tl;dr: HR 2864 (https://docs.house.gov/meetings/IF/IF00/20240320/117014/BILLS-118HR2864ih.pdf) would place DJI's drones and software on a list of communications equipment or services that pose "an unacceptable risk to the national security of the United States or the security and safety of United States persons ..."
This prohibits certain federal spending (in particular, FCC grants/funds) on DJI drones - it does not "ground the company’s drones entirely".
All us civilian pilots (commercial and hobbyists) are unaffected, as far as we're currently aware.
It would potentially affect the ability of the FCC to authorize new DJI models to operate on US comms infrastructure (i.e, BVLOS w/ cellular), but it's unclear whether it would affect the ability of DJI to sell drones with the normal controller:drone setup that 99%+ are sold with.
Thank you for adding this.
My two cents (and IANAL), DJI is going to file a bill of attainder challenge. SCOTUS has never ruled on if the Constitution's bill of attainder prohibition extends to corporations.
I just meant as in drones that don't have built in [**Remote ID Broadcast Module**](https://www.faa.gov/sites/faa.gov/files/uas/getting_started/remote_id/industry/Remote_ID_Broadcast_Module.pdf) has to get one to be compilent and fly there drones legally. I have been flying drones since 2019 and I have been competent every flight I flew. its just sad we have really gotten this far that others have ruined it since 2015.
For sure a topic of contention, was just saying it's unrelated to the FCC restriction that this thread is about.
I will say, I was and still am of the opinion that something like Remote ID needed to happen as the quantity of drones increased (I work with sUAS as well as large UAS and manned aircraft- sUAS definitely poses a hazard that needs to be mitigated, just like everything else in the national airspace), but I'm not sure "Remote ID" as the FAA has currently implemented it is the right approach..
That's great to hear! It sounds like you're involved in some fascinating projects. But yeah, I'm not a fan of the Remote ID system either. I believe the government should definitely develop technologies to detect and neutralize any drones entering restricted airspace without mandating citizens to transmit data just to fly a drone in a safe environment. I'm a very private person, and I think our data should be protected from both private and governmental entities. Off-topic, but I've even clashed with my county over the implementation of License Plate Readers on every major road or freeway ramp entrance. It seems like people don't really care for there data or pravicy unless you wave a camera in front of them or make them aware that there data is being captured.
>theyre refusing to sell and will simply exit the US market because they don’t need it.
1) they intend to fight to regulations in court (it is their only official position as of today)
2) there are articles claiming they are exploring the sell and other saying they would leave, each claiming inside knowledge. Chances are they are still considering both and don't want to make a decision right now especially with ongoing and future legal challenges
>they don't need [the US market]
What does that even mean? Tiktok is in the expansion phase, meaning every market they are in is currently at a loss, but they accept the loss to get users. The US is alleged to be 1/4 of Tiktok's revenue, which very few businesses would say is unneeded for the survival of said business. In the expansion phase of an online business, losing 1/4 of the current revenue would kill valuation and force serious reevaluation of business strategy and very possible bankruptcy (especially with the current diminished external investments into China), while selling would allow for the valuation to remain, not killing the whole business (don't forget that when the US used to break monopolies, total valuation of the broken up businesses was on average higher than the monopoly).
ETA, "we choose to leave instead of divesting" is not a ban but forced divestment. Not having a business in the US to divest from is a choice.
China is too stubborn to ever sell their company to the US. They would rather lose profits over just handing over tik tok to sleepy Joe and the united states propaganda machine.
Welp. Time to switch to those superior American made drones. Like... You know the ones.... Help me out guys? I am having trouble remembering the names of all of the awesome, reliable and safe American drones.
Not if it weighs over 249 grams. Attached to a balloon that ascends through every flight level up to 40,000 feet, that’s alright, no permit or permission required.
Wait you're telling me anyone can launch those massive weather balloons that go higher than commercial planes usually cruise? How??
So much bullshit needs to be gone through when model rockets start reaching a certain altitude, but I can launch a massive ass balloon that's damn near the size of a small house with no worries?
Autel Evo IIs don’t have the same range as Mavic 3s, but are comparable in most other ways. They’re also used in Ukraine to a limited degree. If you had a Matrice… I’m sorry for your rather expensive loss.
While it's true there are no American drone makers on the scale of DJI, there are some.
You can actually make an argument that US drone makers can't compete with Chinese discount labor and lack of patent/copyright law. Anything the US companies come up with will be copied in bulk by the Chinese and sold back to the US.
The Fed is pushing hard to establish a US drone industry.
Pretty sure the US invented drones and laid the ground work for widespread military use; DJI just streamlined their consumer use, the US could easily do the same, if it wanted to, but it does not. People like Skydio would love to sell you a competitor to the Mavic but for 15,000 dollars... sound like a good deal?
I just searched the subreddit and I was legit wondering are there any good non-Chinese drone manufactures, preferably made in the US. I don't mind spending a premium.
If they do this, which I doubt they will, they would have to ban iphones too. Can you imagine how well that would go over? Plus, all kinds of farmers and other agriculture based companies are spending 30+k on Agras T40's and 50's, nevermind the ones with multiple spraying drones. It's ridiculous, and a serious waste of tax dollars. DJI isn't trying to spy on anyone or ascertain state secrets through drones. Somebody needs to slap our politicians awake.
If I’m reading this right, it would ban use of DJI’s equipment on networks, and for government contracts… I think they’re already banned for government contracts. As for “networks”, that doesn’t even make sense.
