Episode 225: Elevating Safety: Setting First Responders up for Success with Drones with Jon McBride

Published 2024-06-06

Episode notes

Here's some insight into the controversy around Chinese-made drones:

Hello Smart Firefighting Community!

Welcome to another episode of covering real world innovations via interviews with fire service and technology industry experts that empower YOU to develop your very own Smart Firefighting strategy!

Welcome back to this 20-episode Texas Robotics Summit Mini Series! This 4 day event (March 4-7, 2024) was hosted at the Reveille Peak Ranch and by our friends at Granite Defense , and showcased the use of robotics (air/water/ground) in public safety via keynote presentations, training scenario stations, roundtable conversations, and more.

In this episode:

Standardization and integrity in the drone industry

Addressing controversies and setting training standards

The roadmap for excellence in drone operations

Find out from Jon McBride - owner of UAS TechTalks and drone guru.

Jon talks about the importance of standardization, certification, and training in the drone industry. He highlights the need for consistent training standards and levels of proficiency to ensure safe and effective drone operations.

Jon also addresses the controversy surrounding Chinese-made drones and emphasizes the importance of integrity and excellence in the industry. He shares his roadmap for the future, including his work with Autel and the Droning Company.

So click play now to hear what he has to share! And stay tuned for the next Mini Series episode!

Head to www.smartfirefighting.com to discover how SFF accelerates innovation for emergency responders, to find out when our next event is, or review our curated resources!

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Chapters

0:00 Kevin's intro: the Texas Robotics Summit mini-series
0:45 Jon McBride joins
1:11 What the Texas Robotics Summit is and why it matters
3:36 Standards, training and certification for drone operations
6:17 The certification gap and who should fill it
9:12 Keeping certifications current as technology changes
11:24 Drones as tools, not toys: public safety aviation
14:03 Be quick, but don't be in a hurry
15:42 Jon's work with the Droning Company
19:41 The Chinese-made drone controversy
24:44 The impact of drone bans on first responders
26:44 Jon's roadmap for 2024 and his work with Autel
28:52 Waste, politics and the drone industry
30:35 Kudos for the event and for Jon's role
32:01 Parting thought: strive for excellence, honor and integrity
33:21 Closing thanks and outro

Questions answered in this episode

What is the Texas Robotics Summit and why is it unique?

Jon McBride describes it as a proving ground where attendees get hands-on time with drones and robotics, unlike typical trade shows. He says it's rare to have an event where you can actually fly equipment and see how it behaves in the field rather than just networking and talking.

Hear it at 1:25

What gap does Jon McBride see in drone pilot training?

He says the FAA Part 107 license only requires passing a test, with nothing to prove actual proficiency or understanding of equipment. Jon McBride created the Autel Robotics Training Center as a pass-fail certification where people can be denied if they don't meet standards, but he notes there is no national or international standard for drone operation certification beyond the 107.

Hear it at 4:19

What would happen to public safety drone operations if DJI were banned tomorrow?

Jon McBride says public safety users focused on their mission would lose their equipment overnight and there is no one who can truly step up to replace it. He gives the example of border operations using Autel Dragonfish that switched from helicopters because of cost, and a ban would force them back to expensive traditional methods.

Hear it at 22:36

What does Jon McBride believe is driving drone bans targeting Chinese manufacturers?

He believes it is about money and investors, not security. Jon McBride says investors who put money into companies losing market share to DJI want returns and push to eliminate the competition, with no concern for the impact on everyday public safety users.

Hear it at 23:47

What is the Droning Company and what is Jon McBride's role?

The Droning Company is a pilot placement website where drone operators list their skills and equipment for ten dollars a month so clients can search and hire them directly, with no commission. Jon McBride joined as a way to highlight industry issues and best practices on a larger stage, including writing articles on topics like the DJI ban.

Hear it at 16:16

Transcript

Machine transcript of the published audio. Names may be misspelled and some sections are missing.

Ep 225 transcript

Elevating Safety: Setting First Responders up for Success with Drones with Jon McBride

Speakers: Kevin Sofen, Jon McBride

Source: Whisper medium.en machine transcription of the published Podbean audio (no original transcript found in Drive), lightly cleaned. Speakers were separated by voice clustering and then checked and assigned by hand at every speaker change. Gaps where the model returned no usable text are marked [inaudible m:ss].

