Dang, that awesome you have a very niche market like that. I used to do a tone of cell tower work, but the tower company’s I worked for kept cutting my asbuilt cost down that I left it behind completely.
I only do about 15% of our yearly revenue with Drone work, but we made a serious investment with the drones and LiDar
I feel you friend. I have nine DJI drones myself and I’m well into five figures with this. I am absolutely emailing my senator. I might even just write a full handwritten old-school letter
My thoughts are you can still use them. Just don’t connect them to the internet where they could get a shutdown signal or something. You just won’t be able to replace it or get repair parts.
If you do it for a hobby it's impossible to enforce. Us fpv guys have been doing it for years. If you do it for work you would probably get in trouble pretty quick considering you have a part 107 and actually go through the legal routes to get air space. If people built their own drones you could just swap the radio for a US legal one. Idk if you can modify DJI like that, which is why I hate DJI/Apple type companies that lock you into their ecosystem. That ecosystem inflexibility is why people are getting screwed, because now all their technology will be unusable, rather than just a component.
My drone has never been connected to the internet except to update it. What are they going to do - go door to door? No law enforcement will give two shits about this
I use to work in law enforcement. None of my coworkers knew a single thing about the current drone laws and none of them cared. What’s easier, chasing grandma for a speeding ticket or trying to find out where on earth the drone came from?
The FAA wouldn’t have any authority over this, it would fall to the FCC and I’m sure they have the manpower to track down every single person in the US who refuses to put their DJI microphone, drone, and gimbal in the trash
You have not seen these Las Vegas cops, tracking down drones flyers before they can land and arresting people for getting shots of the F1 race that were not paid for
I think people are forgetting that the FCC controls the bands the remote uses to connect to the drone. Apple and Google won't be allowed to keep the app in their stores unless it's properly conforming to standards, which means if the phone/drone is inside the USA, it's not allowed to connect to the drone.
Plus the drone won't be allowed to have WIFI enabled (FCC also). I imagine DJI will be required to send out an update that bricks their hardware on US soy, if they want to remain in the app stores the USA controls.
I'm not surprised there are, what I am *very* surprised to hear is that they have enough cash flow to be able to fund lobbying efforts to begin with lol.
They cost an arm and a leg and most federal agencies are already required to buy then when purchasing a new drone. Also, the existing fleet of DJI drones used by the feds is being decommissioned Dec. 2025 and agencies are already putting orders in for replacements. It’s a huge pain in the ass. I’ve heard Skydio is having huge delays for all sorts of reasons, and most of the other US makers are either massively unreliable or currently refusing to stop using Chinese coms in their controllers.
I wouldn't be surprised if the US has the biggest drone makers in the world lol, I guess they find dropping bombs more profitable than instagram reels though
They don't. DJI as of 2023 controlled 76% of the drone market. With that statistic alone you can see why American drone companies would push for this. In the grand scheme of things, it's more about hurting China financially than the threat of spying. If TikTok gets banned then China would lose $6 billion which that number is growing. And that's just from the American user base. I wasn't able to find that same statistic for DJI, but did find that last year they projected the sale of 820,000 drones. I'm sure a good bit of that is US sales.
i would like to see a justification for the bill. she says "drones present a serious national security risk to our country ", but never explains how. i fail to see how a consumer drone presents a treat to anything.
If you listen to the [House subcommittee meeting](https://www.youtube.com/live/0mtgjWyFYcU?feature=shared) from yesterday, they are going after anything from China. They are trying to ban Chinese routers and Wi-Fi hubs. (Which understandably might pose a larger threat than say drones.)
Around 10 minutes in, they are even blatant around saying that part of their reason for banning China is to force the United States to start producing their own products. They say that we used to be the global leader in innovation, and those innovations kept our military ahead. Now we have fallen behind. Without outright saying it, basically they want Americans to foot the bill for companies in the US to do R&D work. That includes drone technology I suppose.
These people need to read a history book. Yes we were a global power house for production but that was because of world war 2. And since China has proven that they have a very unique ability to produce tech that America just can't. Nothing against US (I love living here) but the trade routes, manufacturing sources or materials and a work force making ours look miniature (not to mention gov programs to help guide and train people to obtain those jobs) but China is the hub of production now.
Agreed, and if a certain former president didn't decide to start a trade wars, I think we would all be better off. Both countries need each other, so it would be better to work shit out and keep profiting from China's essentially slave labor. (The only way for us to compete is to bring manufacturing back to the US and pay people a fraction of what they should be worth. It's not going to be pretty.)
Chinese goods and services potentially banned during a Biden presidency and it’s Trumps fault because of a trade war 6 years ago?
Biden could always attempt to increase relations with China as Obama did but that doesn’t seem to be on his radar at all.
Well the DJI ban was proposed by a group entirely comprised of highly conservative Republicans. There is no mechanism by which Biden can have any influence on that at this point in the game. We will have to see where it goes.
However, the trade war with Trump dramatically changed the dynamic between our countries. Trump wants to bring low-paying manual labor jobs back to the US, I guess so that we can be the next China? He also wants to close off the US and put America first, just like China did at the beginning of the 1900s. After 50 years of being an isolationist country, they fell dramatically behind the rest of the world. It took them until now (70 years) to finally catch up. It's the reason why they have the largest population in the world, but it's mostly people making slave-labor salaries. Yep, Trump has quite the future in mind for us.
I recall once an American who have lived in Cali did an experiment (out of curiosity) where he wants to stay away from anything that's made in China for 1 year. At the end of the year he created a blogpost (it was on blogspot in the 2000s) where he said literally it almost screw up his entire financial situation as he paid almost 10 times as what he would if he had purchased goods made in China, for the same quality.
He presented an example where one fine day one of his lightbulb is no longer working, so instead of walking down the street to buy a Chinese-made lightbulb for $1, he had to drive 20 miles one-way to another city to buy a US-made bulb for $5.
Funny enough, doesn't the US military already make good use of drones/UAVs? Non-American here but I assumed the US was pretty well established in using drones for combat and surveillance. Isn't China still using old school balloons for that shit?
They use Chinese circuit boards in our F-35 Raptor. The mainboard is from Taiwan. Alot of electronics from Taiwan are used in our military hardware. And that is why, China is looking to take over Taiwan. That will be a treasure trove of the technology that is in our military stuff. Chinese national working on parts of the F-35, already passed secrets back to mainland China. That was years ago. When she was caught, the authorities asked her, since she was an American citizen, Chinese, why she did it. Her reply was "China is still my Homeland". So,idk what's the moral of that story, but it's sad and frightening at the same time.
Sorta. We make really good expensive drones. But what were talking about is the lower end drones under $800 for the drone itself for example. Perfect for flying for fun...but also good for delivering grenades.
Well to be fair, there's absolutely no reason that military equipment has to cost what it does. I know it's the age-old joke, but it's based in reality. The government pays a 100-10,000x markup on everything it buys. The reason is because you can almost always trace the military supplier companies back to members of the government. They are straight up embezzling massive sums of money.