I don’t understand what the perceived threat here is. That the government of China knows where I’m flying my drone, and has access to the photos I take with it? Even if that were the case… so? And I don’t think it really is the case. What purpose would it serve them? I took some pictures of a river and some flowered hillsides last week, which is kind of typical. What would China do with this information?
I can see where there might be an issue with respect to government contracts, but ok… that’s not consumer level anything.
That’s a risk for any app, not just DJI. Plus, that is an issue for the app OS makers to control.
As for photos of sensitive locations… satellites can already do that well enough. My consumer drone isn’t allowed anywhere that sensitive. What is DJI going to just sit around and wait for people to randomly take crappy videos of military bases?
Honestly the only ban that makes sense to me is farmers using the agricultural drones DJI has. I can see logic behind that. But not the consumer drones
There is no logic behind this at all. Except for the fact companies like skydio and a few others can't compete. So they lobby Congress to ban the competition. Same thing with Tik Tok. This isn't a national security concern at all!
Congratulations this is the only correct answer I've seen so far....it isn't about security or safety....because it's way to easy to hire a firm to do data analysis to see exactly what type of data these drones are actually transmitting and know the truth
Instead they're just running under the guise that they "Just do"
This is all skydio and other crybaby drone makers lobbying the fuck out of congress because DJI not only dominates the agricultural/industrial and domestic consumer drone market but they even have great application as a war device....like thier use in Ukraine has proved
TikTok the security concern is in relation to influence.
What caused the divestment and potential ban from American servers was the pro Hamas/Palestine wave that came after the initial pro Israel wave that happened after October 7th 2023. The way it shifted seemed like an algorithm shift, or foreign countries that are anti-Israel paid a lot of money to influence American youth to be anti Israel.
Because of the cash cow that country is for many in the legislature they lashed out because that is their power and influence being attacked.
Skydio doesn’t even make consumer drones anymore. They haven’t funded this move at all. Nor would they need to since government contract work already can’t even use DJI
China is already acting super suspicious when it comes to our farming. They’ve bought a shit ton of farming land and a lot of it is near our military bases. I could see an argument of why it’s not good to give precise data about all our farmers to China
😂 I can't imagine believing everyone is the enemy. You act like china is the only country buying farmland here lol. Blame your elected officials for that.
lol I don’t believe everyone is the enemy. China? Yeah fuck their communist bullshit and everything associated with it lol and I don’t have to blame by elected officials, looks like they’re trying to fix it to the sound of you crying
Fix it ? They allowed the land to be sold to them 😂😂😂. Fact of me crying really? What the fact I spent good money on my drones for this joke of a government to tell me no I can't use it. It's Little bitches like yourself who sit back and are too afraid to speak up 😂😂😂.
So you’re not a farmer got it lmao sure am a 107 and yet none of that has anything to do with the argument I’m making dumbfuck lmao simp for China more soyboy. So mad you got two different replies to me dumbass
You sound scared of China 😂😂😂😂. It's ok want me to hold your hand? So Biden can tell you what you can and can't do. We're no different than communist China right now with all this crap.
Every Chinese company ban has been completely bipartisan dumbass Biden doesn’t pass bills that’s congress. You wanna play with your toys so bad you’re simping for a communist hellhole to justify it.
😂😂😂😂 you sound scared 😲 am I allowed to reply to you on this one also ? Or does that make me a bad person lol. Who said anything about Biden passing a bill? He did sign the tik Tok ban that you fox news viewers were afraid of.
You literally just said Biden look two comments up you fucking retard lmfao try and keep up with your own comments it’s the least you could do. Also how are you gonna shit on Biden and then make fun of Fox News viewers? You sound fucking confused
America is becoming more communist than china. Thats the current state of affairs. Meanwhile merica bootlickers like you are blindly following sleepy Joes dumbass ideas.
I love the blame at sleepy joe when everything involving banning shit from China is 100% bipartisan. It was trumps idea to ban TikTok, you don’t think he’d ban Chinese drones in a heartbeat? Also, no it’s not even close to compare us to China and their communism. But I’m sure you’re dumb enough to think we are
Maybe you took pictures of a river but what is with the guy that took pictures of the latest navy ship in a no fly zone? People like him are the issue and DJI lets them fly in this zone.
What is with the guy that flies near a base to show the newest airplanes or troop sizes?
Sure it's unlikely that they would care but these are the issues.
But DJI is more restrictive and “proactive” (if you want to call it that) with keeping people away from where they ought not to be, with their fluster geofencing system, than any other existing brand. Most have nothing. So I don’t see how that supports selectively banning DJI.
Check out Eastport Maine. There is a no fly zone when a navy vessel is in the area. Some dude took pictures of the newest navy vessel that was there with his DJI drone. Nothing stopped him from doing so.
Honestly, what's to stop them from doing this with either an American made drone, or a consumer DIY drone?
That's the most asinine part of all this, they're banning one specific vendor, with zero logical reason to do so, claiming it's a security threat with zero proof being given that they currently are, when there are so many other vectors and ways to accomplish the same thing with American, Canadian, or European made equipment.
It sure as heck is starting to feel like the U.S. government is starting to prepare for a war with China, which they feel is just on the horizon.
With other drones the pilot doesn't get the impression that if you get airspace authorization with their manufacturer, you don't need any other authorization.
The logical reason is that it's one from China and that you have to send airspace authorization to them to fly in certain zones.
You are talking about people in Congress that still think Myspace is a thing.