[0:00] Kevin Sofen: Welcome to a 20-episode mini-series at the Texas Robotics Summit hosted by our friends at Granite Defense. We dive into the evolving world of drones and robotics in public safety aviation. Through 20 fantastic conversations with leaders across public safety, from the fire service, law enforcement, EMS operations, wildlife management, and more, we explore the challenges, and the critical role of technology in enhancing emergency services operations. A special thanks to the sponsor of the Smart Firefighting Podcast, W.S. Darley & Company, for making this podcast possible. Enjoy the show. Here, day three in the afternoon, officially podcast number 18, with the one and only, the man, the myth, the legend, call him what you want, Jon McBride. What's going on, man?

[0:56] Jon McBride: Well, thanks for having me, of course. It's great to be here in Texas. The weather's actually been pretty nice. This will be the third time I've come to this event and really great to see all the people here, you know, and the return vendors, as well as all the attendees. So this is a really great event.

[1:11] Kevin Sofen: Yeah, the Texas Robotics Summit and the Ranch Rat, you know, I've mispronounced the ranch. It's the Revel Ranch. Revel Ranch, you know, here, paint a picture for those who aren't here of like, what is this event? Why is this event important? What's the ranch like, from your words?

[1:25] Jon McBride: Well, we'll just say that Granite Defense, which is a reseller, is the sponsor for this whole event. So his relationship to try and get people to use the drone's public safety capacity and get out to a location that offers the ability to fly stuff. I've been to hundreds of events, hundreds of shows, and there's something to that when you can actually play with your toy, so to speak, to show what it can do, to learn a little bit more about it. All of our other traditional calm UAVs or others, they don't really get to have hands-on time, AUVSI. These are definitely big shows that are meant to just draw in the crowds of people and network and talk. But when you get a hands-on, this is how it behaves in the field, this is what it's supposed to do, anticipate what it does, that's a really great benefit for most shows.

[2:17] Kevin Sofen: Yeah. And I mean, what you just said sometimes, it's a little different than whatever it may say on the marketing slick flyer to what actually unfolds in the field.

[2:25] Jon McBride: That's right. Yeah. So this is the proving ground. I mean, that's the best way to say it. You know, you bring your stuff out, you see other people bring their stuff out, maybe new technology being introduced, and it is great. But prior to me coming, that was all Autel. While I was working with Autel, I wasn't privy enough to come to this because I was a dealer myself, Arm US, a competitor of Granite Defense. So this is his show and it's great. You know, that's a really good way to do it.

[2:50] Kevin Sofen: There he is driving by. There he is. We're talking about you.

[2:54] Jon McBride: We are.

[2:56] Kevin Sofen: Yeah, Tom, the hard working guy on the ranch this week. I appreciate everything that Tom, Hayden, Preston, and the Granite Defense team have done to pull together this really unique energy here. I almost felt like this feels kind of like a little bit like Christmas morning, a little bit like Disneyland, like all these different events. And I know a lot of work goes into it. And for me, it's just been, it's my first time here. It's really been a special energy and camaraderie, sisterhood, brotherhood, amongst everyone here at the show.

[3:23] Jon McBride: So it definitely offers that. So if you've never been to the Texas Robotics Summit, you know, next year, make sure you try to get there. I mean, it brings a great value, kind of seeing how things get to work. And again, that proving ground of equipment.

[3:36] Kevin Sofen: So to hit on that proving ground conversation, and I've had members from FAA, NIST, FDNY, Boston, Austin Fire on the podcast this week. And it's been a masterclass for me and it's really been rewarding. But one of the big things that has come up time and time again is the technology itself, is it actually doing what it's saying it's doing, but more importantly, how does this kind of the technology development line into the standards and training of, not only in terms of, I guess both, it's how the end users are trained to operate it, and then also how manufacturers are creating technology to make sure it's actually accomplishing the mission it says it's supposed to be doing. So that's sort of a long-winded statement, but I'd love to hear the Jon McBride.

