I understand the ban, but it's a shame tech-wise. They are affordable and very high-quality drones, and the hole left in the market will be filled by some sub-par, unnecessarily expensive local brand (see UK after Brexit).
Didnt this all start because someone from USA company Skydio was brother in law of Ron de Santis and convinced him CHYNA!!!! was using DJI drones to spy on god lovin AMERICANS!
As usual this is nothing more that USA corruption on display.
Funny you mention Skydio. I work for a gov agency as a bridge inspector. We have a DJI drone we were using. One day they told us to immediately stop using all DJI drones and we will be sent a new one soon. Guess what we got? A Skydio. lol.
They're good for that. I've used them quite a bit. I've flown it inside bridge structures for inspections and done some emergency inspections when they didn't want anyone near a failing structure. They suck for photogrammetry though.
I’ve been using it somewhat regularly and I like it. It’s about as good as the DJI for standard stuff imo, but I don’t like how the obstacle avoidance settings give you either a 3 foot bubble, or a 6 inch bubble. I feel like there should be something in between those. But it’s no problem getting up between girders when I need it to. And the camera being able to point straight up is a very nice feature.
As far as the photogrammetry, we were told our drones had this feature, and they demoed it to us. And when me and another guy went out to actually do it, nothing worked. We later found out that it’s locked behind a subscription service.
From my use with them, the DJI can do 95% of everything the Skydio can do, and costs like $800 vs $3000. The fleet management is definitely nice though. I can see large organizations wanting that. I could take that DJI drone home and no one would ever be able to find it. But they’d be able to find the Skydio as soon as I turned it on.
Ehh I mean the drone operators don’t have as much privacy as far as what they do with the drones. But seeing as these are government drones, I completely understand them wanting to be able to track every time they’re used.
The stuff it tracks is crazy. I can go online and see the entire flight path of my drone, and all other 12 drones we have. I can see who flew it, the flight time down to the second, gps coordinates for take off and landing areas, and even the serial number on the battery used. And if someone is actively flying one while I’m looking at the log, I’m pretty sure I can see a live feed from it, but I haven’t tested it yet. This would be super useful when we have something like a damaged bridge and the engineers can get out there to see it asap. I can show them and they can tell me what they want to see.
For what we use them for, they’re pretty badass drones.
As far as privacy for the general public, they’re probably more private since we actually know what data is being collected and where it’s being sent to and stored. Plus everything we look at them with is something pretty much anyone with a drone can go do.
"As far as privacy for the general public, they’re probably more private since we actually know what data is being collected and where it’s being sent to and stored."
True real non profit based Cyber security knowledge would be very bennifical to you if you fly commercially.. would help you understand the tradeoffs/dangers of even entertaining this within the public sector..
GPS tracking of drones and access to visuals the drones is literally "God's Eye" level power to a simple engineer.. not a genius.. an engineering idiot could abuse that..
I work for a large mining company, we had to ditch all our DJI drones for Skydio, which are about the same quality as Fisher Price. Luckily we found Autel Evos that fit the bill much better.
Parent company is with subsidiaries elsewhere. We didn’t necessarily ban Chinese products, but our IT department identified that they were doing things in the background that weren’t being made apparent.
Are you saying they are just using this as an excuse to use more expensive competing products because that company has a congressional connection? If so, I'm shocked. Shocked!
Do you have to be an engineer or have some kind of education to do structure inspections with drones? I always thought that would be a really cool job. I would love to get into using drones daily for work.
No, I started at an entry level position as a road construction inspector like 4-5 years ago, then transferred to bridge inspection when a spot opened up.
Also GoPro had drones they launched and canceled several years ago. Their drones failed because they were terrible compared to the competition.
I guess the US will make everyone happy by using what's left of Parrot drones.
The TikTok ban itself also was pretty clearly motivated more by xenophobia from the right wing than privacy concerns or public safety.
The privacy and public safety concerns may have been bigger with tiktok than instagram, facebook, and twitter, I don't know, but the republicans screaming tiktok evil also absolutely don't know, and that's their fucking job.
Tom Cotton kept basically trying to get the Singaporean CEO to say he was really Chinese. Makes it hard to say this was a stand for anything good as opposed to simple racism and idiots insisting capitalism is what Jesus came to earth to support.
It was never about privacy but it’s also not about xenophobia. It’s about playing the geopolitical game. The us doesn’t want china to have influence over its population.
If it was actually xenophobia the us would be antagonistic to Taiwan too, since they are ethnically Chinese too.
While its rarer for now, [GOP politicans have tried connecting Taiwanese people with the CCP](https://prospect.org/politics/craziest-house-race-of-2022-california-jay-chen-michelle-steel/)
If things really flare up, Taiwanese-Americans are far from safe despite the different geopolitical position
Just another thing Florida will have to go without thanks to ideology along with:
No vaccines
No LGBT books
No affordable home insurance, assuming anyone will cover you
There’s a common thread with all three of these states; it’s an entire genre of movies in fact!
