just let me. No, don’t go fast. Don’t go fast. Just go forward. Down. Okay, listen. Next time, you know…

Final Thoughts

I think at this point, I think it’s earned it. I think it… it gets a pass rating on The Gauntlet. Did it need help? Yes, but so did the Mini 3 Pro. It… it didn’t crash though. That’s a key thing. Either this or the Mini 3 Pro crashed, and I think if it had been a little bit lighter out and not basically almost sunset, then it probably would have gone a little more seamlessly on some of these things.

But overall, this is super impressive. That LIDAR sensor, it’s hard to tell exactly when it’s being leveraged compared to the vision-based sensors that it has, but there are clearly scenarios like in the trees there that all previous DJI drones would have crashed 100%, gone straight into some of that stuff, even bigger trees that have gone straight into.

So, kudos there. Land this thing and still have a functional drone. What do you think? You good with that? Oh, it just flicked. See? It’s good with that.

Thanks for watching. Have a good one.

Bonus Footage

We got like 50% battery left. Let’s go get some more pretty shots.

Okay, so I’ve got automatic moving on, just heading back now, and I’ve got it on Auto on the 3x lens this time. I’m just… just going to let it have fun. Just going to let it do its thing, dancing around with a sunset in the background. We’ll see if it’ll find some amazing shots or not.

It’s a great shot for like right there where it’s super far away out there. I’d say like 20 meters away. Lens is like… this is a cool shot. This is fun. That’s an amazing shot right now for completely autonomous, doing its own dance.

But now is when I would be swinging out to get the sunset that I’m riding into. I’m going to show you how I would have framed this shot, and keep in mind I’m doing this as a solo rider. So I’m in what’s called Spotlight mode. That keeps the camera centered on me where I control the drone’s movements.

I’m still controlling the drone’s movements right now, but then I’m going to stop it. Let go right there, and it’s just going to simply follow me. It’s going to keep me centered in frame the entire time. This is one of those modes that a lot of people don’t use, and honestly, you should really use it. It is so good for this where it just keeps you centered and you focus on getting the exact shot you want from a kind of drone position standpoint.

And you can see here it is still following me this far away. I’m not moving the camera. It’s doing all the camera work itself. I’m just riding my bike off into the sunset.

With that, have a good one.