Robot model
DriX
DriX is Exail's family of autonomous surface vessels for hydrographic survey and defense mine countermeasures, and the registry entity is scoped to the DriX…
- Manufacturer
- Exail
- Form factor
- maritime_surface
- Maturity
- commercial
- Lifecycle
- active
- Deployments
- 1
- Website
- exail.com ↗
The verified answer
As of Sep 2026, DEPLOY verifies DriX, a maritime surface by Exail (commercial): 1 verified deployment on record. 4 sources back the record.
Overview
DriX is Exail's family of autonomous surface vessels for hydrographic survey and defense mine countermeasures, and the registry entity is scoped to the DriX USV family with Exail, the merged ECA Group and iXblue entity in France, as the corporate parent. It is the strongest commercial candidate in the maritime set, running the CortiX autonomy stack that provides supervised autonomous navigation and obstacle avoidance using cameras, infrared, LiDAR, and radar both at the surface and underwater, with autonomy as the primary differentiator rather than a sensor add-on.
The registry records it at mature commercial maturity, with government and defense users including NOAA, which integrated DriX with the survey ship Thomas Jefferson and selected it through its Ocean Exploration Cooperative Institute, the British Antarctic Survey, the Polish Navy, SHOM, and Ifremer. A scale cap-flag applies: Exail cites more than 100,000 hours at sea and more than 1,000,000 nautical miles of autonomous navigation across 25-plus countries, but those are the broader CortiX-platform totals, while a separate Exail page cites more than 15,000 DriX-specific hours across 20-plus DriX units since 2017, and these vendor-reported platform-wide and DriX-specific figures should not be conflated.
Verified vs. claimed
- Maturity stage
- commercial(Commercially deployed with revenue-generating operations.)
- Sources on file
- View all sources →
Key facts
Autonomy level
Sensor suite
Operating hours
Units deployed
Countries
Specs
Notes
Specs
Max speed
Weight kg
Form Factor
Data & sources
Press releases
3
Web sources
1
4 sources backing this record.View all →
Availability and pricing
- Availability
- Not sold (internal use)
- Price
- Not publicly disclosed
- Units in field
- Not disclosed
- Sales model
- Not disclosed
- Lead time
- Not disclosed
Autonomy: verified vs claimed
- What it actually does
- Autonomous
Pricing
No verified price is on record for DriX. Physical-AI systems are often sold through enterprise contracts or operated as a service rather than at a public list price.
Deployments (1)
- DriX at Toulonoperational
Exail DRiX USV deployed with French Navy hydrographic service in Toulon.
DriX on the deployment map
View the global mapWhere DriX is verified operating. Explore the deployment map by place and type.
Recent activity
Every change to this record is dated, sourced, and independently verified where marked.
- Verified media addedVerifiedJun 4, 2026
Exail DriX uncrewed surface vessel
- Record createdJun 3, 2026
Added to the verified registry
- Deployment verifiedVerifiedJun 1, 2024
at Toulon
Deployment-verified media (1)
Exail footage of its DriX uncrewed surface vessel for ocean-data collection. DriX conducts autonomous surface navigation with over-the-horizon operation; a commercial survey USV.
From deployment: Toulon
Safety record
No incidents on record for DriX.
Only active incidents are counted. Retracted incidents are excluded from this summary but remain reachable at their canonical URLs.
Sources (4)
- https://www.exail.com/product-range/drix-series-uncrewed-surface-vessels
- https://nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/updates/noaa-ship-thomas-jefferson-tests-innovative-drix-autonomous-surface-vehicle/
- https://www.exail.com/news/noaa-ocean-exploration-cooperative-institute-chooses-drix-usv-help-build-next-generation-ocean
- https://www.exail.com/product/drix-h8-medium-range-usv
Compare DriX
Common questions
What is DriX?
How much does DriX cost?
Is DriX actually deployed in the real world?
What are the specs of DriX?
Who makes DriX?
Where is DriX deployed?
Can you buy DriX?
What are alternatives to DriX?
How does DriX compare to Corsair?
Is DriX a top maritime_surface?
What is DriX's maturity stage?
Is DriX safe?
What is the Exail DriX USV?
Methodology: Verified · 4 sources (3 primary) · last reviewed 2026-07-22
Verification posture
Verified
High confidence
Review state
Stable
Last reviewed 2026-07-22
Maturity + lifecycle
Maturity stage: commercial
Lifecycle: active
Architectural position
Cohort: maritime_surface
Sources by quality tier
- 3
- primary-company-ir
- Company IR disclosure
- 1
- unclassified
- Unclassified source
The framework is documented at /methodology. Corrections at /corrections. Reviewer: DEPLOY editorial team.
Methodology surface for DriX.Recent coverage
DriX in third-party press
Attention vs reality over time
Media mentions per month (area) against verified deployment events (dots). A press spike over a flat deployment line is the hype gap, drawn over time.
In the press
Recent coverage mentioning DriX from third-party publications. Automatically surfaced; not part of the verified registry record.
Jimi Hendrix’s Purple Haze takes over Marshall’s collection of speakers, headphones, and amp
Marshall has expanded its Jimi Hendrix anniversary collection with psychedelic versions of the Major V headphones, Emberton III speaker, and a $2,500 tube amp.
Thales acquires Exail Technologies stake as it expands undersea warfare footprint
Italian shipbuilding company Fincantieri also announced today an agreement to acquire four underwater technology firms.
Thales to buy French underwater-drone maker Exail in $4.5 billion deal
Industry champions in France and Italy move to consolidate their positions in a growing market for unmanned underwater naval equipment.
New order for a DriX O‑16 surface drone for subsea cable applications
Exail Technologies announces a new order for a transoceanic DriX O 16 surface drone from OMS Group, an international civil player in digital infrastructure and subsea cables. This…
Exail Secures First European Sale of DriX H-9 USV for Offshore Civil Operations - Unmanned Systems Technology
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Exail delivers long-endurance USV for geophysical surveys - Splash247
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European client first to use Exail’s 9-meter USV for civil offshore operations - Offshore-Energy.biz
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Exail Sells Drix H-9 USV To European Client - Marine Technology News
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Exail USV to Enhance Autonomous Survey Capabilities in Madeira - Unmanned Systems Technology
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France's SHOM selects Exail's DriX H-8 USV - Janes
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France’s Shom Selects Exail’s Drix USV Hydrographic Drone - Offshore Engineer Magazine
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VESSEL REVIEW | DriX O-16 – Transoceanic-capable USV for survey and subsea inspection duties - Baird Maritime
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Machine-readable surfaces
- Markdown mirror: /models/exail-drix.md
- JSON-LD: embedded in this page’s head
- REST API: /v1/models/d9cbdf5b-a868-47a0-a6e4-d1ca21570dc9
- Revision history: /models/exail-drix/history
- Data documentation: /data
- Query this programmatically: Deploy MCP
Buyer-facing pricing: deploy.report/price/exail-drix
Reality vs attention
DriX draws attention at the 56th percentile but verifies reality at the 24th percentile among maritime_surface robots. Hype Gap +32, 4th widest among maritime_surface robots.
6-month trend
Analysis
Thin deployment record; scale validation still in progress.
Signal flags
Dimension breakdown
Verified signal
Attention (reach, not merit)
DEPLOY Intelligence scores are computed from verified registry data: confirmed deployments, disclosed funding rounds, regulatory filings, active job listings, video viewership, and press coverage. Confidence ratings reflect data availability. Scores update nightly.
DEPLOY Indices — verified vs claimed
Last computed: Sep 1, 2026