September 30, 2026 - San Francisco Post

Skydio Expands Hayward Factory as Bay Area Site Search Begins

San Francisco Staff 2 on September 30, 2026

Skydio is expanding its drone manufacturing operation in Hayward and searching for a larger Bay Area facility. The autonomous-drone company has doubled its manufacturing space and workforce at the East Bay site, creating a need for additional production capacity as its operations continue to expand.

Key Takeaways

Skydio is expanding its drone manufacturing operation in Hayward
The company has doubled its manufacturing space at the existing facility
Skydio has also doubled its manufacturing workforce
The company is searching for a larger Bay Area facility
The expansion adds manufacturing activity to the region’s technology sector

Skydio Expands Its Hayward Manufacturing Operation

Skydio is expanding its Bay Area drone manufacturing operation at its Hayward facility while searching for a larger site in the region. The expansion involves both the physical manufacturing operation and the workforce supporting production at the East Bay location.

The company has doubled its manufacturing space at the Hayward site. That increase provides additional room for the company’s drone manufacturing activities and forms part of the current expansion of its production operation.

Skydio has also doubled its manufacturing workforce at the facility. The increase in staffing accompanies the expansion of the physical manufacturing operation and adds employees to the company’s Hayward production activities.

The changes affect the company’s existing operation rather than representing only a future plan. Skydio is already operating an expanded manufacturing facility in Hayward while evaluating options for additional space elsewhere in the Bay Area.

The search for another facility gives the company’s current expansion a second component. In addition to increasing capacity at its existing location, Skydio is looking for a larger facility that can support its manufacturing operation.

Manufacturing Space and Workforce Double at Hayward Site

The Hayward site has doubled in manufacturing space, giving Skydio a larger physical operation for producing its drones. The company has also doubled the workforce assigned to manufacturing at the facility.

The two changes provide separate measures of the expansion. The increase in floor space concerns the company’s physical production capacity, while the increase in employees concerns the workforce operating that production facility.

Skydio’s manufacturing workforce is based at the Hayward operation, making the East Bay site an active part of the company’s production activities. The facility is used for manufacturing the company’s drones rather than serving only as an office location.

The expansion comes as autonomous aircraft gain a larger role across the region. Plans for Bay Area drone deliveries provide another example of drone technology moving into commercial operations around San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose.

The doubling of manufacturing space and staffing provides the clearest measure of the change at the Hayward site. Both figures describe expansion that has already taken place at the existing operation.

Skydio Searches for a Larger Bay Area Facility

Skydio is searching for a larger facility in the Bay Area as its Hayward manufacturing operation expands. The facility search is connected directly to the company’s need for additional manufacturing space.

The search does not replace the existing Hayward operation. Skydio has already expanded the manufacturing space and workforce at that site, while the company is separately looking for a larger facility in the region.

The Bay Area search keeps the company’s manufacturing expansion geographically connected to its existing operation. Hayward remains the location identified for its current manufacturing facility, while the larger-site search covers the wider Bay Area.

For Skydio, the facility question concerns physical space for manufacturing rather than simply additional office capacity. The company is seeking a location that can accommodate the needs of its drone production operation.

The search follows the doubling of manufacturing space and workforce at the Hayward site. Those changes provide the immediate factual basis for the company’s need to consider additional facility capacity.

The expansion therefore involves both an existing-site increase and a search for a larger location. The Hayward facility has grown, while Skydio is assessing additional space within the Bay Area.

Hayward Supports Skydio Drone Production

Hayward is the location of Skydio’s existing drone manufacturing facility in the East Bay. The site supports the physical production of the company’s drones and employs the manufacturing workforce that has doubled as part of the expansion.

The location gives Skydio a manufacturing operation within the Bay Area, with the Hayward facility directly connected to the company’s production activities.

The increase in manufacturing space has expanded the physical footprint available for production. The corresponding increase in manufacturing employees has expanded the workforce operating at the facility.

Skydio’s search for a larger Bay Area facility also keeps Hayward relevant to the company’s current manufacturing strategy. The existing location is expanding while the company evaluates additional space elsewhere in the region.

The Hayward operation therefore serves as the starting point for the company’s current facility expansion. The changes at the site provide the factual basis for the company’s search for a larger manufacturing location.

The facility’s role in drone production also connects the expansion with the region’s broader robotics sector. Generalist, a Bay Area robotics startup, is developing AI foundation models intended to operate across different types of robotic systems.

Expansion Adds Capacity to Bay Area Technology Manufacturing

Skydio’s expansion adds manufacturing activity to the Bay Area technology sector through increased production space and staffing in Hayward. The company’s current facility has doubled its manufacturing space, and the manufacturing workforce has also doubled.