[4:19] Jon McBride: Well, you touched on a couple of things, you know, standardization and training and certification. So where do you get this information from, you know, who provides this, who is going to make it? Well, back again, when I was at RMUS, I was in charge of creating training on equipment and that equipment didn't always have the manufacturer, the OEMs training available. They, I just had to kind of learn what it does and then in my best capacity of understanding, show people how, what I learned. And even though you could say that was training, sure, but not a certification, two different things. So I can show people how things worked, press this button, how the function is supposed to go. But to kind of bring it into a certification capacity, this is what I did with Autel. So I created the ARTC, the Autel Robotics Training Center. That is, at least on the Dragonfish, a pass fail certification. You can fail and not be privy enough to fly my bird. But without the manufacturer's endorsement of that, to set their own standard of what I created, where do you get those standards from? You know, who do you talk to say, well, if somebody wants to be a doctor, a lawyer, there's a certain criteria that a school has to make sure that a person does in order to meet those requirements. And that is not available currently that I see at any national or even international level. The best we get is like, do they have their 107? I'll have you operate on it.

[5:47] Kevin Sofen: Yeah, they took a test where they remembered a bunch of questions and answers.

[5:49] Jon McBride: That's right. But to then show up and actually show proficiency, efficiency, and understanding comprehension of the aircraft, we kind of dumb it down a little bit with DJI. It's made it very simple and easy to understand, but there are things here at this show that will require a little bit more in-depth understanding and operation. And you don't wanna have a public safety officers making mistakes out there, not sure what they're supposed to do, that tends to be a problem.

[6:17] Kevin Sofen: And David Danielson, who was on here before, spoke a lot of similar phrases and words that you just brought up there. But you mentioned earlier that training in a lot of ways is showing, certification is this idea of proficiency. And there's sort of this gap right now. It does seem like NIST is working to kind of fill a void. But then there's also other three and four other agencies from a government, federal, or state level. Where do you see this is kind of like right now as far as that need for the certification standards and training, and what do you hope to see in the next six, 12, 24 months, and who's gonna do it?

[6:51] Jon McBride: Well, as mentioned, at a federal level, in order to do commercial operations, you need a 107. That is the ticket, the barrier to entry. That's it. You don't need anything else to do a commercial operation, take money, except to have that certificate. Once you pass that, nothing else left to really prove that you even know what you're doing. mapping, trying to find a guy in the woods. I don't even know how to run a thermal camera. Nothing shows any level of proficiency. I suggest that the manufacturers of this equipment create those levels. Like I said, I did that with Autel and I had the power to go ahead and dismiss people if they were not hitting the standard that I wanted when I went and did the training. It has to start kind of there. Manufacturers, software developers, these people that create the curriculum to follow, but then you can also have a more national standard says that, hey, in order to do these levels of things, like we can, it's fine for you to be like a level one person and go over there and take a picture. And that's all we're gonna let you do. Level two means I can take a picture and process a picture. Number three means I can fly a little bit more in more intense areas or nighttime operation. You know, there just gotta be some levels there or ways to manage that. And again, everyone has to be teaching that methodology and those standards. They have to do it the same. So any training, whether we're doing RTC, they should have a playbook that says this is what we need to do. Because 107 is like that's what it is. They have a playbook, you go learn a bunch of things, you take a test, you pass the test, you get your certificate. It should be the same, whether that's coming from curriculum based off the manufacturer or if it's some kind of a standard as coming through more national. You have to know how to do these things as base levels. But I don't know if we're ever gonna get to everybody following the same thing. We're still a little ways from that. We got a lot of people just kind of, yeah, we do it the best. Yeah. Do you? Like you're teaching mapping and that's a great baseline theory, but does the person know how to do mapping with an M300 versus a 350? Two different aircraft, similar, but slightly different. And should you give somebody a certificate that knows how to operate a 350 versus a 300?