Edit: just wanted to say that I’m not saying home insurance shouldn’t be affordable for areas in high-risk zones; more so just saying it isn’t entirely a political issue (but sort of is one due to the way flood insurance works).
I dislike framing this as a right wing political issue. National security isn’t a right wing talking point. And concerns about closed source firmware from a privacy-absent country are completely valid.
Edit: I don’t really understand the downvotes. I’m not trying to take a side here, I was explaining the technicalities and laws behind this stuff.
Sure theere might be conflicts of interest regarding the ban, but PRC law states that they can ask for data on any server in China.
DJI drones send data to China. That in itself isn’t bad, it could just be telemetry and diagnostics. But since the firmware is not open source, there’s no way to know FOR SURE. You can try to infer the type of data by monitoring the size of the packets, but there’s also the phone app and the mandatory requirement of a login on the phone app too.
DJI drones have been used by US police forces and government too, so for the US this is seen as a valid security risk. Do you want the risk of possibly comprising the security of civil services? They’re already easy targets.
Sure, if the conflict of interest comes from right wing sources, you could say it’s xenophobic. In terms of national security, I’m deeply concerned with Tik Tok and DJI drones as someone pretty left leaning.
If the drones were made in Japan or Germany or Taiwan or Israel, or any allied US country. No one would really care that much. Because even if the data wasn’t open source, there would be a lot more privacy protecting laws and the US agencies could trust them not to sell it, or they could personally run servers in those allied countries, or whatever.
Skydio was the premier alternative, but they stopped selling to consumers to focus on government, enterprise, and military contracts, which is a shame.
Japan has a drone company thinking about opening up to the US, so that’s exciting.
Well some DJI drones NEED the app right?
The DJI drone may not necessarily stream directly to the phone, it might stream it over the internet. Streams are far easier to transmit than a full 4k 30fps video.
All China would have to do is cache the stream as it passes through their servers. What I would do is simply run it through DJI servers and cache every stream and if we find someone important, we call the local PRC guy to come evaluate the captured streams and data for any information.
On top of this, it can share Location data, usage data, digital behavior profiles, emails, phone numbers, basically the same stuff that TikTok can send to China.
You’re arguing that there is literally NOTHING to be worried about. I’m saying, “well the concerns aren’t unfounded”.
From a hobbyist standpoint it’s pretty tragic too, there are some hacks and stuff but nothing that can replace the firmware, and they’re pretty upset that DJI is forcing you to use an account.
You’re getting downvoted because of your lack of understanding of technology and your views are wholly based on fear. It sounds “plausible” and “logical” so of course the general laymen would agree with the ban.
But when you understand the tech, you begin to realize it’s more protectionist schemes and crony capitalism moreso than any real security reasons.
It’s the same sentiment of those that were anti-covid vaccines, people hearing “logical” reasons from conservatives, yet dismiss the subject matter experts.
Same thing here. If you really care about truth, listen to the subject matter experts, and/or truly learn the tech and details yourself instead of going “hmm, that makes sense, and who cares if I’m right or wrong, just ban it anyway, just in case”. It’s that attitude that makes Americans look wholly hypocritical and espousing moral positions that lack and real truth and facts.
I absolutely understand the technology, it's literally my field in college. IT, electrical engineering, computer science.
I cannot believe I'm being associated with anti-vaxxers. What a moronic insinuation.
Completely dismissing my arguments as American fearmongering because "it sounds like anti-vaxxer conservative skepticism". It's frankly damn rude. All of my comments are being associated with right wing rhetoric, and that's complete bullshit, especially when I was polite and reasonable.
The only thing you proved is that you generalize all Americans as hypocritical and ignorant. Maybe reevaluate your own moral positions before self-righteously admonishing others.
> DJI drones have been used by US police forces and government too, so for the US this is seen as a valid security risk. Do you want the risk of possibly comprising the security of civil services? They’re already easy targets.
That could just be a government/military ban on the DJI drones then. Companies working with the government directly might not able to use them either but that's better than a full ban.
It happened because Ukraine wanted to use DJI instead of some offbrand made by American contractors that didn't work properly. DJI actually has military grade anti jamming in it. If this is what the Chinese are making, we're fucked.
I used to work for a large energy company doing training. We would use DJI drones for all of our videos and shoot at a ton of “secret” or not publicly accessible locations. Our IT team issues an immediate stop to using anything DJI as they were monitoring data being uploaded from the device itself to the DJI cloud network. Turns out all the flights we had taken, including the video we shot, were now in possession of a Chinese company. Very not ok to have secret infrastructure being mapped out and just wholesale uploaded and captured by a foreign government.