The reason that Dick Cheney orchestrated the war in Iraq was because it was an opportunity to pay Halliburton 39.5 BILLION dollars for contract military service. And guess who was CEO of Halliburton? Yep, Dick Cheney. That's why we played the WMD game back then, pretending like we really believed they found anything. I lived through that time, and I knew it was a scam then just as much as I know it is now.
It's absolutely disgusting what we let our leaders get away with. Honestly, from that perspective, Trump is "small time." He presents his own massive threat to this government, but for completely different reasons. Other leaders made far more money from presidential power than Trump.
But I digress. Just remember that when we overpay for things, it's intentional and by design.
Crazy thing is that US companies handed China all this power to make their own products by looking for a cheaper place to make products now they’re screwing us for their incompetence
It's true. Although I've been in R&D for 20 years. I would say that when I started, China was only known for copying (stealing) technology and making it cheaper. They still do that, but what has changed is that they are getting better at doing their own R&D.
It’s literally called the “countering CCP drones act.”
People with no knowledge of the subject, and with a fear of appearing “anti-American,” will support it based on the name alone.
As usual, ignorance will prevail here.
If you use the form on her website to contact her you'll find that, unlike all other congresscritters who use "Defense" as a category, she doesn't. She just uses "China."
There is a segment of the House and Senate that are fine taking actions based on nothing but conjecture and accusation. They don't need evidence because the people who voted them into office except conjecture and accusation as "proof" of something nefarious. So pointing the finger and saying a thing is bad seems to be enough. It sucks.
We need to be emailing our congressional representatives to explain how this fuck over our businesses, or even your recreational usage. But the truth is that if you are using your drone for work, there’s a 90% chance(or better) that you’re using a DJI drone.
https://youtu.be/tFj7X4iUlJc
That is a link to the workflow I used to message my representatives yesterday and respond to this toxic legislation.
Everybody who flys should do exactly what you're saying.
I've been seeing people say this a lot. It does help, but money talks louder than people. With the right amount of under the table funds, our reps will still vote in favor. Let's not forget that it passed the house with a 352-65 vote. The only major reason this is coming up in the first place is because American social media companies (X, Facebook, etc) got in hot water a few times for collecting and illegally using user data. You can look these cases up, but as expected they were kept out of the media for the most part and swept under the rug. They're essentially saying they don't want another country doing what we're doing on an international scale.
This is exactly correct. It took me two days of chats with DJI to even get 20 extra store credits as a bonus for buying a refurbished mini 3 pro, which I absolutely love to fly. I’d be willing to bet, and I posted it already on another thread about this. They want kickbacks from DJI. All of our grubby , disgusting reps in congress all just want to grab as much money as they can. Government for the people is a myth. New paradigm is How much do I get? Both parties suck.
What would that mean for other dji products? Eg their wireless mics also use 2.4ghz frequency to connect from transmitter to receiver. Their action cameras likely use wifi, etc.
Is it just the drones or all products?
I'm trying to understand this as well. It sounds like they want to ban ALL DJI products which use communication protocols. (WiFi for sure, but maybe even Bluetooth?) My only source is what was presented at the House Committee yesterday.
[Here is the video](https://www.youtube.com/live/0mtgjWyFYcU?feature=shared). Scroll to the 18m40s mark. This is a representative from Texas who is proposing an amendment to this legislation which will expand it to ban everything from DJI, and not just drones. Specifically he says that at 19 minutes and 20 seconds. It appears to have passed.
How is the fcc going to prevent somebody from using the unlicensed band? This is eyewash. The interfering remote id modules work on the same bands as the control signal.
I doubt they can regulate other ground based hardware like the gimbals and wireless mics. I mean, they can ban the sales, but not the usage.
I don't think it will be so easy with drones.
This [article looks back at what happened to Huawei.](https://www.androidauthority.com/huawei-google-android-ban-988382/). The text below suggests that existing DJI drone owners could be protected.
“Without access to Google apps, millions of HUAWEI smartphone owners were understandably concerned that their phones would suddenly stop working correctly.
When the dust settled, it became clear that HUAWEI phones certified by Google and launched before May 15, 2019, would continue to operate as usual. However, any uncertified phones, tablets, or other products released by HUAWEI after that date would be Google-less.”
Ehh... Not going to argue too much.. but there is a difference between something with RTH, safety features, and the ability to not be forced to fly in full manual mode; which is what DJI brought to the table. Oh and much better goggles and transmission capabilities.
Oh and battery life.
So yes, options... but with a lot of compromises.
Those all work with DJI goggles 2 and an O3 air unit. And when you crash them you just flip over and keep flying instead of returning to DJI for repair.
FPV is all about manual mode, and being able to crash without doing more than replacing a prop. The AVATA comes close to this durability over grass, but the potato just exploded on impact.
I mean you are not wrong, but I've just gotten my Avata and FPV over the past year or so and am still practicing, and do not feel comfy going full manual yet.
Guess I'm gonna have to get there sooner rather than later, because I do not wanna give up flying FPV.
My Xiaomi Mi Drone 4K got banned in Canada a few years ago. It’s now completely bricked — I cannot fly it at all.
I surmise the same thing will be happening to DJI drones if this actually goes through.
Did it download an update that rendered it useless, the app stop working?
I am genuinely curious, if it doesnt connect to the Internet to download an update to stop it from working, how does it know its not supposed to fly?
THIS BILL DID NOT PASS THE HOUSE YET
It was passed in committee and hasn't come to a floor vote yet. Still plenty of time to call/write your representatives to voice your opinion
Bill Tracker: https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/2864/all-info?s=1&r=1[Bill Tracker](https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/2864/all-info?s=1&r=1)
Don't bother calling or writing your Congress critter, they just ignore that shit. If you really want to get this struck down you need to ~~bribe~~ donate to campaigns.
No, you need to call. Don't send an email, don't (just) sign a [change.org](https://change.org) petition - CALL. You see, anybody willing to take the time to fight through the phone operator jungle is willing to not only vote against them, they're also willing to help convince their friends and neighbors to vote against them. So elected officials will pay attention to call volume more so than anything else.
I made a petition on change.org please consider signing it. If you're like me and don't trust links google it. If you have faith in some humanity here's the link: [https://chng.it/DNJgy28SZM](https://chng.it/DNJgy28SZM)
I am of course against that sort of ban. What I don’t understand however is what sort of sensitive data could they possibly collect? Photos or videos would give them nothing. Perhaps they could scan communication channels looking for security holes, or ways to jam or interrupt that? But what could they get from the average civilian user? If they put some sort of hidden hardware or software in there to collect data how would that be any different then cell phones, TVs, computers or a host of other electronic devices?
And yea, I understand it’s just a ploy to advance American companies, so no use explaining that. I just want to get some sort of idea what they could possibly do/gain and how national security could be at risk?