[9:12] Kevin Sofen: That brings up the, I guess, kind of the challenge with this whole, with Moore's law, everything kind of getting better, faster, cheaper. And then I think about the VR headsets, whether it was drones, like stuff just gets, technology, even from the manufacturing side, the size of the chips, the speed of the chips, the software, the hardware-embedded software, all these little things, they're all changing. And so that dynamic of the certifications, like how it almost seems impossible to 100% catch up for each aircraft and maybe there's some level of consistency of just like best practices across aircrafts. But that does seem like a very hard balance. So how do we, what are your thoughts on how we continue to balance that from both what manufacturers need to think about and what kind of all that the training needs to think about and ultimately the overarching FAA and like federal policy dynamic?

[9:55] Jon McBride: It's hard. That's the best way to say it. We have a lot. to think about and overcome here. I mean, there's no doubt about it. Everything you just said are all of the absolute non-existing things that we have. And they're all challenges at every level. And so where do you begin to say, you have to be able to do this with this piece of equipment. You have to be able to understand how to manage flights in this kind of congested airspace. You have to know how to, like, where does it, where is it? And who is going to be the person responsible? Whether it's federal to just set the standards and we have RTC or LITA teach those standards or best practices as baseline, and then we have more in-depth equipment training that the manufacturer can endorse that says, good to go. Like I said, if I have somebody that denies training on the Dragonfish and these are individual tracked operator certificates, if they deny that, I deny all the warranty claims for that aircraft, even if they have care. That's Autel saying, we take it seriously, that you need to go through the already created curriculum and the training that needs to be done. And when you do that, we're okay giving you warranty claims if something happens. But if you don't and deny that, then you know, your own liability, you know, it's like renting a car.

[11:18] Kevin Sofen: Yeah, I signed it away, I signed all the liability.

[11:21] Jon McBride: Yeah, you sign it all or you don't, you have a choice.

[11:24] Kevin Sofen: As I've been involved with commercializing different technology from virtual reality and drones and wearables and software. A lot of times people have been like, oh, look at these cool toys. In a sense, it's like, yeah, you can think it's a toy, but really it's a tool with life-saving capabilities, and to your point right there of like, this flying piece of plastic in a lot of ways is a tool, and you have a duty and a responsibility when you are, especially in the public safety umbrella, to operate it accordingly. And one term that has come up a few times, Coit mentioned it, David mentioned it, I'm pulling it up, I don't wanna butcher it, but the concept of public safety aviation and taking everything that we're talking about here and looking and including the realm of what we're doing with unmanned and man, I guess, uncrewed vehicles that kind of having in the same concept as airplanes and that same level of standards and protocols and processes which is striving for 100% of the bird fly that takes off and lands every time safely.

[12:22] Jon McBride: Well, we have to also understand, Even though we try to do our best to standardize the training so that we can, you know, for the sake of safety, you know, that's why we're doing it. You know, I mean, you try to train people so they can be safe operating the aircraft. There is some measure of cost, you know, if you crash this thing, it's $100,000, it's $50,000. There's a monetary value to somebody screwing it up. You know, it may not even hurt anybody, but dang, that sucks that you put down your $100,000 dragonfish, you know, smacked it into a telephone pole because you weren't aware, you weren't paying attention, whatever it might be. But that's the other part of where I think we're struggling here is that anytime something happens bad, we glorify that like crazy. We don't talk about manned aircraft that kill 200 people every year in their private planes. We don't ever talk about that. It might show up in the news for two seconds, but people still bring up this Gatwick thing of a drone flying at the Gatwick. That's like years ago. You know, man, what do you do about that? So my point is we almost have to become negligible to things like that. Because if we always focus on the drone that got in the way of the helicopter or the drone that might bring down a passenger plane or the drone that scratched somebody in the face, stuff like that's gonna happen. And as we continue bringing more to the table, more of those incidents are gonna happen. I'll guarantee it, guarantee it's just part of the progression. but we have to get away from every time it happens, thinking, oh, we're gonna just shut down the whole thing. We're gonna try to do something to stop that progression, because we have to make it negative. We have to do that, we have to overcome that.

[14:03] Kevin Sofen: There's that level of urgency that we need to, we can accept that some of these things are gonna happen, but how can we continue to, the John Wooden quote of be quick, but don't be in a hurry mindset's coming up of like, that is also a reason of like, wow, the importance of all the standardization across all this because if we're not approaching it the right way at the start, you know, you're setting yourself up for failure.

