The Autel Robotics EVO Max series drones stand out in the industrial drone market with their advanced technology and powerful functions. More and more users will pay attention to the "Follow Me" function, so does the EVO Max series (such as EVO Max 4T, 4N) have this function?
Let's first take a deeper look at the "Follow Me" function.
What is the Follow Me function?
The follow function is a popular feature in the drone field, allowing the drone to automatically track and follow a specific target (such as a person, vehicle or other moving object) while maintaining a stable shooting angle.
This function is available in most consumer drones, such as the Autel EVO Nano+, EVO Lite+ and EVO II series, and is widely used in outdoor sports recording, film shooting and personal creation.
However, the EVO Max series, as Autel Robotics' high-end flagship drone product line, does not support the follow mode.
Why does the EVO Max series not support the follow function?
The EVO Max series integrates many powerful configurations: multi-payload camera gimbal (Wide-angle camera, thermal imaging camera, starlight camera, zoom camera, laser rangefinder), omnidirectional obstacle avoidance, A-Mesh multi-machine network communication, intelligent mission planning function, triple anti-interference performance, hot-swappable batteries, addable RTK module for MAX Series, loudspeaker and speaker kit, thrower device, EVO NEST and other equipment, suitable for multi-industry applications.
Industrial application-oriented design
The EVO Max series is mainly designed for industrial and professional scenarios, such as power inspection, fire rescue and law enforcement tasks. These scenarios emphasize precise waypoint flight, mapping and multi-machine collaboration (such as A-Mesh network function) rather than the common follow-up function of consumer drones. The follow-up function serves more personal shooting needs and deviates from the target market positioning of EVO Max.
Resource allocation
Autel has invested a lot of resources in the development of the EVO Max series to enhance its core technologies, such as A-Mesh network, 720° obstacle avoidance, starlight-level night vision camera and anti-interference capability (SkyLink 3.0). The follow-me function tends to be more entertaining for consumer drones. Under the design concept of system stability, safety and mission reliability, Autel enterprise drones focus more on professional performance.
AI Recognition
Although the EVO Max series is equipped with advanced dual fisheye vision and millimeter wave radar sensors, which can achieve accurate target recognition and obstacle avoidance, the follow function requires more specialized software algorithms to handle dynamic tracking of targets in real time.
The EVO MAX firmware V1.9 series already supports AI recognition functions, which can identify people, vehicles, ships, fires and smoke, but these functions are more inclined to static or semi-dynamic scenes rather than real-time dynamic following. The current EVO MAX series drones can support gimbal locking targets, and the driver needs to manually perform follow-up flight actions.
Conclusion
In general, the Autel EVO Max series does not currently support traditional follow functions, which may be related to its industrial application positioning, technical priorities and market demand. Similarly, EVO Lite Enterprise also does not support active follow mode.
For current users, a combination of AI recognition and waypoint missions can partially make up for the lack of this feature, but overall, the Max drone is not designed for "self-following" or "motion following".
