ptp
very interesting story (LONG)
Investigation story: http://medium.com/kickstarter/how-zano-raised-millions-on-kickstarter-and-left-backers-with-nearly-nothing-85c0abe4a6cb
Zano Project: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/torquing/zano-autonomous-intelligent-swarming-nano-drone/description
Unbelieveable no one saw a functional device (even the coworkers), journalists, media, CES attendants and they wrote about:
Kickstarter itself selected Zano as a Staff Pick, which gave it prominently placed promotion on the site
At the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas a few weeks later, Engadget shortlisted Zano for its official Best of CES Award, one of just 49 nominees among an estimated 20,000 new products at the world’s biggest trade show. Kickstarter made the prototype happen, and now it’s a very real proposition, gushed Engadget in early January.
Engadget chose it as one of the two best robots or drones at the entire CES. Editor in Chief Michael Gorman defended Engadget’s choice to me by noting that its criteria are innovation, design, market appeal, and functionality, meaning what are the device’s capabilities, not that we have seen it performing all these functions in person.
Popular Science took this moment to proclaim Zano one of the 100 greatest innovations of 2015, raving, It films you as you go about your vacation or your daily run. Presets can make it stay in one place, or track your every move.
Torquing Group’s work is an excellent example of a successful small business with their sights firmly set on growth and expansion, Secretary of State for Wales at the time, David Jones
I'm not a robot expert but an obstacle avoidance (outdoors) based in infrared sensors... that's a job for Tom Cruise :)
That seems to have happened more often than ppl think. Alan from ez-robot bought a Vessel, the cup that detects how many calories you're drinking - they never produced it. Although they used the money from sales of their kickstarter product to manufacturer a totally new product with less features and distributed it through Best Buy and Apple store under the same name.
So the backers got nothing... and a bunch of distribution outlets got something but different.
Another good one that i get a kick of - and proved serious the world isn't ready for crowdfunding yet is Solar Frigg'n Highways. They raised millions and never actually had a product to begin with. It was raising money to put research into glass highways with solar cells beneath... yeah, can you imagine that? ha, well a lot of credible people put videos up on youtube exposing how impossible, costly and inefficient that research would be - but their marketing convinced 'funders' that their home town would have solar highways and solar parking lots if they donated $5.... well, 1 million of those people did - now the solar highway couple have a nice big house thanks to a world of suckers.
Meanwhile... through all of this, kickstarter does nothing. So if you ask me, isn't crowdfunding really a form of online gambling?
i hope i see my robot then,els am a happy to. i really though there kickstarter and so on are really trust wordy.