UC Berkeley students set out to eliminate the difficulty of flying a drone and taking video and have introduced Lily, a drone that automatically follows you around after you toss it into the air.
After you’re done capturing video or snapping a few 12 MP stills, you can just tap on the tracker to recall Lily to your position, where it will slowly descend into your hand, cutting its propellers upon contact. And because Lily is waterproof, you can even have it take off and land from the water if you’d like. After its initial announcement, Lily’s sheer simplicity seemed to resonate with drone enthusiasts and novices alike, and the company announced on Thursday that 60,000 people have pre-ordered the drone, leading to $34 million in sales.