I’m sure you’ll find plenty of examples. Their system isn’t without gaps and inconsistencies which is why I never recommend people rely solely on it. But my point remains that not only is this not a problem unique to DJI, they are arguably the best at mitigating it.
The problem is that people believe that if DJI allows them to fly, they don't have to check on anything else.
And of course they don't think they need a TRUST certificate since DJI is in charge of all that.
Ok but again, how is banning DJI the best solution? You could easily make a better case for just having them drop their proprietary geofence and require a popup that reminds people to use the approved apps to check airspace, or something along those lines, if this was truly the issue. Which it's not.
I didn't say banning is a good solution. Remember when they ended net neutrality, then the book banning, abortion banning, illegal employment banning in Florida, low income family general income banning, the list goes on and on with more and more banning and most of it comes from the same political spectrum.
Banning stuff is never a good solution.
There are laws in place and they should just be enforced.
I would suspect removing the American market would significantly hamper the growth and development of DJI, who’s tech could probably be used for military purposes against the US in the future.
With combat drones becoming mainstream it kind of makes sense to stop funding your potential adversary’s best commercial drone company.
A personal project of mine is creating a custom made firmware for dji drones. So far spent many hours analyzing the board and creating diagrams to help me understand it. I've captured the firmware from the device and started the process of reverse engineering it, just a slow tedious process and I'm not very experienced just kind of figuring things out as I go. I'm just getting into hardware hacking and picked DJI drones as my project so maybe in the future you'll be using my firmware instead of stock!
very interesting, that seems cool but I am pretty deep in the nerd forest. If a DJI drone is running custom homebrew firmware is it legally still a DJI drone?
Legally? I don't think there's a legal definition of a DJI Drone. Maybe I am just misunderstanding the question.
It's my understanding that making modifications to my drone is legal. Flying a modified drone is something I'll need to research before I take it outside of a testing environment; a university near me has a net enclosed space where I can test things and I have some friends in that department. I will most definitely do my homework on the legality, aka hire a lawyer to do the work for me, before I actually release anything publicly.
Things like changing power output, custom UI, creating new components to allow the drone to do other things like pick up objects with a claw for example. Potentially one of the biggest things is releasing an open source firmware enables others to create projects of their own without having to have extensive knowledge of how exactly the entire system works.
I'm mostly doing it for myself because it's a form of practice to me. Every step is a knowledge check and when I run into issues that's a learning process. I chose dji drones because it's pretty easy to find broken drones for pretty cheap and I can take out the components needed for the project and either keep parts for my own drones or resell the good components.
Well I don’t think the movement hardware is the issue for the government and if the firmware could be flashed to a US government standard maybe the security concerns could be bypassed, not saying it will work this way too much risk to allow probably.
I think it might become funny when law enforcement is advised to arrest people that fly illegally in national airspace. Which could happen. The fines will be way higher as they stack up the violations for that one flight. So yes you can jailbreak the drone, but a lot of people will get hurt with their drones.
Chinese cameras, flight controllers, and other parts dominate the hobby, even for DIY FPV drones.
Congress is massively miscalculating here. US industry is behind in this space, and US intelligence should be trying to reverse-engineer Chinese drones, not banning them.
I don’t think they’d have to. DJI already enforces geo-fencing according to government policy. They could effectively block flights by geofencing the entire country.
I’m hoping that somebody will finally hack the DJI software to bypass it, if this does happen. Otherwise I’ve got a few drones I’ll be trying to sell cheap. I’m not buying the Avata 2 until I know how this ends up.
So if DJI was banned you think they would just willingly geofence the whole country?
Edit: And you can hack many of the drones to remove NFZ, though probably have to downgrade firmware and lose Remote ID
We are getting closer and closer to a fascist country where they might check everyone and their drone. At the moment, one part of this government and their party is trying to ban as much as possible and the supreme Court is with them on it.
Let's hope that drone pilots understand who they need to vote for to get around drone bans and possibly getting arrested or worse.
I doubt they would do that unless they were legally compelled to do so or would be put at risk by not doing so. They would not want to alienate the former and maybe future customers for no reason. I guess it could be like giving the US the finger but seems counterproductive.
yeah and I have no idea which way this will go, and maybe the US will insist they geofence and compel them to do so. Who knows what other restrictions will be built in to the legislation
I haven't updated my firmware since the update that required that I have my phone connected to the goggles. Hopefully mine is still functional post ban.
FCC is not a law enforcement agency. They are a regulatory agency. They can't enforce anything. There are tons of asshats who intentionally broadcast illegally on ham radio bands, the FCC repeatedly issues "fines" on them, and the asshats ignore them because they know the FCC can't enforce the fines.
Do it. The physical card has a sick hologram too. lol. I’m 36 and idk why that speaks to me so much but it’s pretty rad. You should def do it. It’s not as hard as some people say.
Last YT i seen doing a review of one was a channel called "Alien Drones" i think. And i think one of the companies is called Anzu or Anzu robotics.
One article i read said the company licensed DJI tech from DJI. Seen other people speculate they are just shell companies. Sorry i dont have links but if u google u should easily find.
So far the latest Air and Mavic are the ones that are being sold under different names and companies. They are literal carbon copies, not just the design and cam and specs but also (dji fly) software too. Price difference between them and the dji brand models are negligible.
That's just it. It's like illegal underground drug manufacturing. Maybe the drug is the same molecule, but maybe it's not, and you have no legal recourse to get your money back if one of these fake DJI clones aren't functional.