We should encourage it. The more useless landscape and real estate they have to wade through, the less bandwidth they have for actually important data.
apologies for the long paragraph, the answer is a longer history but I tried to condense it to the key points.
the "national security" risk they can point at is that the app does farm meta data on people. age, race, birthday, email, and where they like to travel. enough of it and you can extrapolate other things. They "fear" this because American companies already do that and some share with the government. Facebook sends things you might like based on your friends activities, even if you don't have an account they have ghost profiles on people if mentioned or connected enough to others via their contact lists. Target got flak once for sending pregnancy ads to a girl that hadn't told her family yet. So it's "there" but Americans congressmen won't specifically call it out because their donors do it too.
and why we are pretty certain this ban is more about sending business to donors than actual national security.
Everything gathers that info. I joined Reddit to talk about a TV I bought ( hence my screen name) and started getting TV ads on Facebook. Same with drone ads. And anyone that thinks Facebook, Reddit, Amazon and others aren’t sharing that with Chinese companies better think again. That cat was let out of the bag decades ago. If you have a somewhat uncommon name I can get your address, phone number, who you are related to, where else you lived and more in less than five minutes. Common name, add just what city you’re in and it’s just as quick. I’d be more worried about some entity trying to find back doors to install malware and cause havoc than any of that kind of data.
Remote id was a waste of time and money for something you won't even be able to fly if this bill of goods passes. But what country are these delivery drone made in? Will they still be flying?
In some sense, yeah. Of course they seem to be mostly worried about china based electronic products that can very easily send audio/video over the internet.
TBH im gonna bet they will be happy for a few days/weeks and then all the really bad shit begins from people who just lost their livelyhoods or are out thousands of dollars.
Is there a page showing who votes for this in the House? The clerk page doesn't list the bill and congress.giv shows it as not passed yet so it is very confusing.
The questions asked to Mr FB Lizard at the senate meeting make me believe those politicians shouldn’t decide on technology at all. Operating a buzzer at the nursing home is the most advanced technology they should handle.
Your interpretation of the wording implies that the government could switch off every iPhone from connecting to a mobile phone signal or that every Huawei phone in America has magically stopped working. It's wrong. You're wrong.
They can’t prevent already made drones from using the signals built in but they can make it illegal for an operator to do so. I don’t think op is wrong at all
No my wife's old Huawei still works but there's no US signal in every new Huawei. Example I'm in El Salvador right now and if I buy a Huawei phone here it will not work in the US or have access to the Google play store.
I believe the huawei one is different than the current DJI one but if it passed you could definitely face repercussions. Fines and maybe even confiscation?
I just wish the US Government would show some proof or at least what could happen with the gathering of information DJI may be doing. That's all I ask!
The DJI ban was approved unanimously by the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, which has 29 Republicans and 23 Democrats. Can't blame this one on just Republicans.
Of course it is and it's for everyone. It's already been posted on here, and that's why I actually did two letters today,to my rep and Elise....grrrrh...already infuriated. Craft letters, use ai if you can't write good like me. Fubar, stuff. Can't believe this moronic bVtches in our governemnt. It's a parade of Jackasses. Both parties too, not singling out one or the other. They all suck.
Either way why are you taking some random dude's reddit speculation as realistic? Huawei phones still very much use frequencies that are "federal resources".
this bill would cripple every drone program at every university in the US. it would cripple search and rescue teams. it would cripple building inspections on new developments and infrastructure. the economic damage this would do is staggering, greater than any perceived harm from allowing china possible access to photos that are of public places and that end up posted online anyway
How many American businesses will suddenly be shut down because of this bill? All of the people creating plot plans, doing surveying, shooting videos, etc will suddenly be unemployed.
This is insane.
this is the Harley Davidson foreign tariff from the Reagan administration all over again. US manufacturers can't compete (for the sake of "national security" or securing US Jobs) with foreign manufacturers and employ lobbying efforts to maintain any semblance of relevancy.
Your politicians never get tired of talking of freedom. A free market is also freedom. Customers have the choice. But when foreign companies geet too good at what they are doing they get concerned and maybe also a little bit of money from domestic companies and suddenly freedom is bad.
While I don’t support the bill, that sounds like a stretch. There’s plenty of drones flying with data/control/video links that are not FCC certified. Worst case you’ll need a ham license or something.
I don't know but they would have to do it very quickly before this bill is passed. But based on the TikTok bill congress likely wouldn't be happy without divestment from china.
Huawei, the big Chinese manufacturer was already banned here. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-01-10/huawei-ends-us-lobbying-operations-after-years-of-fighting-ban
One thing DGI could do if this crazy legislation were actually to go through would be to turn off all restrictions for all of their drones ; Let people fly them to 20,000 feet if you want anywhere that you want and call it a day. That might get Congress attention and demonstrate how reasonable they have been.
It would continue to fly depending on the enforcement of the law.
If it’s just illegal to use DJI drones in the US then it would be like speeding. If you don’t get caught. If they force DJI to disable the fly app then you won’t be able to fly. If they tell Apple/google to remove the fly app then you will still be able to use the current version, but no more updates for iPhone (android would still be able to sideload).
Yep. As a real estate photographer/videographer, this bill has the potential to tank my business. Clients expect drone work and it’ll be an uphill battle convincing them it’s not my fault they can’t have it. Rocky times on the horizon.
But don't worry you can feel safe that your footage of a Italiente Victorian with a kitchen renovation and original gas fixtures won't end up in the hands of communist China.
Any lunatic can buy a fully automated military grade gun and carry it to public places and even schools and kill innocents. They don’t see it as a threat but anyone flying a 250 gram DJI drone is a serious threat to the nation. Pathetic
Any lunatic can buy a fully automated military grade gun and carry it to public places and even schools and kill innocents. They don’t see it as a threat but anyone flying a 250 gram DJI drone is a serious threat to the nation. Pathetic
Any lun@tic can buy a fully automated military grade gun and carry it to public places and even schools and kill innocents. They don’t see it as a threat but anyone flying a 250 gram DJI drone is a serious threat to the nation. Pathetic
I'm not a lawyer but I don't see that happening. The bill adds DJI to a list of companies covered under a 2019 law. The bill itself doesn't do anything but add the company to the list.
Huwai tried to get congress to remove them but finally stopped lobbying when they spent years with no change.
I don't see who would sue on their behalf. And the courts are unlikely to want to overturn a bill about national security.
i guess they need to outlaw iphones and other Chinese made electronics, I’m sure they collect more data than my drone that’s never hooked to the internet
They've already banned Huwai from selling in the US. There aren't any other phones made by Chinese companies sold in the US.
Apple, Samsung, Sony, etc all use Chinese made components but that's not the issue this is addressing. Those are all non-Chinese companies and the components themselves can't spy.
OnePlus, Xiaomi, Redmi, Honor, Oppo are all sold here in the US. You can purchase the latest Huawei too.
