Doodle Labs co-CEO: The drone discussion has gone global
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Photo illustration: Axios Visuals. Photo: Courtesy of Doodle Labs
In a few short years the drone zeitgeist has dramatically changed, from how they're used to where they're used, according to Doodle Labs co-CEO Amol Parikh.
- "Because we are in so many different types of systems and we're vehicle-agnostic, I have the perspective that we have to pay attention globally," he told Axios in an interview.
- "It is across Latin America. It is across the Asia-Pacific, the Middle East. There are conflict zones, specifically, that we all know."
Why he matters: Doodle's radios are used across commercial and defense markets, including aboard Red Cat's Black Widow drone and on the front lines in Ukraine.
- Parikh himself has a marketing background.
Q: When you hear "future of defense," what comes to mind?
A: It is the use of new technologies with a very different rationale — in terms of cost, capability and intelligence — to wage asymmetric warfare.
Q: When will wars be waged solely by robots?
A: Personally, I'm not ready for the Terminator future. I believe that defense maintains our peace and our security, and I believe approaching that in an ethical way keeps human beings involved.
Q: Where are you investing internally, and how could it shake up the status quo?
A: We get a cross section on all kinds of robotics, but specifically drones, commercial and defense. On the defense side, it's all different kinds of categories of systems, from the attritable systems to the long-range intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance systems.
- We are responding to what the fielded systems are running into as challenges — and the biggest one is electronic warfare.
- We're actually building out our sales-focused engineering team as well, just so we can be very hands-on.
Q: How many emails do you get a day, and how do you deal with them?
A: Man, too many. And I do not have a system in place.
- If anyone who reads your newsletter does and they want to get in touch, I'd be eternally grateful.
Q: What's your secret to a successful overnight flight?
A: It's a luxury: a good pair of over-the-ear headphones and an eye mask.
Q: What advice would you give your younger self?
A: I would marry my wife 1,000 times over.