The changes provide a concrete manufacturing component within the company’s Bay Area operations. The expansion is tied specifically to drone production at the Hayward facility.

The search for a larger facility adds another element to that manufacturing activity. Skydio is increasing the size of its existing operation while also looking for a larger Bay Area location to support its production needs.

For Bay Area businesses, the development involves demand for physical industrial space and manufacturing workers. The company is evaluating additional facility capacity while maintaining its expanded Hayward operation.

For technology workers, the workforce increase provides a direct employment component to the expansion. The manufacturing workforce at the Hayward site has doubled alongside the increase in manufacturing space.

For the East Bay, the Hayward facility provides a local base for Skydio’s drone production. The company’s facility search also connects that existing operation to a wider Bay Area search for additional manufacturing space.

The expansion is defined by three reported developments: Skydio has doubled manufacturing space in Hayward, doubled its manufacturing workforce and begun searching for a larger Bay Area facility. Together, those changes describe the company’s current expansion of drone manufacturing capacity.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Skydio’s drone manufacturing facility located?

Skydio’s existing drone manufacturing facility is located in Hayward in the East Bay. The site is used for the company’s drone manufacturing operations.

How much has Skydio’s Hayward manufacturing operation expanded?

Skydio has doubled the manufacturing space at its Hayward facility. The company has also doubled its manufacturing workforce at the site.

Why is Skydio searching for a larger Bay Area facility?

Skydio is searching for a larger Bay Area facility as its manufacturing operation expands. The search follows the doubling of manufacturing space and workforce at the Hayward site.

What does Skydio manufacture in Hayward?

Skydio manufactures drones at its Hayward facility. The site is part of the company’s Bay Area drone manufacturing operation.

Is Skydio expanding its manufacturing workforce?

Yes. Skydio has doubled its manufacturing workforce at the Hayward facility as part of the expansion of its manufacturing operation.

Marcy Kelly Lost Her Son Michael and Writes on What Grief Needs From the People Who Show Up

San Francisco Post Staff on September 30, 2026

By: Michael Beas

Most people who love someone going through grief want desperately to say the right thing. They rehearse sentences. They search for words that will help. And then they often say something that, despite the best intentions, lands wrong. Marcy Kelly knows what that feels like from the inside, as the mother who lost her son Michael and who has now written The Porcelain Heart: A Mother’s Memoir of Unexpected Loss with a candor that makes it genuinely useful to anyone trying to understand what grief actually needs.

She is direct about this in the memoir. There is no absolute right thing to say. But there are many wrong things.

What Not to Do

The most common mistake, Kelly says, is turning the conversation toward the visitor’s own loss. Don’t go on about your own grief when you are there to support someone else’s. Don’t compare experiences. Don’t suggest that you understand how they feel because you lost someone too, because grief is not a competition and the comparison rarely helps the person you are trying to comfort.

What does help is simpler and more specific. Offer to help in a concrete way. Write a personal note, because a note lasts and can be returned to. Share a fond memory of the person who died. And above everything else, say their name. So many people avoid naming the deceased, believing they are sparing the grieving person additional pain. They are not. They are erasing the person who matters most from the conversation. Saying Michael’s name is not a wound. It is an acknowledgment that he existed and that his existence still matters.

The Guilt and the Long Road

Kelly writes candidly about guilt, denial, and the long road toward acceptance, and she doesn’t pretend any of those stages were clean or predictable. Every chapter of the memoir carried its own pain, but the chapter about taking Michael’s ashes to the Blue Ridge Mountains was particularly difficult. Those mountains were where they had spent many summers and holidays. She could not fathom that the joyful days they had shared there were gone.

That specificity is what makes the grief in this book feel real rather than representative. It isn’t about the general experience of losing a child. It is about losing Michael, about the particular texture of the life they shared and the particular weight of what his absence left behind.

Transforming Grief Into Legacy

Michael was an only child who didn’t have children of his own. Marcy Kelly wanted his memory to outlive her, and she built that legacy with intention. She created a golf scholarship at his alma mater, where he had been on the golf team. She commissioned a fountain along the LA River, in a spot where he used to hike. Both of those things exist in the world now as evidence that he lived and that someone loved him enough to make sure the world would keep knowing it.

The memoir itself is part of that legacy. She negotiated with Michael in her head while she wrote it, worrying about whether he would find something too personal or too embarrassing. He wouldn’t have wanted his photo on the cover. But she came to accept it, through the internal conversations that grief makes possible, as the right choice for telling the story that would help the most people.

