# 18-Year-Old Founder: Why America Needs Its Own Drone Industry

- Show: [OnTrack](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/ontrack)
- Published: 2025-07-31
- Length: 36m
- Episode: 306
- Page: https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/ontrack/2025-07-31-18-year-old-founder-why-america-needs-its-own-drone-industry
- Listen: https://podcast.altium.com/e/18-year-old-founder-why-america-needs-its-own-drone-industry/

## Summary

Tom Rein, founder of Tom's Aerial Vehicles, explains how he uses AI to reduce drone development costs from $10 million to a $30 ChatGPT subscription, enabling him to build proprietary police drones for American markets. He details his workflow of using AI for 'vibe coding' obstacle avoidance and custom PCB design with Nvidia Jetson chips, while navigating complex FAA regulations and hardware safety issues. Rein argues that America lacks the manufacturing ecosystem found in China, leading to an 80% market dominance by DJI, and positions his modular drone systems as a solution to this national security gap. He discusses bootstrapping his initial prototypes with revenue from a previous speaker company and scaling through proprietary hardware moats rather than rapid software-style growth.

## Chapters

- [0:00](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/ontrack/2025-07-31-18-year-old-founder-why-america-needs-its-own-drone-industry#t=0) Introduction: Tom Rein and Tom's Aerial Vehicles
- [1:35](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/ontrack/2025-07-31-18-year-old-founder-why-america-needs-its-own-drone-industry#t=95) Rein's Background: From Light Bulbs to Speaker Company
- [7:47](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/ontrack/2025-07-31-18-year-old-founder-why-america-needs-its-own-drone-industry#t=467) Using AI to Reduce Development Costs and Code
- [14:07](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/ontrack/2025-07-31-18-year-old-founder-why-america-needs-its-own-drone-industry#t=847) Hardware Stack: Custom PCBs and Nvidia Jetson
- [16:01](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/ontrack/2025-07-31-18-year-old-founder-why-america-needs-its-own-drone-industry#t=961) Navigating Regulations and Hardware Safety
- [18:58](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/ontrack/2025-07-31-18-year-old-founder-why-america-needs-its-own-drone-industry#t=1138) The US Manufacturing Gap vs. China's Ecosystem
- [26:19](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/ontrack/2025-07-31-18-year-old-founder-why-america-needs-its-own-drone-industry#t=1579) Industry Response and Scaling Strategy
- [31:40](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/ontrack/2025-07-31-18-year-old-founder-why-america-needs-its-own-drone-industry#t=1900) Future Product Vision: Modular Drones

## Topics

- [Embedded firmware](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/embedded-firmware)
- [PCB design & layout](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/pcb-design)
- [Manufacturing partners & offshoring](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/manufacturing-partners)
- [Starting a product company](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/starting-a-company)
- [Certification & compliance](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/certification-and-compliance)
- [Scaling production](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/scaling-production)

## Most relevant to

early-stage companies

## Mentioned

- Tom's Aerial Vehicles (company)
- ChatGPT (tool)
- Nvidia Jetson (chip)
- DJI (company)
- Skydio (company)
- FAA (other)

## Related episodes from other shows

- [Arthur Erickson on how Hylio drones are revolutionizing agriculture](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-robot-report-podcast/2026-03-27-arthur-erickson-on-how-hylio-drones-are-revolutionizing-agriculture) (The Robot Report Podcast)
- [#020: The Hidden Architecture of Autonomy: How Skydio Drones Think, See, and Connect](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/coredump-sessions/2026-01-29-020-the-hidden-architecture-of-autonomy-how-skydio-drones-think-see-and-connect) (Coredump Sessions)
- [Skydio CEO Adam Bry explores how autonomy and AI are reshaping drones; what happened after a Waymo killed a cat; revisiting the history of civilian drones](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/go-no-go/2025-11-11-skydio-ceo-adam-bry-explores-how-autonomy-and-ai-are-reshaping-drones-what-happe) (Go/No-Go)
- [An Interview with Chris Anderson - Deambulatory Daedal Drones](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-amp-hour/2012-07-23-an-interview-with-chris-anderson-deambulatory-daedal-drones) (The Amp Hour)
- [Roger Pecina: Drones as First Responders, Flying Cars, Minority Report, DJI | Hard Tech Podcast #12](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/hard-tech-podcast/2023-09-03-roger-pecina-drones-as-first-responders-flying-cars-minority-report-dji-hard-tec) (Hard Tech Podcast)

## Citing this page

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