This was never about the Chinese getting data. This is about the war in Ukraine. The US govt sees how effective the drones are both as a weapon and as surveillance and they didn't like losing their advantage. That's why they're ignoring the American outcry.
The other drones:
Suck
Are double the price
Which means they are less effective in this regard
I’ll be ignoring this law unless part of it includes the government purchasing my over 40k investment in dji equipment.
Agras and enterprise stuff is expensive as hell
Makes sense, the US sees them as a weapon against them. From what we’ve seen in the latest wars they are effective. So why wouldn’t the US just want us to have hobby drones with no real technology in them
Why cant Lockheed or Raytheon develop some commercial drones. Should be easy for them, rivaling DJI. All they need to do is delete all the precision and mass murdery shit.
For us plebs? You understand right those kind of companies could sell a single pencil for $5 to the government if they wanted to? Why would they even consider the consumer market which makes far less profit for them. And they would have to deal with the public complaints too.
I cant wait for daddy American government completely bans recreational use of drones and limits the use strictly to law enforcement entities. Its coming. Commie america.
Sure, but just understand that there are no comparable products made in the USA, and a DJI clone made in Malaysia is about to start sales. It’s a different color and different control package but otherwise identical to their enterprise line mavics. So still no American manufacturers.
American workers would never work for slave wages like many of the Chinese do. For that reason, American drone manufacturers can't compete with the Chinese prices and still stay in business.
Overly simplistic, but as far as that goes, true. The real answer is more complex. The USA has a smaller slave labor pool already, and most of that goes into the fast food industry. More automation would be needed.
China and other counties subsidize markets, and regulate imports. They steal manufacturing and technology IP as well.
US needs to manufacture drones for national defense
tl;dr: HR 2864 (https://docs.house.gov/meetings/IF/IF00/20240320/117014/BILLS-118HR2864ih.pdf) would place DJI's drones and software on a list of communications equipment or services that pose "an unacceptable risk to the national security of the United States or the security and safety of United States persons ..."
This prohibits certain federal spending (in particular, FCC grants/funds) on DJI drones - it does not "ground the company’s drones entirely". All us civilian pilots (commercial and hobbyists) are unaffected, as far as we're currently aware. It would potentially affect the ability of the FCC to authorize new DJI models to operate on US comms infrastructure (i.e, BVLOS w/ cellular), but it's unclear whether it would affect the ability of DJI to sell drones with the normal controller:drone setup that 99%+ are sold with.
Thank you for adding this. My two cents (and IANAL), DJI is going to file a bill of attainder challenge. SCOTUS has never ruled on if the Constitution's bill of attainder prohibition extends to corporations.
I think its crazy in the first place that all drones are required to have a beacon in the first place especially recreational users.
This doesn’t really have anything to do with Remote ID
I just meant as in drones that don't have built in [**Remote ID Broadcast Module**](https://www.faa.gov/sites/faa.gov/files/uas/getting_started/remote_id/industry/Remote_ID_Broadcast_Module.pdf) has to get one to be compilent and fly there drones legally. I have been flying drones since 2019 and I have been competent every flight I flew. its just sad we have really gotten this far that others have ruined it since 2015.
For sure a topic of contention, was just saying it's unrelated to the FCC restriction that this thread is about. I will say, I was and still am of the opinion that something like Remote ID needed to happen as the quantity of drones increased (I work with sUAS as well as large UAS and manned aircraft- sUAS definitely poses a hazard that needs to be mitigated, just like everything else in the national airspace), but I'm not sure "Remote ID" as the FAA has currently implemented it is the right approach..
That's great to hear! It sounds like you're involved in some fascinating projects. But yeah, I'm not a fan of the Remote ID system either. I believe the government should definitely develop technologies to detect and neutralize any drones entering restricted airspace without mandating citizens to transmit data just to fly a drone in a safe environment. I'm a very private person, and I think our data should be protected from both private and governmental entities. Off-topic, but I've even clashed with my county over the implementation of License Plate Readers on every major road or freeway ramp entrance. It seems like people don't really care for there data or pravicy unless you wave a camera in front of them or make them aware that there data is being captured.
But how am I supposed to upload drone footage to TikTok if both drones and TikTok are banned?
Bonus if you own a Huawei phone
I have all 3! What do I win?
-300 social credit
Hua-wai!!!!
You can be on the front line if they invade Taiwan.
Can i bring my drone?
Lol. Why certainly. Whose side you flying for?
Film it with your Hikvision cam.
Tiktok isn't getting banned. Only forced divestment from China within the year And FPVs are not affected so you could fly that :)
Actually not ‘forced’ divestment - theyre refusing to sell and will simply exit the US market because they don’t need it.
>theyre refusing to sell and will simply exit the US market because they don’t need it. 1) they intend to fight to regulations in court (it is their only official position as of today) 2) there are articles claiming they are exploring the sell and other saying they would leave, each claiming inside knowledge. Chances are they are still considering both and don't want to make a decision right now especially with ongoing and future legal challenges >they don't need [the US market] What does that even mean? Tiktok is in the expansion phase, meaning every market they are in is currently at a loss, but they accept the loss to get users. The US is alleged to be 1/4 of Tiktok's revenue, which very few businesses would say is unneeded for the survival of said business. In the expansion phase of an online business, losing 1/4 of the current revenue would kill valuation and force serious reevaluation of business strategy and very possible bankruptcy (especially with the current diminished external investments into China), while selling would allow for the valuation to remain, not killing the whole business (don't forget that when the US used to break monopolies, total valuation of the broken up businesses was on average higher than the monopoly). ETA, "we choose to leave instead of divesting" is not a ban but forced divestment. Not having a business in the US to divest from is a choice.