[14:23] Jon McBride: And then we do have to kind of peel away from the manned aircraft. And I don't say that the standards and the policies that we want to do there, no. Like we need to keep that safety measure up there like they operate. However, there are some things that don't cross over at all that like 107 questions on what the numbers are on a runway. That doesn't cross over to anything, but if I was to be like, hey, when you're ready to take off, if you do have a complete GPS connections, are you capable of ensuring that you are operating in a place that's not going to have RF energy issues? Do you know of where those might be? That's a lot more relative than what a rudder does for a plane. What does a rudder do on a plane? And nobody knows. Nobody cares to know that on a drone test. They don't have rudders, you know, not on a drone, but you know what I mean? So there needs to be something that kind of bridges that gap between manned aircraft stuff and what FAA is doing to also just being like, look, we're kind of on our own thing and we have to create a way to, again, be negligible with things that are gonna happen because they will, and then as well, kind of make sure that people are doing what they're supposed to do, stay as safe as they possibly can when they operate.

[15:42] Kevin Sofen: Yeah, well said. And Jon, I think I've been actually chasing you down for a podcast for a few years now. So this is, it's been a couple of years in the making. I'm really glad to be here. And we both in different or different capacities wear a few different hats with the industry love having our hands in a few different things. But I think one that I've seen recently just by having a LinkedIn account is some of the some of the stuff with the droning company. Oh boy. I actually don't know much about it. So I'm kind of coming at this as a sort of an empty clean slate. I'd love to know, you know, what is it? What's, you know, how did, what's your role with it recently? And I love to kind of just, you know, dive into that a little bit.

[16:16] Jon McBride: Sure. So one of the, who knows what Jon McBride is doing is kind of a thing, you know, it's just kind of where in the world is Jon McBride. So I had a thought of a process and I, an idea after I left Autel to kind of highlight again, where we are with the drone industry, those players that are doing a good job trying to do what they can do, manufacturers that might not be doing a good job doing what they're doing and putting out the wrong messaging and, you know, making it complicated to get worked on. I just wanted to get like a consortium of people, highlight those people, kind of do it in a multimedia fashion, maybe a podcast of my own, maybe, you know, that was kind of the general idea. Well, the big idea was that we wanted to, in my brain, I wanted to try to facilitate the possibility of doing this on a larger level. We have people like yourself, we have, you know, a hundred other people that do this kind of stuff, but for all kind of giving the same message, talking the same thing on a much larger stage, I was hoping to kind of create that with my brand, with Jon McBride being who I am. Well, I noticed it was gonna be a pain in the butt to try to do that by myself. Well, then I get a call from the droning company, the CEO, Stuart Smith. Stuart Smith comes from a background of being a guitarist. He's been playing bands. He had a huge interest in the drones, created basically a job board, pilot placement website. So you go onto the website, you create an account, you put in all your KSAs, your knowledge, skills, and abilities, your equipment, your location, and people on the outside could do a query and search for you to try and hire you to be a drone pilot or something like that. A non-commission-based idea, so it wasn't like Drone Up or Drone.io that did find clients and try to get things in nav, it was super complicated. We're just there, put it in there. Somebody looked for you for a measly 10 bucks a month, you know, for 10 bucks a month. And so if you're a drone service provider, hit the qualifications for somebody that needs to work, they hire you independently, figure out what you want to charge them, what they are expected to pay. We have nothing to do with that. They just found you in our system. And that's pretty simple basically. Other part of that is just a little bit more marketing. So we do a little advertising for some manufacturers, for some resellers, you know, in some cases. And the third thing was just putting out articles that's kind of what's going on in the industry, you know, just for the viewers, the newsletter. But I as well had no idea what the droning company was when they called me. So I have a lot of work to create a little bit more to try and put a little bit more broader foundation of what the droning company means. But that was one of the things, is pointing out kind of the problems. DJI being banned is one of them. So I did a series of articles with input from Vic Moss, myself, Greg Rivedoe from Pilot Institute, and just everybody's kind of perspective from what this is gonna imply, and from their, whatever disciplines that they do, to try and give some two cents to that. And that has created a lot of buzz in just this last week, with these articles coming out every so often from that perspective, and what could happen, what might happen, who knows what could happen, kind of thing. But it's just, it's a stage. I'm on stage right now at the droning company instead of Autel or Armulas. It's just a different stage.

