Drone News: New Zenmuse L3 LiDAR, Drone Maker in Lawsuit, New Autel Releases, & Drone Crash Wildfire

Watch Post Flight on Community 👉 https://bit.ly/pilot-institute-communityWelcome to your weekly UAS News Update. We have four stories for you this week: DJI launches the new Zenmuse L3 LiDAR, a Utah drone maker gets an early win in a trade secrets lawsuit, Autel Releases new products, and an experimental drone crash sparks a wildfire in Colorado. Let's get to it.

DJI has launched the Zenmuse L3. The L3 boasts a detection range of up to 950 meters, or over 3,100 feet; more than double the 450-meter range of the previous L2 payload. It achieves this with a new 1535nm wavelength LiDAR, and it does it even on objects with just 10% reflectivity. The system also features dual 100-megapixel 4/3 CMOS RGB sensors—a five-fold increase over the L2’s 20-megapixel sensor. And with a 3cm ground sampling distance at 300 meters, that’s 984 feet, you’ll get ultra detailed maps and models.DJI is claiming a vertical accuracy of 3 centimeters at 120 meters of flight altitude and 10 centimeters at 500 meters. The laser beam divergence is just 0.25 milliradians, making the spot size about one-fifth that of the L2, which is perfect for detecting small objects like power lines. It also supports up to 16 returns per laser pulse, a huge jump from the L2's five returns, which will dramatically improve terrain mapping in dense forests. This whole system weighs 1.6 kilograms, or 3.5 pounds, and is compatible with the Matrice 300, 350, and the new 400. A federal judge in Utah has handed an early victory to Vector Defense, a drone company co-founded by George Matus, the former Chief Technology Officer of Red Cat, which owns Teal Drones, filed a lawsuit against Matus and Vector Defense, claiming he stole trade secrets and sabotaged their business before leaving to start his own company. Red Cat was seeking a temporary restraining order to stop Vector from manufacturing drones or competing in the industry for the next year.However, the judge denied the request, stating that Red Cat "failed to provide evidence" to support its claims and that its assertions were merely "speculative." Matus founded Teal Drones while still in high school, sold it to Red Cat in 2021, and then left in 2024 to co-found Vector Defense. Red Cat alleged that Matus used his position to give his new company an unfair head start. Matus countered that Vector's drones, like their single-use FPV "Hammer" drone, don't even compete with Red Cat's products.Autel robotics has quietly released several new products. The Autel Explorer, a small drone/RC car hybrid designed for GPS denied environments indoors, The Evo III with a mechanical shutter, the Evo Pioneer 150 which is a ground robot with a 200kg payload, the Evo Nest 2, a docking solution for the Eco III, and the Skyfend Interceptor. These announcements come with very limited details. None of these products are currently on Autel’s site.An experimental, remotely piloted aircraft with a 6-foot wingspan crashed in a rural area near Calhan, Colorado, sparking an 83-acre wildfire. According to the Tri-County Volunteer Fire Department, the crash itself started the fire. But it was the drone's lithium batteries that "significantly intensified the blaze," making it much harder to fight.https://www.courthousenews.com/utah-drone-maker-takes-early-win-in-former-employers-trade-secrets-theft-claims/https://www.linkedin.com/posts/jscap_uas-integrating-infrastructure-ugcPost-7390344113906143232-gpaE?utm_medium=ios_app&rcm=ACoAAAJSd6cBnGyJ-pAI0UP04C1xL-w9OM69WQI&utm_source=social_share_send&utm_campaign=copy_linkhttps://dronexl.co/2025/11/04/dji-zenmuse-l3-lidar-doubles-detection-range/https://dronexl.co/2025/11/01/remotely-piloted-aircraft-crash-colorado-wildfire/