GoPro recalls 2500 Karma Drones

Poor old GoPro. Nothing really seems to be going its way right now. First, GoPro’s stock prices took a free fall, then the company stopped trading, and now GoPro’s brand new drone is being recalled! Bugger.

Yup, it’s been a rough year for GoPro but it was all meant to turn around and go flying into the sunset with the launch of the new Hero 5 cameras and GoPro’s first ever drone.

The Karma drone marked the first time the action camera maker had diversified its range, and also became one of the first commercially available drones that could fold away for easy transportation. It was meant to be the product that would help turn the company’s fortunes around, but it’s causing a whole new set of problems…

First of all, the Karma’s global rollout was set back after it missed it’s launch date of 23rd October, and now the few units that have found homes are being called back due to a power issue. GoPro states that a small number of Karma drones have been reported to lose power during operation, i.e while in flight, and has asked all drones to be returned.

The recall states that users must not use their Karma Drones from now on (even if their drone is operating normally), and that the drone plus all accessories should be returned for a full refund. It appears a fix for the problem hasn’t been discovered (at the time of writing) as only refunds, not exchanges, are being offered.

Apparently, only 2500 GoPro Karma drones are out in the wild so it seems they’ve caught the bug quickly, but it’s another piece of bad news that is sure to affect their image.

Full details of the GoPro Karma recall can be found here.