[19:41] Kevin Sofen: Yeah, different chapters of evolution. And I appreciate you bringing it up because obviously it's the whole DJI, Chinese-made drones has been something that has been talked about a lot in the headlines for good or for bad or whatever you stand on it. But it's something that all I know is I stand out here and I talk to firefighters, law enforcement, EMTs, and they're all some of the best people in the world that are just focused on the mission. They're focused on operational context. They're focused on making sure they can do their job as best as possible. And all these different drone companies, they all do something really well. They do some stuff not as great, but all I know is that I hear a lot of people speak very highly of some of these products that are talked about, you know, hard line, you know, can't even touch, don't even look at type bands. And to me, I'm just like, man, Like, well, I would love to know your thoughts and the analogy of like, you know, this may be also slipper soap. Like my iPhone, love this thing, use it all the time. Pretty sure it was designed in California and made in China. And I'm pretty sure most people in a lot of these jury courtrooms have iPhones in their pockets. And so is that a fair analogy to think about? And granted, I'm maybe opening up Pandora's box here, but I just, what are your thoughts?

[20:51] Jon McBride: No, it's a very common analogy people use when they're being told they can't use their DJI. They're like, well, what about the cell phones? what about my laptop, what about my, what about my, what they're trying to do is defend the idea that something made in China shouldn't have any relevance if it's not relevant to these other products that are made in China. And so I had responded to a post on LinkedIn that basically, that said that, if you cannot ban all technologies made in China, then why just pick on the drones? Oh, well, that's because they're owned by the CCP. They have to give things. Well, what about this company that works for, that bases everything out of, they don't have to do that? Oh no, they're an American company. iPhone is made by Foxconn shouldn't have to give, but they're in China. So what is the difference between all of these different technologies that make it, well, we can pick on this one, but not that one. And oh, these are a little bit different than this one, but not that one. I was like, it's so inconsistent that I'm like, then it must not be a big deal at all. If it's not big with these other things, then why are we treating it that way? And it gets very frustrating to me when you see that even if we did this FCC shutdown, all of a sudden, tomorrow, no more DJI drones. Can't operate anywhere in the US. Now what? Now those guys that were focused on mission, saving and doing things, can't use their stuff. Just shut down, turned off, can't use it. Now who's gonna step up to help them? Who really can step up to help them, you know? And that's a problem because we don't have anyone.

[22:33] Kevin Sofen: There is no one. What does that potential reality look like?

[22:36] Jon McBride: That if you cut the legs off of these people, it would, there is more equipment out there that are made by, you know, a multiple, like there isn't one company that makes everything, not even DJI. I mean, I have a dragonfish made by Autel and that thing does something way different than an M300, you know, or different than the M30. And the way it manages, and I've got 44 of those flying in the United States. Six of them are down on the border, piloted almost every day. So what are they supposed to use if they can't use that? Oh, we gotta go back to the traditional methods. Well, what's that? A helicopter in the air, oh, there you go. Now, why did we come to a dragonfish? Why did we make that choice? Because it was too expensive to run a helicopter. But that's now what we have to do. Nobody's solving that problem. They're all worried about the thing. And I hate bringing this up, but it's a money game, 110%. People wanna put that as security. China's really bad, Russia's really bad. All the things seem really bad because they're losing the battle of the investors with the money. And nobody wants to have reality. Nobody wants to hear that, but I'm okay to say it because I'm Jon McBride.

[23:44] Kevin Sofen: Calling the spade a spade. Yes. I appreciate it.

[23:47] Jon McBride: Yeah, I mean, I've been investing into this company for two years. I put a million dollars there. Why am I not making any money? Well, there's these guys DJI that, you know, they just kicking our butts on everything and make better than we do. And everybody wants to buy that stuff. Well, how do we get rid of them? Because I want my money back. I gave you a million dollars, where's my money? And the people that do this investing into these companies right now, and I don't, again, don't want to blow company names of manufacturers, we know who they are, but do you think their investors give two shits about the guy doing the mission, saving a person? They could care less. And that's the problem. We don't care that iPhone is doing whatever they're doing. If I've got money in iPhone or I have money in Amazon, why would I care what they're doing? That's the way this market works. And if I've got money sitting somewhere, I need money back. Their decisions have nothing to do with what impacts they're gonna be doing to the everyday guy using this stuff.

