Hardware Podcasts

#020: The Hidden Architecture of Autonomy: How Skydio Drones Think, See, and Connect

Coredump Sessions · 29 Jan 2026 · 53m · Episode 20

What this episode covers

Ross Yeager, VP of Device Platform Software at Skydio, discusses the company's vertically integrated manufacturing in California and its pioneering fully autonomous drone technology. He details the engineering challenges of building complex embedded systems with multiple microcontrollers and SoCs, emphasizing the critical need for safety, reliability, and rigorous testing in high-stakes government and first responder applications. Yeager also reflects on his career path, from early Kickstarter projects and work at Boosted Boards and Altera to leading software architecture at Skydio.

Most relevant to

companies scaling up

Topics

Mentioned

Companies
Skydio, Boosted Boards, Altera, Intel, Pebble, CSR
Products
Skydio X10, Skydio R10
Chips
NVIDIA, Qualcomm, Nordic
Tools
Quartus

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