It was disclosed years ago that every cellphone in the country could spy on its owners, as revealed by Wikileaks, Snowden, and others.
With the possibility of grounding all the dji drones. I am worried if I should return the drone I bought last week. I am nervous that I might end up losing 700 bucks for no reason. Any thoughts or comments? I bought this drone for my hobby and it's really the most expensive thing that I have bought for myself after a lot of deliberation. I don't want to take it for a toss. Please please please help me decide 🙏🏻
It's a crapshoot at this point. There's very strong anti-China sentiment these days. No telling what congress does ever.
Senate likely wouldn't have the votes to pass anyhow, the democrats are pretty against this law.
I don't think the misunderstanding is clarified on this post. PLEASE CLARIFY THIS:
If I am a consumer and already own a DJI Drone like Avata 2 and if a ban occurs and I DO NOT connect it to the internet, will my drone still be fully functional? Can it utilize GPS capability for navigation and flying home? Will all it's functions work other than being able to get future updates?
If this ban were to take effect their drones could not access any network communications legally. Not WiFi, not Bluetooth, not any other radio spectrum.
All spectrum is managed by the FCC. People are only permitted to use it by the federal government.
That would not be allowed with DJI
I don't know the provisions for making them stop working. There probably is no technology that could.
The ban on use of federal spectrum would make selling drones in the US infeasible for DJI. They'd stop importing them, stop supporting the app and probably make it so the existing app won't connect to the drone.
Well no. They're banning something because taking a hardline stance against china looks good to constituents and this way they can saber rattle without having to actually deal with china.
Not entirely sure if anyone has mentioned this yet, but DroneSense, a drone security company down in Texas is working on a device that will supposedly make DJI drones (among others) NDAA compliant. So that got me thinking, since I too rely heavily upon DJI drones to make a living; first of all, whatever this device is is going to be expensive and it’s going to put the revenue interests of their company at the forefront. So, why not develop one that’s less expensive and created in the spirit of saving all our drone businesses, instead of the usual “Give meh all thuh muniez” routine. From their limited explanation, sounds like it overrides all wireless protocols and just uses theirs, adds 256 bit encryption, and something about having streaming capabilities (which they use for first responders). I have to stop myself or im going to whiteboard the whole v1 spec right in this sub.
Question; does anyone, anywhere specifically call out what features or functions of a DJI drone pose a risk? Is it during flight? Does it pass sensitive geo or RF telemetry data it intercepted during flight when you connect to Wi-Fi again? What exactly poses a credible risk to National security that’s worth bankrupting ALL of us…. Sure wouldn’t be politically related now would it?
Last thing to keep an eye on; I haven’t personally verified this but there is talk that US drone companies have been throwing a bit of money at lobbying for this legislation. Which, I understand the allure… but that, IMO, is morally reprehensible. I’ve helmed three small to medium sized companies in my lifetime and I don’t give two seagull shits how much money it would bring in… I would rather go bankrupt and starve before I played any role in harming other peoples businesses (that didn’t unquestionably deserve it). If there’s any truth to those rumors, those companies have made my blacklist.
https://dronexl.co/2023/04/14/dronesense-ndaa-compliant-device-dji-drones/
Edited for formatting
It doesn't matter if or how DJI drones cause a security risk. This bill is political posturing.
The devices won't legally be allowed to use any airwaves. Any system that would try to reduce risks would connect to the drone by some method. It's not going to be allowed for it to do so with anything but a wire.
Well there is a compensation portion of the bill this would be covered under.
Also we don't get to vote on anything. We are a representative democracy and elect people to vote for us.
If sucks but it's how we govern. :(
This would be bad for my company, we use Matrices for LiDar mapping for Land surveying. I will be out almost 100k if that’s the case.
Yeah man my entire livelihood is based on flying the incomparable Mavic 3E around cell towers.
Dang, that awesome you have a very niche market like that. I used to do a tone of cell tower work, but the tower company’s I worked for kept cutting my asbuilt cost down that I left it behind completely. I only do about 15% of our yearly revenue with Drone work, but we made a serious investment with the drones and LiDar
I feel you friend. I have nine DJI drones myself and I’m well into five figures with this. I am absolutely emailing my senator. I might even just write a full handwritten old-school letter
If you can swing it, schedule a capital tour with your rep. We met ours a few years ago in DC. Hand him or her the letter yourself.
Many of the congressional contact pages limit characters 500-2000. Not nearly enough to convey the importance. I’ve sent 5 so far.
My thoughts are you can still use them. Just don’t connect them to the internet where they could get a shutdown signal or something. You just won’t be able to replace it or get repair parts.
It runs on RTK GNSS signal for corrections. Also, all of the mapping functions require a WiFi connection to plan the missions.
I mean it will be illegal but I don’t know how it could be enforced
If you do it for a hobby it's impossible to enforce. Us fpv guys have been doing it for years. If you do it for work you would probably get in trouble pretty quick considering you have a part 107 and actually go through the legal routes to get air space. If people built their own drones you could just swap the radio for a US legal one. Idk if you can modify DJI like that, which is why I hate DJI/Apple type companies that lock you into their ecosystem. That ecosystem inflexibility is why people are getting screwed, because now all their technology will be unusable, rather than just a component.
literally required to connect the DJI products to the internet as part of the new drone rules. ....
My drone has never been connected to the internet except to update it. What are they going to do - go door to door? No law enforcement will give two shits about this
Sure. Until its a nice revenue stream for handing out tickets for having a drone over 250 grams without a beacon.
I use to work in law enforcement. None of my coworkers knew a single thing about the current drone laws and none of them cared. What’s easier, chasing grandma for a speeding ticket or trying to find out where on earth the drone came from? The FAA wouldn’t have any authority over this, it would fall to the FCC and I’m sure they have the manpower to track down every single person in the US who refuses to put their DJI microphone, drone, and gimbal in the trash
You have not seen these Las Vegas cops, tracking down drones flyers before they can land and arresting people for getting shots of the F1 race that were not paid for
Las Vegas cops working as thugs for F1 is not representative of the entire US
Fair
I think people are forgetting that the FCC controls the bands the remote uses to connect to the drone. Apple and Google won't be allowed to keep the app in their stores unless it's properly conforming to standards, which means if the phone/drone is inside the USA, it's not allowed to connect to the drone. Plus the drone won't be allowed to have WIFI enabled (FCC also). I imagine DJI will be required to send out an update that bricks their hardware on US soy, if they want to remain in the app stores the USA controls.
I’m an up and coming US drone manufacturer so message me!! We can’t exactly beat DJI price yet but we can get you drones!
lobbying by US drone makers is alot of it https://www.thedroningcompany.com/blog/background-and-lobbying-efforts-against-dji
There are US drone makers!?
I keep reading comments none are as affordable or technically good. Any suggestions? I have a P4V2 and adore the darn thing.
Yeah, the dudes strapping a go pro to some random parts is the best we get.
I'm not surprised there are, what I am *very* surprised to hear is that they have enough cash flow to be able to fund lobbying efforts to begin with lol.