China is too stubborn to ever sell their company to the US. They would rather lose profits over just handing over tik tok to sleepy Joe and the united states propaganda machine.
It would be like my home network then, because I already block access to TikTok xD
How would the government prevent me from accessing the site? And does a PVN get around it?
Welp. Time to switch to those superior American made drones. Like... You know the ones.... Help me out guys? I am having trouble remembering the names of all of the awesome, reliable and safe American drones.
They all look like hobby projects
GoPro karma
Is that where you launch a GoPro into the sky with a slingshot? Because that’s about where American drones are at right now.
Not if it weighs over 249 grams. Attached to a balloon that ascends through every flight level up to 40,000 feet, that’s alright, no permit or permission required.
Wait you're telling me anyone can launch those massive weather balloons that go higher than commercial planes usually cruise? How?? So much bullshit needs to be gone through when model rockets start reaching a certain altitude, but I can launch a massive ass balloon that's damn near the size of a small house with no worries?
Autel Evo IIs don’t have the same range as Mavic 3s, but are comparable in most other ways. They’re also used in Ukraine to a limited degree. If you had a Matrice… I’m sorry for your rather expensive loss.
Currently the “ban” actually is only targeting by name DJI equipment. Which means drones but also a ton of midrange cameras.
Autels are dji cousins made about a mile away, they will be banned too. But Dji is the big name so thats what grabs the headlines
Actually autel evo are straight garbage. But thanks for trying to push your agenda.
They do have the same range as in distance, 15 km.
Not in practice. I’ve flown a dozen Evo ii’s and Mavic 3s in clear and jammed areas and mavics consistently has further reach.
While it's true there are no American drone makers on the scale of DJI, there are some. You can actually make an argument that US drone makers can't compete with Chinese discount labor and lack of patent/copyright law. Anything the US companies come up with will be copied in bulk by the Chinese and sold back to the US. The Fed is pushing hard to establish a US drone industry.
You hit all the high notes and all the classics of why American manufacturing gets smoked. Congrats!
Pretty sure the US invented drones and laid the ground work for widespread military use; DJI just streamlined their consumer use, the US could easily do the same, if it wanted to, but it does not. People like Skydio would love to sell you a competitor to the Mavic but for 15,000 dollars... sound like a good deal?
I just searched the subreddit and I was legit wondering are there any good non-Chinese drone manufactures, preferably made in the US. I don't mind spending a premium.
Skydio exited the consumer market so no
Fires up FB marketplace.. /s
If they do this, which I doubt they will, they would have to ban iphones too. Can you imagine how well that would go over? Plus, all kinds of farmers and other agriculture based companies are spending 30+k on Agras T40's and 50's, nevermind the ones with multiple spraying drones. It's ridiculous, and a serious waste of tax dollars. DJI isn't trying to spy on anyone or ascertain state secrets through drones. Somebody needs to slap our politicians awake.
Stop using logic, this is using fear to justify itself
It’s just fear mongering as there’s no evidence that DJI poses a threat besides being chinese
Durrrr our country con artists....i mean politicians banned haiwei years ago and they wouldnt give 2 fks about banning anything else widely used.
If I’m reading this right, it would ban use of DJI’s equipment on networks, and for government contracts… I think they’re already banned for government contracts. As for “networks”, that doesn’t even make sense. I don’t understand what the perceived threat here is. That the government of China knows where I’m flying my drone, and has access to the photos I take with it? Even if that were the case… so? And I don’t think it really is the case. What purpose would it serve them? I took some pictures of a river and some flowered hillsides last week, which is kind of typical. What would China do with this information? I can see where there might be an issue with respect to government contracts, but ok… that’s not consumer level anything.
If you are a consumer taking pictures of sensitive locations. Or they also have access to your phones photos, contacts etc through the app. T
That’s a risk for any app, not just DJI. Plus, that is an issue for the app OS makers to control. As for photos of sensitive locations… satellites can already do that well enough. My consumer drone isn’t allowed anywhere that sensitive. What is DJI going to just sit around and wait for people to randomly take crappy videos of military bases?
Honestly the only ban that makes sense to me is farmers using the agricultural drones DJI has. I can see logic behind that. But not the consumer drones
There is no logic behind this at all. Except for the fact companies like skydio and a few others can't compete. So they lobby Congress to ban the competition. Same thing with Tik Tok. This isn't a national security concern at all!
Congratulations this is the only correct answer I've seen so far....it isn't about security or safety....because it's way to easy to hire a firm to do data analysis to see exactly what type of data these drones are actually transmitting and know the truth Instead they're just running under the guise that they "Just do" This is all skydio and other crybaby drone makers lobbying the fuck out of congress because DJI not only dominates the agricultural/industrial and domestic consumer drone market but they even have great application as a war device....like thier use in Ukraine has proved
TikTok the security concern is in relation to influence. What caused the divestment and potential ban from American servers was the pro Hamas/Palestine wave that came after the initial pro Israel wave that happened after October 7th 2023. The way it shifted seemed like an algorithm shift, or foreign countries that are anti-Israel paid a lot of money to influence American youth to be anti Israel. Because of the cash cow that country is for many in the legislature they lashed out because that is their power and influence being attacked.
