1.0 out of 5 stars Awful first experience

C.H. · June 30, 2025

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1.0 out of 5 stars Cool possibilities but skip it till Autel fixes its problems

s.k. · July 2, 2025

I was genuinely excited about this drone—it’s easily the most affordable thermal drone on the market right now. With DJI drones being nearly impossible to buy in the U.S. due to current CBP regulations, and the few that are available costing almost double for a comparable fly-more combo, this seemed like a smart choice.It arrived the day after I ordered it—props to Bolo for the quick delivery. But when I unboxed it, I immediately started second-guessing my purchase. I had assumed I was getting the higher-tier package, especially since I paid the higher-tier price. What I received was the hard case, three batteries, the smaller controller, and just a single-battery charging hub. I ended up having to buy the three-battery hub separately. That wasn’t what I expected, and it was disappointing—though not yet a dealbreaker.After charging a battery, I took the drone outside for its first flight. Calibration went fine. I got it in the air, tested the thermal, played around with the dual-screen view, and browsed some of the automated flight missions—it all looked promising. I landed it and went inside to start digging into the thermal data. My primary reason for purchasing this drone was to do radiometric solar inspections, so this part really mattered.That’s when things took a turn. I started looking for information—tutorials, guides, anything—on how to use the radiometric data. YouTube was filled with unboxings and dealer-sponsored “feature highlight” videos, but nothing useful. No walkthroughs on converting to JPEG-R, no guidance on using radiometric data for ortho mosaics. The Autel site didn’t have anything either.I figured I’d call support the next day, but in the meantime, I initiated a return on Bolo. One of the first questions was whether the drone had been flown. I answered honestly—yes. That alone disqualified it from being returnable through Bolo. Total nonsense, especially when you’re trying to test the very function you purchased it for.When I finally got someone at Autel, I explained that I couldn’t figure out how to extract radiometric data. The support rep said he’d escalate it to the engineers. While waiting, I kept researching and found that I had to flip a software switch to even see radiometric data on the drone. Why this isn’t made clear anywhere is beyond me.I took the drone out again. This time, as soon as it took off, it started flying forward—straight toward me. The controls weren’t responding. I had to dive out of the way, and it crashed into a wall. Thankfully, the only damage was to the propellers. I replaced them and got it back in the air. Once I flipped the radiometric switch, I was able to tap the screen and get temperature readings. Very cool. But then I checked the image format—just plain JPEGs. Not JPEG-R.That’s when I really started to worry. I checked the product page on Bolo and Autel’s own specs—both claim the radiometric data is embedded and accessible via their SDK. I went searching for Autel’s software to extract it. Eventually, I found a video showing what I thought was the tool I needed, but it turned out to be a Python script. No UI. No simple solution.I contacted tech support again. They pointed me to a beta version of their IRPC tool, which supposedly works with the EVO II Dual V3. I downloaded it and tried loading the images—nothing. Even after moving the files from the SD card to my hard drive, still nothing.At that point, I was just fed up. I left a review calling out Autel’s misleading advertising—because without access to the embedded thermal data, these images are useless for professional work.I even tried ChatGPT to see if it could help write a parser. When I uploaded a sample image, it confirmed what I was afraid of: there was no radiometric metadata—just a colorized thermal JPEG. No usable thermal data at all.So I called Autel again. Let me just say—tech support was a nightmare. Sometimes I couldn’t get anyone on the phone for weeks. I later found out they have only two tech reps for the entire U.S., both in California.Eventually, I got through and was told to email a sample image. I did, and they replied that everything worked fine on their end—as if to suggest the issue was on me. It was incredibly frustrating to feel like they didn’t believe me.While all this was happening, a firmware update came out. I thought maybe it would resolve the problem, so I gave it a shot. The update froze at 98% for over an hour. The controller died mid-update, leaving it out of sync with the aircraft. They were now completely unpaired.Another call to tech support. They recommended a manual update—it failed too. At this point, I was told to send it in for service. So I paid $146 to ship and insure it, because again, this is a $4,000 drone.It came back working. I flew it again, captured new thermals, and—same result. Still no radiometric data, and IRPC still couldn’t read the images.So now I’m stuck with a $4,000 drone that can’t perform the core function I bought it for. I can’t return it, and I’ve spent hours troubleshooting, emailing, calling, and testing with no resolution.At this point, I’m not just frustrated—I’m disappointed. I expected better from Autel.