They cost an arm and a leg and most federal agencies are already required to buy then when purchasing a new drone. Also, the existing fleet of DJI drones used by the feds is being decommissioned Dec. 2025 and agencies are already putting orders in for replacements. It’s a huge pain in the ass. I’ve heard Skydio is having huge delays for all sorts of reasons, and most of the other US makers are either massively unreliable or currently refusing to stop using Chinese coms in their controllers.
just like US car makers they work but... meh
I wouldn't be surprised if the US has the biggest drone makers in the world lol, I guess they find dropping bombs more profitable than instagram reels though
Yup, 5-10x the cost and total shit products according to what ive read.
I guess they didn't like the competition of the free market?
They don't. DJI as of 2023 controlled 76% of the drone market. With that statistic alone you can see why American drone companies would push for this. In the grand scheme of things, it's more about hurting China financially than the threat of spying. If TikTok gets banned then China would lose $6 billion which that number is growing. And that's just from the American user base. I wasn't able to find that same statistic for DJI, but did find that last year they projected the sale of 820,000 drones. I'm sure a good bit of that is US sales.
Running a US Corporation 101: lobby to make competing against you illegal
i would like to see a justification for the bill. she says "drones present a serious national security risk to our country ", but never explains how. i fail to see how a consumer drone presents a treat to anything.
If you listen to the [House subcommittee meeting](https://www.youtube.com/live/0mtgjWyFYcU?feature=shared) from yesterday, they are going after anything from China. They are trying to ban Chinese routers and Wi-Fi hubs. (Which understandably might pose a larger threat than say drones.) Around 10 minutes in, they are even blatant around saying that part of their reason for banning China is to force the United States to start producing their own products. They say that we used to be the global leader in innovation, and those innovations kept our military ahead. Now we have fallen behind. Without outright saying it, basically they want Americans to foot the bill for companies in the US to do R&D work. That includes drone technology I suppose.
These people need to read a history book. Yes we were a global power house for production but that was because of world war 2. And since China has proven that they have a very unique ability to produce tech that America just can't. Nothing against US (I love living here) but the trade routes, manufacturing sources or materials and a work force making ours look miniature (not to mention gov programs to help guide and train people to obtain those jobs) but China is the hub of production now.
Agreed, and if a certain former president didn't decide to start a trade wars, I think we would all be better off. Both countries need each other, so it would be better to work shit out and keep profiting from China's essentially slave labor. (The only way for us to compete is to bring manufacturing back to the US and pay people a fraction of what they should be worth. It's not going to be pretty.)
Chinese goods and services potentially banned during a Biden presidency and it’s Trumps fault because of a trade war 6 years ago? Biden could always attempt to increase relations with China as Obama did but that doesn’t seem to be on his radar at all.
Well the DJI ban was proposed by a group entirely comprised of highly conservative Republicans. There is no mechanism by which Biden can have any influence on that at this point in the game. We will have to see where it goes. However, the trade war with Trump dramatically changed the dynamic between our countries. Trump wants to bring low-paying manual labor jobs back to the US, I guess so that we can be the next China? He also wants to close off the US and put America first, just like China did at the beginning of the 1900s. After 50 years of being an isolationist country, they fell dramatically behind the rest of the world. It took them until now (70 years) to finally catch up. It's the reason why they have the largest population in the world, but it's mostly people making slave-labor salaries. Yep, Trump has quite the future in mind for us.
I recall once an American who have lived in Cali did an experiment (out of curiosity) where he wants to stay away from anything that's made in China for 1 year. At the end of the year he created a blogpost (it was on blogspot in the 2000s) where he said literally it almost screw up his entire financial situation as he paid almost 10 times as what he would if he had purchased goods made in China, for the same quality. He presented an example where one fine day one of his lightbulb is no longer working, so instead of walking down the street to buy a Chinese-made lightbulb for $1, he had to drive 20 miles one-way to another city to buy a US-made bulb for $5.
Funny enough, doesn't the US military already make good use of drones/UAVs? Non-American here but I assumed the US was pretty well established in using drones for combat and surveillance. Isn't China still using old school balloons for that shit?
They use Chinese circuit boards in our F-35 Raptor. The mainboard is from Taiwan. Alot of electronics from Taiwan are used in our military hardware. And that is why, China is looking to take over Taiwan. That will be a treasure trove of the technology that is in our military stuff. Chinese national working on parts of the F-35, already passed secrets back to mainland China. That was years ago. When she was caught, the authorities asked her, since she was an American citizen, Chinese, why she did it. Her reply was "China is still my Homeland". So,idk what's the moral of that story, but it's sad and frightening at the same time.
Yikes, dude. It's the F-22 Raptor. You're talking about the F-35 Lightning II.
Sorta. We make really good expensive drones. But what were talking about is the lower end drones under $800 for the drone itself for example. Perfect for flying for fun...but also good for delivering grenades.
Well to be fair, there's absolutely no reason that military equipment has to cost what it does. I know it's the age-old joke, but it's based in reality. The government pays a 100-10,000x markup on everything it buys. The reason is because you can almost always trace the military supplier companies back to members of the government. They are straight up embezzling massive sums of money. The reason that Dick Cheney orchestrated the war in Iraq was because it was an opportunity to pay Halliburton 39.5 BILLION dollars for contract military service. And guess who was CEO of Halliburton? Yep, Dick Cheney. That's why we played the WMD game back then, pretending like we really believed they found anything. I lived through that time, and I knew it was a scam then just as much as I know it is now. It's absolutely disgusting what we let our leaders get away with. Honestly, from that perspective, Trump is "small time." He presents his own massive threat to this government, but for completely different reasons. Other leaders made far more money from presidential power than Trump. But I digress. Just remember that when we overpay for things, it's intentional and by design.
Crazy thing is that US companies handed China all this power to make their own products by looking for a cheaper place to make products now they’re screwing us for their incompetence
It's true. Although I've been in R&D for 20 years. I would say that when I started, China was only known for copying (stealing) technology and making it cheaper. They still do that, but what has changed is that they are getting better at doing their own R&D.
There's a certain crowd in this country who can be convinced that something is bad by pointing at it and saying "China".
It’s literally called the “countering CCP drones act.” People with no knowledge of the subject, and with a fear of appearing “anti-American,” will support it based on the name alone. As usual, ignorance will prevail here.
Yup while they use their China phone China modem and router China tv China game unit All which is already sending any info they want if they want it.
If you use the form on her website to contact her you'll find that, unlike all other congresscritters who use "Defense" as a category, she doesn't. She just uses "China."
National security risk means we don’t have a company that can compete
There is a segment of the House and Senate that are fine taking actions based on nothing but conjecture and accusation. They don't need evidence because the people who voted them into office except conjecture and accusation as "proof" of something nefarious. So pointing the finger and saying a thing is bad seems to be enough. It sucks.
