Drone News: Skydio Gets Sanctioned, Michigan Lawsuit, DJI vs. DOD, and New Goggles Leak

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Welcome to your weekly UAS news update we have 4 stories for you; Skydio sanctioned by China, Michigan Coalition of Drone Operators vs University of Michigan lawsuit, More info on the DJI Lawsuit,DJI New Goggles Leaks. 

00:00 Introduction
00:18 Skydio Sanctioned
00:59 Michigan Lawsuit
01:46 DJI vs. DOD
02:44 New Goggles Leak

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First up, Skydio has announced that they've been sanctioned by China due to selling products to Taiwan.
According to CEO Adam Bry, Skydio aircraft batteries are produced in China and supply has been cut off immediately.
As a response, Skydio is limiting new drone shipments to only one battery per drone, with no current option to purchase more batteries.
Skydio expects to have a new supplier of batteries in the Spring of 2025, meaning those with an X10 on order are likely to only receive one battery with their aircraft until next year.
We'll keep you updated if we see more.

Next, the Michigan Coalition of Drone Operators is suing the University of Michigan.
We previously reported that the university is restricting drone flights over campus, which they don't have the jurisdiction to do.
According to the lawsuit, State law MCL 259.305 does not allow the university to create or enforce its own drone regulations, which they are also doing.
This isn't the first time the Michigan Coalition of Drone Operators has sued an organization for state-preempted laws, with the coalition winning a suit against Ottawa County in 2022.
The first hearing for this suit will be on December 17th at 1:00 PM in Lansing Michigan if you'd like to sit in.

Next up, Two more documents have been released for the DJI vs DOD lawsuit.
These two documents are declarations from Zheng Wei and Zang Tao, both stating that they are not the same person as patents filed under the Chinese National Defense Engineering Research Institute, which is similar to DARPA. 
In the lawsuit, DJI alleges that the DOD used the same names from these two individuals on patents as a reason that DJI is a Chinese Military Company. 
This doesn’t change anything we talked about last week, but potentially highlights sloppy research on the part of the DOD.
We’ll keep you updated if we see additional documents pertaining to this case! 

Last up are some new goggles leaks from DJI!
These goggles are rumored to be called the Goggles N3. 
Changes include a new design, a 54-degree field of view, a 1080p screen, and O4. 
Rumor has it these goggles were to launch this week, but that didn’t happen so revised rumors put the launch next week. 
We haven’t yet seen any announcements from DJI, but we’ll keep you updated if we do! 

And now, some Community news: we have results for the October Drone Photo Contest! Stefan Matusko is the winner with this great photo taken with the mini 3 pro.

That’s all for this week, we’ll see you later in the community for Happy Hour and on Monday for our Q&A!