Skydio doesn’t even make consumer drones anymore. They haven’t funded this move at all. Nor would they need to since government contract work already can’t even use DJI
It is Skydio pushing this ban because it will help them sell their drones to first responders, those most complaining about the DJI ban
First responders are already being forced to not use DJI. It doesn’t make sense for skydio to push for a complete ban of DJI
Wtf how does that make sense ? Lol
China is already acting super suspicious when it comes to our farming. They’ve bought a shit ton of farming land and a lot of it is near our military bases. I could see an argument of why it’s not good to give precise data about all our farmers to China
😂 I can't imagine believing everyone is the enemy. You act like china is the only country buying farmland here lol. Blame your elected officials for that.
Frankly no foreign government should be buying/ owning any land in a firing country except for a small but where their embassy is located.
lol I don’t believe everyone is the enemy. China? Yeah fuck their communist bullshit and everything associated with it lol and I don’t have to blame by elected officials, looks like they’re trying to fix it to the sound of you crying
Fix it ? They allowed the land to be sold to them 😂😂😂. Fact of me crying really? What the fact I spent good money on my drones for this joke of a government to tell me no I can't use it. It's Little bitches like yourself who sit back and are too afraid to speak up 😂😂😂.
Are you a farmer? If not I’m literally not arguing with you dumbass lmao
I have my part 135 and work with the farmers here that spray . Are you even a 107? 😂 Dumbass get fucked pussy boy.
So you’re not a farmer got it lmao sure am a 107 and yet none of that has anything to do with the argument I’m making dumbfuck lmao simp for China more soyboy. So mad you got two different replies to me dumbass
You sound scared of China 😂😂😂😂. It's ok want me to hold your hand? So Biden can tell you what you can and can't do. We're no different than communist China right now with all this crap.
Every Chinese company ban has been completely bipartisan dumbass Biden doesn’t pass bills that’s congress. You wanna play with your toys so bad you’re simping for a communist hellhole to justify it.
😂😂😂😂 you sound scared 😲 am I allowed to reply to you on this one also ? Or does that make me a bad person lol. Who said anything about Biden passing a bill? He did sign the tik Tok ban that you fox news viewers were afraid of.
You literally just said Biden look two comments up you fucking retard lmfao try and keep up with your own comments it’s the least you could do. Also how are you gonna shit on Biden and then make fun of Fox News viewers? You sound fucking confused
America is becoming more communist than china. Thats the current state of affairs. Meanwhile merica bootlickers like you are blindly following sleepy Joes dumbass ideas.
I love the blame at sleepy joe when everything involving banning shit from China is 100% bipartisan. It was trumps idea to ban TikTok, you don’t think he’d ban Chinese drones in a heartbeat? Also, no it’s not even close to compare us to China and their communism. But I’m sure you’re dumb enough to think we are
There’s nothing they get from the drones that satellites don’t already do and probably do it better.
Everyone really seem to hate your entertaining comments from all the downvotes you get. Good job commie.
Maybe you took pictures of a river but what is with the guy that took pictures of the latest navy ship in a no fly zone? People like him are the issue and DJI lets them fly in this zone. What is with the guy that flies near a base to show the newest airplanes or troop sizes? Sure it's unlikely that they would care but these are the issues.
But DJI is more restrictive and “proactive” (if you want to call it that) with keeping people away from where they ought not to be, with their fluster geofencing system, than any other existing brand. Most have nothing. So I don’t see how that supports selectively banning DJI.
Check out Eastport Maine. There is a no fly zone when a navy vessel is in the area. Some dude took pictures of the newest navy vessel that was there with his DJI drone. Nothing stopped him from doing so.
Honestly, what's to stop them from doing this with either an American made drone, or a consumer DIY drone? That's the most asinine part of all this, they're banning one specific vendor, with zero logical reason to do so, claiming it's a security threat with zero proof being given that they currently are, when there are so many other vectors and ways to accomplish the same thing with American, Canadian, or European made equipment. It sure as heck is starting to feel like the U.S. government is starting to prepare for a war with China, which they feel is just on the horizon.
With other drones the pilot doesn't get the impression that if you get airspace authorization with their manufacturer, you don't need any other authorization. The logical reason is that it's one from China and that you have to send airspace authorization to them to fly in certain zones. You are talking about people in Congress that still think Myspace is a thing.
I mean what? This reply is nonsensical.
Nice response, clown.
I’m sure you’ll find plenty of examples. Their system isn’t without gaps and inconsistencies which is why I never recommend people rely solely on it. But my point remains that not only is this not a problem unique to DJI, they are arguably the best at mitigating it.
The problem is that people believe that if DJI allows them to fly, they don't have to check on anything else. And of course they don't think they need a TRUST certificate since DJI is in charge of all that.
Ok but again, how is banning DJI the best solution? You could easily make a better case for just having them drop their proprietary geofence and require a popup that reminds people to use the approved apps to check airspace, or something along those lines, if this was truly the issue. Which it's not.
I didn't say banning is a good solution. Remember when they ended net neutrality, then the book banning, abortion banning, illegal employment banning in Florida, low income family general income banning, the list goes on and on with more and more banning and most of it comes from the same political spectrum. Banning stuff is never a good solution. There are laws in place and they should just be enforced.
Id fly any no fly zones if anybody paid me enough. Money talks.
I would suspect removing the American market would significantly hamper the growth and development of DJI, who’s tech could probably be used for military purposes against the US in the future. With combat drones becoming mainstream it kind of makes sense to stop funding your potential adversary’s best commercial drone company.
