There's no general threat using Google Assistant with Go 4 app. DJI Drone could kill…

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Your DJI Drone could kill you or someone close to you.
Or at least do some serious damage to you or people near you!

Please send this serious warning to as many places as possible.
If you are flying with an Android device and initiate Google Assistant with “Ok Google” or “Hi Google” and you are flying your DJI drone with DJI go app your aircraft becomes totally out of control.
Take a look at this video.
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I have been in constant contact with DJI, almost 20 emails for many weeks and they refuse to put out a general warning to DJI go app users not to engage Google Assistant.
Their response has been this.
“Kindly noted that I have updated the flightrecords as you provided back on MAR 21ST to the Field Application Engineering team…”
“As you mentioned, on your previous emails, it is unsafe for the people around. We appreciate your effort however to provide us with the needed records for our designated developers to review the flight and confirm your claimed issue with the DJI GO 4 app when used with the Google Assistant.”

DJI know there is a problem and a serious one. I know they are working very hard at solving the problem, but they are refusing to warn the public.

Please pass this warning to as many as you can.
 
I appreciate the info. but are you in a position to make the allegations cited?

Has it happened to you?

How often is this occurring?

Have you duplicated the issue to substantiate the video's assertions?
 
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I don't quite follow you N017RW. The video demonstrates the issue. DJI accept there is a serious issue.
Thinking back it's happened about six times to me.
I think I am in a position to make the allegation.
DJI have repeatedly asked me not to try it again until they have found a resolution.
 
Are you using voice access with DJI GO4? Turn it off would be the obvious solution. If that’s the issue it’s an obvious potential problem easily avoided.

What would be really useful would be to look at the flight logs for the flights you had issues with. Perhaps rRTh wasn’t dnctuining as expected as you may have been cancelling out of itunintentionally in the confusion.
 
What I did not say today or in the past is that two days ago I tried to fly a Mavic 2 with my phone and did not initiate Google Assistant (GA) and the aircraft went ballistic. Spirlied rapidly to 200 meters. Took me ten minutes to get it down by restarting my Samsung Galaxy 9+ and RTH.
GA was obviously active in the background. So if you use GA on your Android device and don't even initiate it, it is still a hazard.
Once you do use GA it is very difficult to disable.
This has happend with a Mavic 2 and a Phantom 4 Pro V2.
I now have to turn my phone off before take off.
I have mentioned that this could be a one off with my phone. Although DJI tell me their engineers have confirmed the conflict and warned me not to use GA while flying with DJI go app.
 
What I did not say today or in the past is that two days ago I tried to fly a Mavic 2 with my phone and did not initiate Google Assistant (GA) and the aircraft went ballistic. Spirlied rapidly to 200 meters. Took me ten minutes to get it down by restarting my Samsung Galaxy 9+ and RTH.
GA was obviously active in the background. So if you use GA on your Android device and don't even initiate it, it is still a hazard.
Once you do use GA it is very difficult to disable.
This has happend with a Mavic 2 and a Phantom 4 Pro V2.
I now have to turn my phone off before take off.
I have mentioned that this could be a one off with my phone. Although DJI tell me their engineers have confirmed the conflict and warned me not to use GA while flying with DJI go app.
From what you have said it would seem that people should not use GA with GO4.
 
Your DJI Drone could kill you or someone close to you.
Or at least do some serious damage to you or people near you!

Please send this serious warning to as many places as possible.
If you are flying with an Android device and initiate Google Assistant with “Ok Google” or “Hi Google” and you are flying your DJI drone with DJI go app your aircraft becomes totally out of control.
Take a look at this video.
To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.
I have been in constant contact with DJI, almost 20 emails for many weeks and they refuse to put out a general warning to DJI go app users not to engage Google Assistant.
Their response has been this.
“Kindly noted that I have updated the flightrecords as you provided back on MAR 21ST to the Field Application Engineering team…”
“As you mentioned, on your previous emails, it is unsafe for the people around. We appreciate your effort however to provide us with the needed records for our designated developers to review the flight and confirm your claimed issue with the DJI GO 4 app when used with the Google Assistant.”

DJI know there is a problem and a serious one. I know they are working very hard at solving the problem, but they are refusing to warn the public.

Please pass this warning to as many as you can.
Wow that's a moment and a halve,,,me never buying a mavic after watching that,,glad you get it back above the that drone is haunted,,has dji seen the video? I made them watch mine you should do same..share it to them,,,,that's good example of going grey fast and as drone pilots we not need to have that happen ,,personally I would never fly that again until late they exchange it.....hope you can get this resolved cause that scary,,,,gave your post a like cause I couldent stop watching,,no one need that behavior from a drone....me add this picture cause that red tile on roof is what happens when they freefall,,,glad I got it overhead aswell
screen_2f2640f766e07739_1549062744000.jpg
 
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I do not know what is going on when I initiate GA using the Go app. All I can think of is that GA uses the same frequency band that the the r/c is communicating with the aircraft. If this is so then DJI need to isolate or change frequency channels. And also if this is what is happening then it does not matter what mode you fly in or what DJI drone you are using WV Rootman. Its happens when I flew a Mavic 2 and Phantom 4 Pro v2. I don't have an original Mavic so I don't know about that.
As far as I am aware With The Birds the Go app does not respond to voice commands its GA that reacts to voice commands.
 