[24:44] Kevin Sofen: And I think one of the things that really, to me, where it's the negative impact and just the unfortunate impact is this, the people on the ground here that are, It's very vibrant and supportive in an electric community. But you can kind of see there's this, there's just like this annoyance and frustration of all these different first responders focused on the job at hand, focused on doing what they need to do to protect lives and property and make sure that first responders can go out, do their job, and come home safely. And now there's this sort of, I guess you could call it a handcuff or just a big weight that's sort of like, go do your job and I'm gonna pull you back while you're doing this.

[25:21] Jon McBride: just cut your legs off, but I still need you to run the marathon tomorrow.

[25:24] Kevin Sofen: I feel like my way as first responders, they're asked to do everything and oftentimes given nothing. Maybe that's a bit extreme analogy, but it's sort of like, they're asked to do a lot.

[25:33] Jon McBride: No, in fact, being a dealer, I deal with a lot of how the purchase cycles go, reselling to these people. They have $3,000 allocated to them. What can you get for $3,000? Well, not a whole lot if you're trying to start a drone program, maybe buy a couple minis or an Evo, just something baseline just to get a program started. That's all they got. Well, if they're allowed to go get federal money, but there's restrictions on the federal money that says you can't buy this stuff, well, of course the companies that have that ability to sell with the federal money or purchase via federal money look like they're doing good, but it's a fallacy. Now, since they had to beg, borrow, and steal to get their $3,000 from their city, but they just have to put in a grant and get $30,000 from the federal government, that does change a lot on how the dynamic of purchase goes. So you're gonna, we know we need a drone, somebody's gonna give me 30K, I have to buy the drone for $29,000, you know, that's great. That works out. But if you don't have that option, what do you do?

[26:44] Kevin Sofen: What do you do? Man, it's March 2024, and this probably won't be aired for two or three months or so, maybe kind of like in the May timeframe when it officially comes out. But I think a lot can happen between now and then. A lot is happening just from week to week, day to day. But kind of interested in kind of the two thing of like what's on your roadmap for the rest of 2024, you know, events or initiatives or projects. And yeah, I mean, what are some big things in the rest of the year that people should be tracking?

[27:12] Jon McBride: Well, I still am working with Autel. I am a contractor employee, if you wanna call it that for them. So I'm still working on their training. I'm still, you know, the alpha was just released. So I've got to be able to create some training that will exist on the ARTC. Again, so if you are interested in buying an Autel and you'll see my pretty face again on some of the training and initiatives we're doing there. I think, again, trying to get to the trade shows and collaborate a little bit more with those that have the same vision I do of standardization and training, certification, get everybody on the same page. We've got a lot of work to do there. And I'm hoping that we see some change in the way we're just beating up China right now. You know, we gotta figure that out. You know, we've really gotta figure that out. And I'm really, I feel sad.

[28:02] Kevin Sofen: I feel sad too. I mean, I lived in China for three months. I can speak a little bit Chinese.

[28:07] Jon McBride: Great, yeah.

[28:07] Kevin Sofen: And I just, Oh my goodness.

[28:11] Jon McBride: Look at you.

[28:12] Kevin Sofen: Yeah, I know. I don't even want to butcher it too much.

[28:14] Jon McBride: Okay, we have to put handcuffs on you because according to America, you're now a traitor.

[28:18] Kevin Sofen: Fifty percent of the stuff I know are things that are inappropriate in Chinese phrases, so I probably shouldn't say those. But yeah, no, I just, one, I'm kind of a, you know, from the Will Ferrell, Tropic Thunder, E-L-E, Everybody Love Everybody mindset, and it pains me when there's just like unnecessary politics getting ingrained. and I know there is lots of history embedded into some of this in terms of fast 100, 200, 300, 500 years of just stuff that's happened that's kind of embedded into our subconscious and our DNA, but some of it's, some of it may be right, but I think a lot of it is.

