GoPro Drones Falling Out Of The Sky, Recalled By Company [Video]

GoPro drones are falling out of the sky. Literally.

For that reason, the company that made adventure video a thing is now recalling their GoPro drone units before any more can fall and potentially injure a pedestrian.

The video above shows a GoPro Karma drone falling from the sky, though we have been unable to verify the authenticity of the video, it appears to be real and shows the problem other GoPro Karma users have had with their units seeming to lose power and falling to earth.

The situation has gotten so bad for GoPro that The Inertia is reporting each and every GoPro Karma has been recalled. The site is calling it GoPro’s “Samsung Galaxy Note 7 moment.”

“A power loss issue during flight could very well be a case of a manufacturing slip up, and we know these kind of things have also happened to drone giants like Parrot and DJI.

“Is this what happens when the production and delivery of a product gets rushed? Was this a case of sabotage from DJI’s team of lobbyists who are jealous of the Hero 5’s superior image quality?”

Tech Times reports that the problems of power loss on the GoPro Karma devices are nothing new to the engineers who developed the device. It was something that surfaced during testing.

“According to the sources, early testing of the Karma showed that the design resulted in greater vibration, which sometimes resulted in the detachable battery being shaken loose and cutting off power to the drone,” Tech Times reported.

It goes onto say, “It is unclear if this is the same issue that is plaguing the Karma currently, but whatever the case may be, Karma owners need to send back their drones as soon as they could.”

TechnoBuffalo notes that GoPro needed a win here with the drone because it was failing to achieve sales growth on its adventure cameras. As a result, the company we have all grown to associate with insane helmet shots of the most amazing tricks on a motorcycle or snow skis could be facing a tough financial situation as it fights for survival in an increasingly tough marketplace.

“As I discussed earlier this week, though, this is a much bigger problem for GoPro than a simple recall. The company is trying to expand into new markets to offset rapidly declining sales of its action cameras.

“Its first foray is already a failure, which isn’t good news for a firm that’s trying to establish itself as something more than just a camera retailer.”

While other companies have faced this same issue, GoPro is not any other company. It is one which has had a singular focus for a long time: cameras. The company has struggled to expand beyond cameras and into other revenue streams. A recall is never cheap, but for a company with rapidly declining sales, a recall could cause the company to post negative sales for multiple quarters and could stunt growth in other areas necessary to grow the brand into something more than a fad and instead into a powerhouse company with staying power.

The Inertia notes the GoPro history in its post about the GoPro Karma recall.

“People worldwide know what a GoPro camera is and what it’s capable of doing. Indeed, it’s the world’s most versatile camera, and it has captivated millions of people all around the globe with its mesmerizing footage.”

But all the millions of people captivated by its footage will not be able to save the company if this drone recall proves to deeply ding the company’s bottom line.

[Featured Image by dronepicr | Wikimedia Commons | Cropped and resized | CC BY 2.0]