We suppose one of the fun aspects of owning a drone is that you get to pilot it around. However what if you wanted to do something else while the drone is filming? An autopilot mode in this case would be ideal, but oddly enough despite it being a feature of DJI’s cheaper Phantom 3 Standard, it was missing from the Advanced and Professional models, at least until now.
The drone maker has recently announced that come 7th of September, they will be releasing a firmware update for the Advanced and Professional Phantom 3 drones that will give it autopilot mode. There will be three different modes to choose from: waypoint navigation, point of interest, and Follow Me.
The names are pretty obvious but just in case, waypoint navigation will see the drone fly along waypoints set by the user. Point of interest will have the drone fly around a particular area or object with its camera pointed at it, and last but not least, Follow Me basically will see the Phantom 3 follow the pilot as he/she walks around.
This is possible as the drone’s transmitter and your mobile device where the app is housed will allow the drone to track your movements. For Advanced owners, the firmware upgrade will also add 2.7K video recording at 30fps, so if you’re a proud Phantom 3 owner, this firmware update is worth keeping an eye out for.