[28:52] Jon McBride: You touch on the biggest problem with America, and this is, you know, I was in the Marine Corps. We've spent a lot of money on defense, but man, we are offensive. We are on the offense a lot, And we try to justify that, you know, while we're defending our people, we're defending our democracy, we've defended, and we're always the one throwing the bombs, you know, we're dropping the stuff, you know, interaction to something, but it's usually not good, you know, it's, and we have a whole economy based on producing war, you know, we have huge companies here that's what they do, that's what they do, you know, and so if you're not doing that all the time trying to create that well then yeah there's a possibility you know so do you look at China you look at Russia you look at other countries that we could consider possible threats that we hear about all the time and you look that they haven't got 800 bases across the world they put money into their infrastructure they got nice places they got good-looking things and we're not doing that right that's definitely a different yeah different conversation

[29:57] Kevin Sofen: maybe our next podcast yeah

[30:00] Jon McBride: And I've seen lots of waste, again, being in the Marines, the loss of waste of money. You know, and we have these, you know, manufacturers now trying to get government contracts because government wants to just throw money at this stuff. You know, I can't get $1,000 for a local police department to get a drone, but man, look, we can try to go after this $1.2 billion of money that's sitting here to just blow on drones, you know, for some other program, you know. I would have rather see the day-to-day guys to save those guys, you know, help those guys, you know?

[30:35] Kevin Sofen: Yeah, and kudos to, that's what this event's all about. And I think it's really helped me open my eyes to everything going on within, on the ground, to birds and worms and everything in the dirt, everything in the sky, and everything in between. And Jon will say, it's just been great to watch you from afar and then see you to kind of evolve. And I'm excited about what's just kind of the role you're in now, because I think we need you. I kind of live by the phrase of, sometimes it's good to throw bricks in glass houses. Sometimes you're gonna, you're gonna definitely kind of ruffle some feathers, but I'm glad it's you, because I think you're suited for the job, and I appreciate you doing what you're doing.

[31:12] Jon McBride: Well, you know, I've been watching these changes for 23 years, and some of them have been great changes, some of them have been not great changes, and we're at this crux right now, another crux. You know, I've already gone through this and outlined that in my article. You know, there's three or four times that we've been like, holy crap, is this industry even gonna survive after this event that's going on right now? And to kind of see that evolve and move and do and what we're gonna do next, I'm happy to be that guy. I don't mind being that guy that makes people go, wow. Because usually when I am at these events and I am kind of standing on the soapbox for a minute, I get 20, 30 people standing around and it changes their mindset. They think in a little bit different way. And I'm happy to do that. and still be respectful when it comes down to it, but man.

[32:01] Kevin Sofen: I agree. Well, this is our little tiny home yurt porch soapbox that we're on. And if I could ask you sort of a, I'm gonna kind of ask everyone here, sort of a final mic drop moment of a question, a comment, a quote, or any sort of statement that you could leave us with here today.

[32:19] Jon McBride: Like a Jon McBride quote?

[32:20] Kevin Sofen: Or a favorite quote from, I don't know, from a favorite inventor or just a quote you live by or a Jon McBride quote, off the cuff, I don't know.

[32:30] Jon McBride: I think we really have to strive for excellence, honor, integrity. These are things that I think at any level as individuals, as companies, as employees, as service members, integrity is a very important thing. And I think I've maintained that for myself Just to be, you know, keep who I am and continue to do that. I don't get suckered by the money. I don't care about what people think about me, you know. I don't get invited to the nice parties because of my long ass hair and I don't like to wear a suit. So be who you are, maintain who you are, and that helps with who you're going to be in the future. So just keep rocking it on and doing your thing and I think hopefully people will get kind of that. to fit into the system to be part of the show.

[33:21] Kevin Sofen: Well said, my friend. Keep on keeping on. Yeah. Before I say any direction, though, until next time. Thanks for tuning into this mini series created at the Texas Robotics Summit, hosted by Granite Defense. Make sure to put this amazing event on your calendar for 2025. For this podcast episode, what do you like? What do you think? Drop us a comment on social media, and let us know your favorite quote. Thanks for all that you do, and have a great day ahead.