What I did not say today or in the past is that two days ago I tried to fly a Mavic 2 with my phone and did not initiate Google Assistant (GA) and the aircraft went ballistic. Spirlied rapidly to 200 meters. Took me ten minutes to get it down by restarting my Samsung Galaxy 9+ and RTH.
GA was obviously active in the background. So if you use GA on your Android device and don't even initiate it, it is still a hazard.
Once you do use GA it is very difficult to disable.
This has happend with a Mavic 2 and a Phantom 4 Pro V2.
I now have to turn my phone off before take off.
I have mentioned that this could be a one off with my phone. Although DJI tell me their engineers have confirmed the conflict and warned me not to use GA while flying with DJI go app.

Hi John, in my experience the drone will just disconnect and hover, or initiate it’s RTH settings. I have had this happen a few times. For example, I had the DJI app crash which immediately cut my app link, but I was able to control the drone with the controller. Scary, but recoverable. I have lost signal with the controller once or twice, as my drone is defaulted to return to home on disconnect, it did just that in both cases. The first time, I was able to reconnect and abort the RTH, in the other case it came back and landed within a few feet of my original take off. Again, bit nerve wracking, but recoverable. The biggest risk of auto RTH I found is making sure you have enough height to get over anything between the drone and it’s launch location. It comes right back when RTH kicks in, straight line from where it is to were it launched.

I haven’t seen the drone head off on its own yet. If that’s the behavior, then the auto-RTH must not be set right or the drone is not in GPS mode. Do you have any more detail as to the setup of the drone and the behavior your seeing?
 
In the video bhartwell I tried the TRH multiple times. It only worked when I closed all the apps on the phone restarted the Go app and then RTH then it worked but it did take some time for me to regain control.
This issue could be just my phone and it may not ever happen to anyone else. I don't know because I have not heard of anyone else having this problem. DJI seem to think it is not just my phone.
 
In the video bhartwell I tried the TRH multiple times. It only worked when I closed all the apps on the phone restarted the Go app and then RTH then it worked but it did take some time for me to regain control.
This issue could be just my phone and it may not ever happen to anyone else. I don't know because I have not heard of anyone else having this problem. DJI seem to think it is not just my phone.
I see you making assumptions and guessing what the issue is but not investigating recorded flight data to see what was actually happening.
That's not a particularly scientific method.
 
Where do you want me to put the flight data Meta4?
Go to DJI Flight Log Viewer | Phantom Help
Follow the instructions there to upload your flight record from your phone or tablet.
That will give you a detailed report of the flight.
Come back and post a link to the report it provides and someone might be able to analyse it and give you an understanding of the cause of the incident.
 
Reviewing the video in more detail, I couldn’t tell what actually caused the drone to spin off as it did. However, the initial issue was secondary to the operators continued attempts to reconnect and rapidly move the throttles. After the first issue, the drone did go into RTH mode and was lining up to return when the operator reconnected, turned off RTH and went through another series of rapid throttle movements.

This happened several times as the operator attempted to recover control of the drone, when it was in fact preparing to RTH or beginning its RTH home sequence. In thisQ example, simply letting the drone complete its RTH sequence would have been the logical recovery step, as each connect, reset and rapid movement, put the drone further away and less in control.

What’s interesting is that once the brightness command is issued, the drone veers left, then hovers (2:27). We are not able to see the controls, but a moment after (2:29) we hear a beep, and the drone accelerates and continues left gaining altitude.

The op then tries to click on the DJI Go App, while the drone can be heard above (2:42-2:48). The video then clips out and back in. At 3:09 through 3:13 the drone climbs from 48m to 100m, I do not see stick command to support this. The drone then enters RTH mode and starts to land. The OP then reconnects and stops the cycle, attempting the regain control. This’s happens several times.

It does seem that a command to climb is interpreted by the controller and sent to the drone. It may be google assist that creates this issue while in the DJI GO app. If we can get the flight logs downloaded onto this site, that could confirm the theory.
 
I see a lot of assumptions being made here and some mistakes as well. I am still unclear on some of the claims but here are some observations.
  • I know not everyone can do this but I always fly with a dedicated device. I have two Android tablets and an Android phone which I use only for flights. GA may indeed in some way send strange commands to the Go4 app that causes these issues. That remains to be tested and proven. However this could happen with other apps on a general purpose phone as well. That is one reason why a dedicated device is best. On that device, disable automatic system and app updates, turn off WiFi, and if that device has cellular capabilities then put it in airplane mode.
  • One of the comments from the OP is that GA may be using some frequency that interferes with the controller. This doesn't make sense. GA doesn't use any frequencies or transmit any signals. It just automates tasks and interacts with the operating system and other apps.
  • The OP also said that this happened once even with the phone disconnected and in his pocket. I can't imagine how this could be the case. If it were the case then it could potentially mean that anyone in close proximity to a DJI drone/controller could make it go crazy just by using GA.
  • When initiating RTH, patience is always key. Let the drone do its job and give it time to return. Trying to perform other functions and or stick movements may well cancel RTH and get you more in trouble.
  • If/when the determination is made that perhaps GA was causing this issue, the best course of action would be to disconnect the USB cable from the phone, power off the phone, and then either fly the drone back safely manually or initiate RTH from the controller itself. The OP seemed to repeatedly restart Go4 and initiate RTH from within the app. If the problem was indeed with the phone, you don't know what functions were compromised. Cut out the problem link and go straight to the reliable component.
Awaiting for analysis of the flight logs to see what they tell us.
 
That is not what happened [B]bhartwell[/B]. You cant see the screen very clearly on the video. I could see the aircraft spinning after hitting the RTH button, again many times.
I moved the sticks because the aircraft spinning out of control as if the sticks were stuck.
I restarted the app
because it was not responding and it was not till I closed all the apps and restarted the Go app.
 
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