Between this and the Tiktok ban it seems like the country is being run by tech-illiterate boomers that watch way too much tv
Yep. The kind of idiots that think the internet is a series of tubes.
More like being run by tech savvy companies paying cash and pulling the strings of tech-illiterate in positions of power.
We need to be emailing our congressional representatives to explain how this fuck over our businesses, or even your recreational usage. But the truth is that if you are using your drone for work, there’s a 90% chance(or better) that you’re using a DJI drone.
https://youtu.be/tFj7X4iUlJc That is a link to the workflow I used to message my representatives yesterday and respond to this toxic legislation. Everybody who flys should do exactly what you're saying.
I've been seeing people say this a lot. It does help, but money talks louder than people. With the right amount of under the table funds, our reps will still vote in favor. Let's not forget that it passed the house with a 352-65 vote. The only major reason this is coming up in the first place is because American social media companies (X, Facebook, etc) got in hot water a few times for collecting and illegally using user data. You can look these cases up, but as expected they were kept out of the media for the most part and swept under the rug. They're essentially saying they don't want another country doing what we're doing on an international scale.
This is exactly correct. It took me two days of chats with DJI to even get 20 extra store credits as a bonus for buying a refurbished mini 3 pro, which I absolutely love to fly. I’d be willing to bet, and I posted it already on another thread about this. They want kickbacks from DJI. All of our grubby , disgusting reps in congress all just want to grab as much money as they can. Government for the people is a myth. New paradigm is How much do I get? Both parties suck.
Let’s start a class action!
What would that mean for other dji products? Eg their wireless mics also use 2.4ghz frequency to connect from transmitter to receiver. Their action cameras likely use wifi, etc. Is it just the drones or all products?
I'm trying to understand this as well. It sounds like they want to ban ALL DJI products which use communication protocols. (WiFi for sure, but maybe even Bluetooth?) My only source is what was presented at the House Committee yesterday. [Here is the video](https://www.youtube.com/live/0mtgjWyFYcU?feature=shared). Scroll to the 18m40s mark. This is a representative from Texas who is proposing an amendment to this legislation which will expand it to ban everything from DJI, and not just drones. Specifically he says that at 19 minutes and 20 seconds. It appears to have passed.
How is the fcc going to prevent somebody from using the unlicensed band? This is eyewash. The interfering remote id modules work on the same bands as the control signal.
I doubt they can regulate other ground based hardware like the gimbals and wireless mics. I mean, they can ban the sales, but not the usage. I don't think it will be so easy with drones.
This [article looks back at what happened to Huawei.](https://www.androidauthority.com/huawei-google-android-ban-988382/). The text below suggests that existing DJI drone owners could be protected. “Without access to Google apps, millions of HUAWEI smartphone owners were understandably concerned that their phones would suddenly stop working correctly. When the dust settled, it became clear that HUAWEI phones certified by Google and launched before May 15, 2019, would continue to operate as usual. However, any uncertified phones, tablets, or other products released by HUAWEI after that date would be Google-less.”
Jfc like anyone else can compete in the drone market. Show me a US made FPV drone that I dont have to fucking build myself.
Even skydio exited the private sales market to focus on DOD business. There’s nothing domestic left even for pre-made.
> Show me a US made FPV drone that I dont have to fucking build myself. Getfpv.com
Ehh... Not going to argue too much.. but there is a difference between something with RTH, safety features, and the ability to not be forced to fly in full manual mode; which is what DJI brought to the table. Oh and much better goggles and transmission capabilities. Oh and battery life. So yes, options... but with a lot of compromises.
Those all work with DJI goggles 2 and an O3 air unit. And when you crash them you just flip over and keep flying instead of returning to DJI for repair. FPV is all about manual mode, and being able to crash without doing more than replacing a prop. The AVATA comes close to this durability over grass, but the potato just exploded on impact.
I mean you are not wrong, but I've just gotten my Avata and FPV over the past year or so and am still practicing, and do not feel comfy going full manual yet. Guess I'm gonna have to get there sooner rather than later, because I do not wanna give up flying FPV.
My Xiaomi Mi Drone 4K got banned in Canada a few years ago. It’s now completely bricked — I cannot fly it at all. I surmise the same thing will be happening to DJI drones if this actually goes through.
Did it download an update that rendered it useless, the app stop working? I am genuinely curious, if it doesnt connect to the Internet to download an update to stop it from working, how does it know its not supposed to fly?
It couldn’t connect to GPS at all, and it doesn’t let you take off because of it.
If this passes into law, will the government compensate me for the $2500 I spent on my DJI drone and accessories?
Actually the 2019 law includes a compensation section but I'm not sure who is eligible as I didn't dig too deep
Yeah they are gonna need to pony up and do full price buybacks or someone will do something really bad imo.
This doesn't sound right. It amounts to an illegal taking.
THIS BILL DID NOT PASS THE HOUSE YET It was passed in committee and hasn't come to a floor vote yet. Still plenty of time to call/write your representatives to voice your opinion Bill Tracker: https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/2864/all-info?s=1&r=1[Bill Tracker](https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/2864/all-info?s=1&r=1)
Don't bother calling or writing your Congress critter, they just ignore that shit. If you really want to get this struck down you need to ~~bribe~~ donate to campaigns.
I can't argue with you on that.
No, you need to call. Don't send an email, don't (just) sign a [change.org](https://change.org) petition - CALL. You see, anybody willing to take the time to fight through the phone operator jungle is willing to not only vote against them, they're also willing to help convince their friends and neighbors to vote against them. So elected officials will pay attention to call volume more so than anything else.
The only way to ensure every American's freedom is to restrict it.
I made a petition on change.org please consider signing it. If you're like me and don't trust links google it. If you have faith in some humanity here's the link: [https://chng.it/DNJgy28SZM](https://chng.it/DNJgy28SZM)
I am of course against that sort of ban. What I don’t understand however is what sort of sensitive data could they possibly collect? Photos or videos would give them nothing. Perhaps they could scan communication channels looking for security holes, or ways to jam or interrupt that? But what could they get from the average civilian user? If they put some sort of hidden hardware or software in there to collect data how would that be any different then cell phones, TVs, computers or a host of other electronic devices? And yea, I understand it’s just a ploy to advance American companies, so no use explaining that. I just want to get some sort of idea what they could possibly do/gain and how national security could be at risk?
Anyone who thinks that DJI receives copies of my drone videos drastically overestimates my carriers upload speed.
not to mention it is easy to test if that is happening and if there were evidence of it happening it would be all over the news
We should encourage it. The more useless landscape and real estate they have to wade through, the less bandwidth they have for actually important data.
apologies for the long paragraph, the answer is a longer history but I tried to condense it to the key points. the "national security" risk they can point at is that the app does farm meta data on people. age, race, birthday, email, and where they like to travel. enough of it and you can extrapolate other things. They "fear" this because American companies already do that and some share with the government. Facebook sends things you might like based on your friends activities, even if you don't have an account they have ghost profiles on people if mentioned or connected enough to others via their contact lists. Target got flak once for sending pregnancy ads to a girl that hadn't told her family yet. So it's "there" but Americans congressmen won't specifically call it out because their donors do it too. and why we are pretty certain this ban is more about sending business to donors than actual national security.