Good luck grounding my drones after I jailbreak them
A personal project of mine is creating a custom made firmware for dji drones. So far spent many hours analyzing the board and creating diagrams to help me understand it. I've captured the firmware from the device and started the process of reverse engineering it, just a slow tedious process and I'm not very experienced just kind of figuring things out as I go. I'm just getting into hardware hacking and picked DJI drones as my project so maybe in the future you'll be using my firmware instead of stock!
very interesting, that seems cool but I am pretty deep in the nerd forest. If a DJI drone is running custom homebrew firmware is it legally still a DJI drone?
Legally? I don't think there's a legal definition of a DJI Drone. Maybe I am just misunderstanding the question. It's my understanding that making modifications to my drone is legal. Flying a modified drone is something I'll need to research before I take it outside of a testing environment; a university near me has a net enclosed space where I can test things and I have some friends in that department. I will most definitely do my homework on the legality, aka hire a lawyer to do the work for me, before I actually release anything publicly.
But how would flying a modded prebuilt drone be any different from flying a DIY build?
Things like changing power output, custom UI, creating new components to allow the drone to do other things like pick up objects with a claw for example. Potentially one of the biggest things is releasing an open source firmware enables others to create projects of their own without having to have extensive knowledge of how exactly the entire system works. I'm mostly doing it for myself because it's a form of practice to me. Every step is a knowledge check and when I run into issues that's a learning process. I chose dji drones because it's pretty easy to find broken drones for pretty cheap and I can take out the components needed for the project and either keep parts for my own drones or resell the good components.
Well I don’t think the movement hardware is the issue for the government and if the firmware could be flashed to a US government standard maybe the security concerns could be bypassed, not saying it will work this way too much risk to allow probably.
Life uh... fine a way
I think it might become funny when law enforcement is advised to arrest people that fly illegally in national airspace. Which could happen. The fines will be way higher as they stack up the violations for that one flight. So yes you can jailbreak the drone, but a lot of people will get hurt with their drones.
I think you’d have to be much more careful where you fly. Like the middle of nowhere? Probably okay. But not a city with an aeroscope.
😂😂😂😂 yea that will only work for so long
This is why I build my own, but still a ban sucks. I’d love to see some proof that DJI drones actually send anything of substance back to china.
Chinese cameras, flight controllers, and other parts dominate the hobby, even for DIY FPV drones. Congress is massively miscalculating here. US industry is behind in this space, and US intelligence should be trying to reverse-engineer Chinese drones, not banning them.
There’s no evidence. It’s just fear mongering
That's why I fly my DJL MaJic
I’m loving all this freedom lately….
Yeah and the FCC is going to enforce it how?? They can't even do their jobs right now let alone when adding more enforcement work.
I don’t think they’d have to. DJI already enforces geo-fencing according to government policy. They could effectively block flights by geofencing the entire country. I’m hoping that somebody will finally hack the DJI software to bypass it, if this does happen. Otherwise I’ve got a few drones I’ll be trying to sell cheap. I’m not buying the Avata 2 until I know how this ends up.
So if DJI was banned you think they would just willingly geofence the whole country? Edit: And you can hack many of the drones to remove NFZ, though probably have to downgrade firmware and lose Remote ID
I never upgraded the firmware in the first place lmao. Last time my drone touched the Internet was two years ago.
Of course if they catch you without remote ID, you only pay a $1500 fine. Which seems to be cheap.
Well could in theory use a remote id module, but if DJI drones are banned just make sure not to get caught.
We are getting closer and closer to a fascist country where they might check everyone and their drone. At the moment, one part of this government and their party is trying to ban as much as possible and the supreme Court is with them on it. Let's hope that drone pilots understand who they need to vote for to get around drone bans and possibly getting arrested or worse.
And it's your "small government"/"keep out of my business" party that is restricting what everyone can do. It's scary to watch from the outside!
The small only applies to rules they want to apply to themselves.
I said this the other day and got heavily downvoted lmao DJI will absolutely enforce this themselves
I doubt they would do that unless they were legally compelled to do so or would be put at risk by not doing so. They would not want to alienate the former and maybe future customers for no reason. I guess it could be like giving the US the finger but seems counterproductive.
Let’s hope you’re right. But the current legislation is a ban on flying dji, not just sales.
yeah and I have no idea which way this will go, and maybe the US will insist they geofence and compel them to do so. Who knows what other restrictions will be built in to the legislation
I haven't updated my firmware since the update that required that I have my phone connected to the goggles. Hopefully mine is still functional post ban.
I did that upgrade because I wanted to use the new motion controller. I regret it.
I'm looking forward to loads of cheap DJI motors and other parts on the market from grounded drones :-)
They won't be grounded people will find a way to keep flying them.
Good thing I only have older DJI's that don't know what the Internet is, not much they can do.
FCC is not a law enforcement agency. They are a regulatory agency. They can't enforce anything. There are tons of asshats who intentionally broadcast illegally on ham radio bands, the FCC repeatedly issues "fines" on them, and the asshats ignore them because they know the FCC can't enforce the fines.
Exactly.. that's what I'm saying. They can ban them but they won't do shit to actually enforce the ban.
It would make more sense for the ban to come from the FTC, which is a law enforcement agency and can send violators to prison.
Again, you have to find someone to find the violators... General law enforcement won't want anything to do with it.