The Baby Steps That Actually Work

For someone in the acute early stages of grief who cannot see any path forward, Kelly’s advice is grounded and practical. Stay busy. Have one goal each day, even if it is very small. Before you go to bed, acknowledge that you completed it. Pat yourself on the back for having survived another day. Take baby steps.

She found that learning to play bridge helped her. Something that demanded enough attention to block, at least temporarily, the thoughts that overwhelmed her. The specific activity matters less than the principle. Find something that requires your brain to be somewhere else for a little while.

The path forward will eventually reveal itself. It will not look like the path before. Life will never be the same. But it will be there.

For anyone trying to understand what grief needs from the people around it, The Porcelain Heart by Marcy Kelly is available now on Amazon.

How a Tool Built for Sighted Professionals Became Important to the Low Vision Community and What Caregivers Should Know

San Francisco Post Staff on September 30, 2026

There is a particular kind of technological transformation that happens when something built for one purpose turns out to serve another need with unexpected and genuine power. Ray-Ban Meta AI Glasses were designed for sighted, active people who wanted a hands-free way to stay connected, capture moments, and access information while remaining fully present in the world around them. What nobody fully anticipated was that the same features, the hands-free camera, the open-ear speakers, the voice-activated AI, the ability to make calls and access assistance in real time, would resonate so deeply with the blind and low-vision community that the Blinded Veterans Association would develop dedicated guides for their use and that the American Foundation for the Blind would review them for their usefulness to people with reduced vision. That transformation is the context in which Patrick J. Fischer has written Meta Glasses and the Modern Caregiver, and his thirty-five years of experience helping people with low vision stay independent gives him the specific authority to make that context legible and useful for caregivers encountering it for the first time.

Fischer understands something that most technology guides about assistive technology miss entirely, which is that the technology does not exist in isolation from the human relationships that surround its use. A person with low vision wearing Meta Glasses is not simply an individual with a new tool. They are a person in a web of relationships, with family members and professional caregivers and friends and service providers, and the way those relationships function changes when the technology changes what the person can do and how they can communicate. That shift is not just practical. It is relational, and both parties need to understand that shift and work through it thoughtfully.

His book addresses that shift with the practical specificity of someone who has spent decades helping people with low vision and their caregivers develop the understanding required to get maximum benefit from assistive technology. He writes about the Be My Eyes integration, which connects wearers hands-free with trained sighted volunteers across twenty-one global markets who can provide real-time visual assistance, and how that capability can ease the cognitive and emotional load that falls on human caregivers who have been serving as the primary bridge between their loved one and the visual world. The book also includes illustrations of four types of Meta glasses, two from Oakley, one from Ray-Ban, and one Meta-branded AI model, so readers can learn the controls and build their confidence from there, along with step-by-step guidance on installing the Meta AI app and configuring it with either an iPhone or an Android device.

All of this is rendered with the clarity and warmth of someone who has had these conversations many thousands of times and who understands exactly where the knowledge gaps are and what it takes to fill them in ways readers can put to use.

The timing of this book is significant. The technology is moving fast and the community that has most to gain from it is moving fast in response, but the caregiver community often lags behind simply for lack of a clear, trusted, and practically oriented guide. Fischer provides that guide with the authority of his thirty-five years in the field and the accessibility that his publishing background and his commitment to practical, usable information have always produced.

For caregivers, family members, and professionals supporting someone with low vision, the book sets out how Meta Glasses are reshaping what connection and independence look like in caregiving relationships. Meta Glasses and the Modern Caregiver by Patrick J. Fischer is available on Amazon.

Day: September 30, 2026

Skydio Expands Hayward Factory as Bay Area Site Search Begins

Key Takeaways

Skydio Expands Its Hayward Manufacturing Operation

Manufacturing Space and Workforce Double at Hayward Site

Skydio Searches for a Larger Bay Area Facility

Hayward Supports Skydio Drone Production

Expansion Adds Capacity to Bay Area Technology Manufacturing

Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Skydio’s drone manufacturing facility located?

How much has Skydio’s Hayward manufacturing operation expanded?

Why is Skydio searching for a larger Bay Area facility?

What does Skydio manufacture in Hayward?

Is Skydio expanding its manufacturing workforce?

Marcy Kelly Lost Her Son Michael and Writes on What Grief Needs From the People Who Show Up

What Not to Do

The Guilt and the Long Road

Transforming Grief Into Legacy

The Baby Steps That Actually Work

How a Tool Built for Sighted Professionals Became Important to the Low Vision Community and What Caregivers Should Know

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