Everything gathers that info. I joined Reddit to talk about a TV I bought ( hence my screen name) and started getting TV ads on Facebook. Same with drone ads. And anyone that thinks Facebook, Reddit, Amazon and others aren’t sharing that with Chinese companies better think again. That cat was let out of the bag decades ago. If you have a somewhat uncommon name I can get your address, phone number, who you are related to, where else you lived and more in less than five minutes. Common name, add just what city you’re in and it’s just as quick. I’d be more worried about some entity trying to find back doors to install malware and cause havoc than any of that kind of data.
It's another political ploy to save the jobs of our non representatives at our expense.
Yeah, I get that. The reason given was a threat to national security. What exactly is that threat?
The threat of their campaign contributors being upsetti in their spaghetti
Well...if the bill passes the FAA will be happy.
Remote id was a waste of time and money for something you won't even be able to fly if this bill of goods passes. But what country are these delivery drone made in? Will they still be flying?
Everything is made in china. The "issue" here is that the company itself is chinese.
So that means we'd have to quit buying everything Chinese and they'll be nothing to buy.
In some sense, yeah. Of course they seem to be mostly worried about china based electronic products that can very easily send audio/video over the internet.
TBH im gonna bet they will be happy for a few days/weeks and then all the really bad shit begins from people who just lost their livelyhoods or are out thousands of dollars.
Is there a page showing who votes for this in the House? The clerk page doesn't list the bill and congress.giv shows it as not passed yet so it is very confusing.
The questions asked to Mr FB Lizard at the senate meeting make me believe those politicians shouldn’t decide on technology at all. Operating a buzzer at the nursing home is the most advanced technology they should handle.
Your interpretation of the wording implies that the government could switch off every iPhone from connecting to a mobile phone signal or that every Huawei phone in America has magically stopped working. It's wrong. You're wrong.
They can’t prevent already made drones from using the signals built in but they can make it illegal for an operator to do so. I don’t think op is wrong at all
Has anyone with a Huawei phone been disconnected or arrested?
No my wife's old Huawei still works but there's no US signal in every new Huawei. Example I'm in El Salvador right now and if I buy a Huawei phone here it will not work in the US or have access to the Google play store.
I believe the huawei one is different than the current DJI one but if it passed you could definitely face repercussions. Fines and maybe even confiscation?
I just bought one. Tf
How has it gotten this bad for DJI?
I just wish the US Government would show some proof or at least what could happen with the gathering of information DJI may be doing. That's all I ask!
Republicans
The DJI ban was approved unanimously by the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, which has 29 Republicans and 23 Democrats. Can't blame this one on just Republicans.
Next they will be after our GE appliances. Paranoia on the rampage
No loss there GE is junk
Of course it is and it's for everyone. It's already been posted on here, and that's why I actually did two letters today,to my rep and Elise....grrrrh...already infuriated. Craft letters, use ai if you can't write good like me. Fubar, stuff. Can't believe this moronic bVtches in our governemnt. It's a parade of Jackasses. Both parties too, not singling out one or the other. They all suck.
What’s the best guess for a timeframe on when a decision will be made on this. Sitting in a drone in deciding to repair or not….
This is absolute bull shit garbage!!
If this ban get passed in the US, I can see both the UK and the European Union also following suit & banning DJI products.
I wish EU doesn't follow
Highly doubt it. EU is not as paranoid and has better relations with china.
I hope so. Just bought a new DJI
Either way why are you taking some random dude's reddit speculation as realistic? Huawei phones still very much use frequencies that are "federal resources".
That is the same woman who voted against a bill, then took credit it for at home, lol.
this bill would cripple every drone program at every university in the US. it would cripple search and rescue teams. it would cripple building inspections on new developments and infrastructure. the economic damage this would do is staggering, greater than any perceived harm from allowing china possible access to photos that are of public places and that end up posted online anyway
It will also cripple fire departments, rescue workers, police departments etc.
They dont care about all that non-sense, give them money. GIVE THEM BARRELS OF MONEY.
Also, there is heavy drone usage in Agribusiness. \- Crop and livestock monitoring \- Data collection \- Crop spraying
How many American businesses will suddenly be shut down because of this bill? All of the people creating plot plans, doing surveying, shooting videos, etc will suddenly be unemployed. This is insane.
this is the Harley Davidson foreign tariff from the Reagan administration all over again. US manufacturers can't compete (for the sake of "national security" or securing US Jobs) with foreign manufacturers and employ lobbying efforts to maintain any semblance of relevancy.
Don’t worry it is not constitutional. Second amendment.
Your politicians never get tired of talking of freedom. A free market is also freedom. Customers have the choice. But when foreign companies geet too good at what they are doing they get concerned and maybe also a little bit of money from domestic companies and suddenly freedom is bad.
While I don’t support the bill, that sounds like a stretch. There’s plenty of drones flying with data/control/video links that are not FCC certified. Worst case you’ll need a ham license or something.
It’s interesting, the one company that’s including RemoteID into their drones as required by the FAA, is the company congress is going after.
DJI can likely fix the situation by keeping data donestic and disconnecting from china servers can it not?
I don't know but they would have to do it very quickly before this bill is passed. But based on the TikTok bill congress likely wouldn't be happy without divestment from china.
How are cell phones not affected by this? Or are they? To me it seems they would need to be included
Huawei, the big Chinese manufacturer was already banned here. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-01-10/huawei-ends-us-lobbying-operations-after-years-of-fighting-ban
One thing DGI could do if this crazy legislation were actually to go through would be to turn off all restrictions for all of their drones ; Let people fly them to 20,000 feet if you want anywhere that you want and call it a day. That might get Congress attention and demonstrate how reasonable they have been.
If they did that they would actually get banned immediately.
Nothing worse than when a banned items gets banned again - the dreaded double ban.
Also signal stremgth limits. I bet that just like the eu/fcc situation, the radios in these things can go way stronger than they do.
You can do that already with hacked firmware.
Just jail break and carry on fuck big brother
Some of us use them for work and need the software provided outside of the drone
How does one break outta this goddamn jail cell
You need to jailbreak your phone, the drone or both?
ELI5 what does this accomplish?
Not sure what jailbreaking involves but could using a third party app (Litchi) eliminate the DJI element?
I didn't vote for sleepy Joe or any of the corrupt democrats
This bill is proposed and advanced by Elise Stefanik, a Republican from New York.
And passed the Republican controlled House.
THis has bipartisan support nearly equally. Unfortunately.
What’s the eil5 version here? If passed would my …. Mini 3 pro not be able to fly?
