I've never had a warranty claim, let alone one while using a third party app so I can't speak to what kind of discussions people have had with DJI about getting service. But DJI's own statement says that if there's a mechanical issue with the drone, it will be covered under warranty even if you're using third party software - and so they should since the third party software uses a DJI SDK provided for the specific purpose of creating the their party software.
If you're suggesting that a crash won't be covered if it occurs as a result of a bug in the third party software - that's true. The algorithms in the software that send control signals to the drone are considered to be equivalent to you send in the signals by using the remote - so yep, it's "pilot error" if something like that happens and you're one your own as far as the fix is concerned - or you'd have to take it up with the company that created the software. But based on the demos, the experience of other users and my own incremental testing with Autopilot - I'm convinced that it's safer and more thoroughly tested than DJI Go is - so I think the kind of crash that would be caused by the software - through no fault of the user - is very unlikely - at least with the big ones like Autopilot and Litchi.
But I dunno why you say differently about the mechanical failures. It's pretty clear that DJI says mechanical failure are covered. Maybe it's a newer policy and it used to be different when you made your observations.
As for you pulling out of the thread gracefully. I *did* think that's what you were doing at first - and I even clicked like on it and then spent half an hour summarizing where we had landed so that anybody who cared about the info wouldn't have to wade through our entire lengthy debate to get all of the pros and cons....
But then I realized that your "exit post" was kinda passive aggressive and if I agreed to it, I was essentially calling anyone that bought a P4 a reckless idiot. Maybe you were trying to be funny - but I don't think that's how people would have read it. Some at least would almost certainly be offended - so I edited my summary post to specifically counter the "idiot" comment.
It snows all day yesterday and was -5C here so Sind so couldn't go flying, I was re-reading the AutoPilot flight school material to learn it better and I stumbled upon the information about the warranty that proved your earlier statement wrong. Perhaps your claim that using Autopilot invalidates your warranty was an honesty mistake based on out-of-date information - and perhaps I presented my proof a bit aggressively - but I was getting frustrated by your non-stop contradiction and your attempt to "trick" me into calling P4 buyers "reckless idiots". So I'll go ahead and apologize for suggesting that the other data you posted contained intentional lies. I believe that the information you posted about the performance of your P4 is honest and accurate.
I also believe that it is MUCH safer to purchase and learn how to operate Autopilot and then use it as instead of the "equivalent" DJI Go features - for "Follow", "POI/Orbit" and "Waypoints" (not to mention far more flexible and robust). If owners have any concern about warranty - I encourage them to contact DJI before they start using it for a clarification so they are not surprised - but it's pretty clear to me that crashes caused by any kind of factory defect would be fully covered....but understandably, misconfiguring the Autopilot features by accident or via lack of understanding would constitute "pilot error" and you'd most likely be on the hook for the full cost of the repair.
I think I've said everything I need to on this topic unless you attack me in your reply or post any serious misinformation.
I'm looking forward to hearing how the P4 works out for you over time and as DJI adds new features and enhances some of the existing ones. And if you've never used AutoPilot - I'd encourage you to take a look at their flight school or video tutorials for "Follow", "Orbit" and "Airspaces" in their 3.2 release. It's pretty powerful stuff and I'm sure you could find a use for some of those features!
The "wreckless idiot" comment was just a joke and I wasn't trying to trick you. I use litchi 80% of the time so I am all for 3rd party developers but my warranty comment certainly did mean if the code it's self was to blame, something as simple as interference whilst uploading a mission and getting a corrupted but accepted mission, etc. You are right in that DJI is basically saying if an app is built using our SDK and you experience a hardware fault we will at least look into the case and take at least some or all of the responsibility, but i didnt say any different about a hw failure, maybe I just wasent clear when i said "problem or fault whilst using the app" anyway this is actually very good that we bring this up, I follow with an example. You set a litchi mission up the craft then loses GPS, whilst out of reach and flying autonomously , hovers or lands over water instead of RTH, who's to blame here? DJI can say well the craft was out of tx range so it's not our fault, we have RTH as a redundancy for that!
My point is it is a grey area, I agree with you totally that 3rd party are widely tested and probably used to put the birds through harder paces (by more advanced users) than even the go app. For any newer users though they should really heed the advice in your post and phone DJI and ask them exactly how the warranty works, I. E. If obstacle avoidance is used in app* with some kind of follow/autonomous mode activated but it fails due the some cruddy programming and smashes into a wall , am I covered? I have not looked at AutoPilot lately, simply because I'm pretty set with Litchi and Go, but I will indeed take a look and probably give it a go if it has some unique capabilites. I respect you and your last post, and I'm sure some people will gain something from this thread, even if it how to be civilised toward each other and calm things down and move on after a rocky start.
To summarise this whole thing with my honest opinion.
*The P4 seems to have differently performing units, some perform excellently and as they should and are close to, if not bang on, with DJI's specs, others are vastly under performing in the range and possibly flight time department and it is to early to tell what this problem may be at the moment.
*The P4 has some great new features that may be a deal maker for some and absolutely irrelevant for others, you are advised to educate yourself about said features and see if they are worth a premium to you.
*Due to some* P4 units having teething problems early adopters of these units may be at risk of buying a unit that under performs against previous revisions, namely P3P and P3A.
*The P4 does have a higher specification and more technology on board than any previous revision and, as long as you own a perfectly working model, you have all the features and performance of any previous revision and more.
*If the new features on the P4 are of little to no importance to you and value is, you are almost certainly better off investing in a P3P, by doing this and finding a great deal on a used item, or by spending the rest of the money you would have spent on P4 you can have a few batteries for more time flying, a modded battery for longer flight times, better range with a tx,rx, mod, or both, and/or some great extra accessories depending on the deal you can get, all for sacrificing the slightly better gimbal and optics on the P4. (Bear in mind that the P3P, will take picture and video that far exceeds what %90 of its owners need)
*In 6 or 12 months from now, provided the teething problems with some of the P4's are eliminated, after developers really start to exploit the new hardware on board the P4 and after we see range/battery mods and accessories for it, pricing exclusive the P4 will be the better bird, but even then not by any magnificent length, it doesn't matter how good the P4 becomes it can't subtract anything from the P3 which is fully capable of what most people need it for, now in 6 months and in a year.
*If value is not a priority to you provided you get a perfectly good working P4, you can rest assured you do have the most advanced phantom yet that will be capable of anything any previous phantom is plus some more, this of coarse comes at a substantially larger premium and for what is offered on the P4 >P3P at initial release and its pricing point, is not enough to tempt many a phantom user yet and rightfully so.