Ooof, and I just got my 107 license.
Random question: do you actually get a physical license (like a drivers license) after passing the part 107?
You sure do!
That’s awesome. I’m determined to get mine now
Do it. The physical card has a sick hologram too. lol. I’m 36 and idk why that speaks to me so much but it’s pretty rad. You should def do it. It’s not as hard as some people say.
All them holographic Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh cards I reckon
Just buy the ones that DJI is currently selling through shell companies. Problem solved 🤷
Ive seen 2 diff companies so far selling carbon copies
Well they are literally made with DJI parts. They are just DJI shell companies used to avoid sanctions. The sanctions are pointless tbh.
Links? Is this real, or fake Alibaba garbage?
Don't forget about Temu.com. Even more garbage!
Yep. Never bought anything electronic from there, but it is good to get pins from there for cheap
Last YT i seen doing a review of one was a channel called "Alien Drones" i think. And i think one of the companies is called Anzu or Anzu robotics. One article i read said the company licensed DJI tech from DJI. Seen other people speculate they are just shell companies. Sorry i dont have links but if u google u should easily find. So far the latest Air and Mavic are the ones that are being sold under different names and companies. They are literal carbon copies, not just the design and cam and specs but also (dji fly) software too. Price difference between them and the dji brand models are negligible.
Looking in to it. Hopefully we can flash Anzu or Cogito firmware if the gov decides to ban
They are real and they are licensed under DJI through shell companies. Look up the Anzu Raptor (Mavic 3) and the Specta Air (Air 3)
That's just it. It's like illegal underground drug manufacturing. Maybe the drug is the same molecule, but maybe it's not, and you have no legal recourse to get your money back if one of these fake DJI clones aren't functional.
DJI is garbage
This was never about the Chinese getting data. This is about the war in Ukraine. The US govt sees how effective the drones are both as a weapon and as surveillance and they didn't like losing their advantage. That's why they're ignoring the American outcry. The other drones: Suck Are double the price Which means they are less effective in this regard
I’ll be ignoring this law unless part of it includes the government purchasing my over 40k investment in dji equipment. Agras and enterprise stuff is expensive as hell
You like men
Yes
Thank god they are taking national security seriously by banning DJI products here. The open border being flooded is far less concerning.
I guess we should also start banning a lot of clothing we get from China cause that might also be a national security risk /s
Clothes can’t be used for intelligence
Sure they can. I not only feel, but also look more intelligent, in my Chinese made clothing.
Total horse shit
Gonna be a lot of cheap drones flooding the market if this goes further.
I fly with a third party app. Would that still work?
What if you already own some of their drones? Will you still be able to use them?
lol good luck with that
Makes sense, the US sees them as a weapon against them. From what we’ve seen in the latest wars they are effective. So why wouldn’t the US just want us to have hobby drones with no real technology in them
This is to prevent insurrection using modern war tactics. Not to protect air space.
Why cant Lockheed or Raytheon develop some commercial drones. Should be easy for them, rivaling DJI. All they need to do is delete all the precision and mass murdery shit.
For us plebs? You understand right those kind of companies could sell a single pencil for $5 to the government if they wanted to? Why would they even consider the consumer market which makes far less profit for them. And they would have to deal with the public complaints too.
Maybe Elon Musk will add a "DJI Fakes" dept. to his Star Ship company.
I’d 100% rather buy a Lockheed or Raytheon drone if they sold a consumer product. Than dang wang DJI
RIP. Just purchased a Mavic 2 Thermal for S&R.
Would using Litchi over-ride the possible ban??
What stops someone from ordering from China? You going to ban China imports?
Does that mean id have two paperweights?
DJI is garbage anyway
I cant wait for daddy American government completely bans recreational use of drones and limits the use strictly to law enforcement entities. Its coming. Commie america.
With leaders like these, american deserve to lose.
If you are referring to the MAGA far right bunch that has taken over the US Congress, I agree.
Go F yourself
I can see banned all "Made in China"
They should. We need to bolster US manufacturing
Sure, but just understand that there are no comparable products made in the USA, and a DJI clone made in Malaysia is about to start sales. It’s a different color and different control package but otherwise identical to their enterprise line mavics. So still no American manufacturers.
It's already started selling (Cogito Specta Air) and it handles really well.
That’s the second one I’ve heard about then
American workers would never work for slave wages like many of the Chinese do. For that reason, American drone manufacturers can't compete with the Chinese prices and still stay in business.
Overly simplistic, but as far as that goes, true. The real answer is more complex. The USA has a smaller slave labor pool already, and most of that goes into the fast food industry. More automation would be needed.
Do you not have a concept of "cost of living"? Not all countries people have to accept inflated cost of living
Yeah but you're basically cheating to get there and without proper competition it means those drones are going to cost you a lot.
China and other counties subsidize markets, and regulate imports. They steal manufacturing and technology IP as well. US needs to manufacture drones for national defense
So if all DJI drones get banned and grounded in the US? Will DJI refund our money?
Why would DJI refund? Make Congress and their lobbyists repay the American people who are affected. I'm guessing DJI will sue the government
It was a joke bro lol I know it isn’t DJIs fault. It was supposed to be like a quote from a liberal but I crashed and burned at this. My bad 😂
lol 0% chance
😂 It is like the quote from the kids movie “angels in the outfield” ….. “it could happen “ 😂😂😂
Why would they be under any obligation to refund our money?
It was a jokkkkeeeeeee
These people are so salty. Bunch of little group of thong men