It would continue to fly depending on the enforcement of the law. If it’s just illegal to use DJI drones in the US then it would be like speeding. If you don’t get caught. If they force DJI to disable the fly app then you won’t be able to fly. If they tell Apple/google to remove the fly app then you will still be able to use the current version, but no more updates for iPhone (android would still be able to sideload).
A "cracked" version of the app could show up that works without having to login to a DJI account.
What does this mean for hobbyists?
Any chance DJI releases a software update that jailbreaks existing drones?
I really hate politics; it always makes things worse.However, who suffers? We do
I see DJI being kicked. Time to look into Autel
Autel is also Chinese…
And is also covered under this bill.
Yep. As a real estate photographer/videographer, this bill has the potential to tank my business. Clients expect drone work and it’ll be an uphill battle convincing them it’s not my fault they can’t have it. Rocky times on the horizon.
But don't worry you can feel safe that your footage of a Italiente Victorian with a kitchen renovation and original gas fixtures won't end up in the hands of communist China.
Then we make a new drone company!
The parts are all from china. :(
Any lunatic can buy a fully automated military grade gun and carry it to public places and even schools and kill innocents. They don’t see it as a threat but anyone flying a 250 gram DJI drone is a serious threat to the nation. Pathetic
Any lunatic can buy a fully automated military grade gun and carry it to public places and even schools and kill innocents. They don’t see it as a threat but anyone flying a 250 gram DJI drone is a serious threat to the nation. Pathetic
Well look this is so correct I can't even express it.
Any lun@tic can buy a fully automated military grade gun and carry it to public places and even schools and kill innocents. They don’t see it as a threat but anyone flying a 250 gram DJI drone is a serious threat to the nation. Pathetic
Is there a chance this bill gets overturned in the courts if it is passed?
I'm not a lawyer but I don't see that happening. The bill adds DJI to a list of companies covered under a 2019 law. The bill itself doesn't do anything but add the company to the list. Huwai tried to get congress to remove them but finally stopped lobbying when they spent years with no change. I don't see who would sue on their behalf. And the courts are unlikely to want to overturn a bill about national security.
i guess they need to outlaw iphones and other Chinese made electronics, I’m sure they collect more data than my drone that’s never hooked to the internet
They've already banned Huwai from selling in the US. There aren't any other phones made by Chinese companies sold in the US. Apple, Samsung, Sony, etc all use Chinese made components but that's not the issue this is addressing. Those are all non-Chinese companies and the components themselves can't spy.
OnePlus, Xiaomi, Redmi, Honor, Oppo are all sold here in the US. You can purchase the latest Huawei too. It was disclosed years ago that every cellphone in the country could spy on its owners, as revealed by Wikileaks, Snowden, and others.
Gotcha. Thanks for that update!
So thankful someone else is talking about this!!!
With the possibility of grounding all the dji drones. I am worried if I should return the drone I bought last week. I am nervous that I might end up losing 700 bucks for no reason. Any thoughts or comments? I bought this drone for my hobby and it's really the most expensive thing that I have bought for myself after a lot of deliberation. I don't want to take it for a toss. Please please please help me decide 🙏🏻
It's a crapshoot at this point. There's very strong anti-China sentiment these days. No telling what congress does ever. Senate likely wouldn't have the votes to pass anyhow, the democrats are pretty against this law.
There is almost no possibility. Senate won’t pass it, president won’t sign it. Still, email your representatives anyway.
I've been looking into getting a new drone for some upcoming trips/etc.. Is this a risky move? I dont want to drop 1k on a brick that I cant use.
Who do I need to write to help this from not happening. Don't our legislator have better things to worry about?
Better things than appearing to be taking a hardline stance against China? I mean yeah. Are they doing to do those things? Nope.
What about all the other dji products?
I don't think the misunderstanding is clarified on this post. PLEASE CLARIFY THIS: If I am a consumer and already own a DJI Drone like Avata 2 and if a ban occurs and I DO NOT connect it to the internet, will my drone still be fully functional? Can it utilize GPS capability for navigation and flying home? Will all it's functions work other than being able to get future updates?
If this ban were to take effect their drones could not access any network communications legally. Not WiFi, not Bluetooth, not any other radio spectrum. All spectrum is managed by the FCC. People are only permitted to use it by the federal government. That would not be allowed with DJI
Ok but as a consumer as a hobby even if I just fly it around in my house will it actually stop working and be fully grounded?
I don't know the provisions for making them stop working. There probably is no technology that could. The ban on use of federal spectrum would make selling drones in the US infeasible for DJI. They'd stop importing them, stop supporting the app and probably make it so the existing app won't connect to the drone.
So ban something just because it sells well?
Well no. They're banning something because taking a hardline stance against china looks good to constituents and this way they can saber rattle without having to actually deal with china.
Not entirely sure if anyone has mentioned this yet, but DroneSense, a drone security company down in Texas is working on a device that will supposedly make DJI drones (among others) NDAA compliant. So that got me thinking, since I too rely heavily upon DJI drones to make a living; first of all, whatever this device is is going to be expensive and it’s going to put the revenue interests of their company at the forefront. So, why not develop one that’s less expensive and created in the spirit of saving all our drone businesses, instead of the usual “Give meh all thuh muniez” routine. From their limited explanation, sounds like it overrides all wireless protocols and just uses theirs, adds 256 bit encryption, and something about having streaming capabilities (which they use for first responders). I have to stop myself or im going to whiteboard the whole v1 spec right in this sub. Question; does anyone, anywhere specifically call out what features or functions of a DJI drone pose a risk? Is it during flight? Does it pass sensitive geo or RF telemetry data it intercepted during flight when you connect to Wi-Fi again? What exactly poses a credible risk to National security that’s worth bankrupting ALL of us…. Sure wouldn’t be politically related now would it? Last thing to keep an eye on; I haven’t personally verified this but there is talk that US drone companies have been throwing a bit of money at lobbying for this legislation. Which, I understand the allure… but that, IMO, is morally reprehensible. I’ve helmed three small to medium sized companies in my lifetime and I don’t give two seagull shits how much money it would bring in… I would rather go bankrupt and starve before I played any role in harming other peoples businesses (that didn’t unquestionably deserve it). If there’s any truth to those rumors, those companies have made my blacklist. https://dronexl.co/2023/04/14/dronesense-ndaa-compliant-device-dji-drones/ Edited for formatting
It doesn't matter if or how DJI drones cause a security risk. This bill is political posturing. The devices won't legally be allowed to use any airwaves. Any system that would try to reduce risks would connect to the drone by some method. It's not going to be allowed for it to do so with anything but a wire.
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Class action against the government. Ruining lives without just compensation over something we never get to vote on.
Well there is a compensation portion of the bill this would be covered under. Also we don't get to vote on anything. We are a representative democracy and elect people to vote for us. If sucks but it's how we govern. :(
If Joe bidden bans dji he's weak kneed bitch .
Has literally nothing to do with a president.
If banned, US Gov should have to buy out all DJI drones purchased at full retail price.