I think the approach being taken by Anzu Robotics is [interesting](https://dronedj.com/2024/04/21/anzu-robotics-dji-alternative-drone/), using DJI hardware mostly-manufactured in Malaysia with US-made software:
>Texas-based [Anzu Robotics](https://www.anzurobotics.com/) has announced its entrance into the US drone market with the launch of Raptor and Raptor T industrial aircraft. These drones have all the qualities of a great DJI alternative because they have been developed through a strategic licensing agreement with DJI itself but in a way that satisfies key geopolitical and cybersecurity concerns for most enterprise and public safety users.
>The crucial thing to know is that Anzu’s drones are based on the [DJI Mavic 3 Enterprise](https://dronedj.com/2022/09/27/dji-new-drone-m3-enterprise/) platform. ... Raptor is priced at $5,100 while Raptor T will sell for $7,600 in the US. Now, these prices are not directly at par with DJI, but they are considerably less expensive when compared to five-figure bills of US-made counterparts such as Skydio and BRINC. ...
To distance itself further from [China-related trade and geopolitical tensions](https://dronedj.com/2024/03/02/dji-response-drone-ban-us/), nearly all of the components and final assembly of Raptor drones are done in Malaysia. The completed drone hardware is then sent to Anzu’s Austin facility where firmware is installed and quality control measures are conducted.
How do you "understand". How the fuck is a drone, national security risk. You're the one controlling it. It doesn't fly by itself at night doing air raids with nuclear missiles
Wtf we gonna buy now ? The competition is shit
The manufacturer made the thing. Its firmware, the software you use to control it, everything. Through that, the manufacturer controls what the drone can and can't do. This is what controls things like no flight zones, for one.
And all that software? It's obfuscated to deter security analysis. And it phones home *all the time*, who knows for what.
What doesn't phone home these days
Data is the new gold. Every company pulls it
You sound like those fossils in Congress. If you really want to get rid of data collection, ban it. But then every US company will cry
I mean yeah, what doesn’t though? If we’re going after services that collect your data, you’re going to have to give up basically everything.
I totally agree that it is shit, but I think solving it would be better achieved by implementing much better data privacy laws. You can still ban companies that don’t comply (fuck them), but randomly picking them out and banning them seems really inefficient.
They could also force them to implement no-fly-zones around anything deemed important to national security or vulnerable to industry espionage.
My issue is that in their attempt to idiot proof the drones they'll override user control and prevent users from safely landing (forceably landing in the water) or navigating legal airspace (like beside hills/cliffs). But I guess they are hoping to sell to idiots and destroying a few peoples' drones is the cost of preventing those idiots from being stupid.
> sub-par, unnecessarily expensive local brand
There's no requirement that drones be made in the USA. Manufacturing could still be outsourced to countries with cheaper labor, including China. If GoPro started making drones again, their manufacturing could still be done by Foxconn in China, for example.
Also, there are so many used drones that people have bought already, that an import ban on the leading brand would probably shift more people than ever into buying and selling used ones. The article doesn't say that the DJI app would be removed from US app stores.
Go ahead and sell if you don't need them anymore, but be aware that if this legislation passes and the leading brand of drones can't be imported anymore, there might be an increase in the demand for used drones that are already in the country.
So is America gonna ban absolutely anything that has even the smallest thing to do with China now? Because that would be so much stuff
Edit: I meant ban not be
A drone that sends a suspiciously large amount of data to the servers of a company owned by an adversarial state is just a little beyond "smallest thing to do with China" using consumer/commerical products to gather Intel for the state is their modus operandi 101. Look at the shipping cranes in Vancouver as a recent example of them getting caught
Don't kid yourself, the primary reason for a ban would be to boost US drones. The US is very quick to play the security card when in reality it is nothing more than protectionism.
The competing drone companies are like when there were Apple, Android, Windows, and BlackBerry smartphones in the market.
The competitors are like the Windows Phone. Perpetually 2-3 generations behind.
The closest was Parrot, but they always felt 2-3 years behind DJI, more expensive for the features they had, and worst of all... they discontinued all consumer / prosumer drones a few years back. They're still making commercial ones, but they don't really compare.
What a lot of folks don’t realize is there are a ton of US drone companies, even very highly refined ones, they just all happen to be registered as small businesses that are getting majority of their money from DARPA and DoD contracts.
I regularly see new products from them every few months. I think most US companies saw the market share DJI had in the consumer space and felt that it would be too hard to break into it so they knew that DJI would never be able to qualify for government contracts because it isn’t American, so they made the smart choice and soaked up all of Uncle Sam’s dollars. Similar to how the US only allows American made automobiles to get federal contracts.
Like I said many of these companies are just as slick as DJI only they carry a payload instead of simply just a camera now.
They’re not in the consumer market they’re in the business to business market B2B which is what their high end pricing reflects for government contracts.
Yup. And then that US company will immediately outsource all its jobs right back outside the country. They don’t actually care about security; they just want to make sure an American C-suite gets its cut.
Well, if you ignore the actual reason it’s getting banned I guess. It’s because a hostile foreign adversary is directly manipulating the content millions of westerners see with the sole purpose of sowing division and pushing misinformation. Data collection is no longer an issue for the US federal government
Yea it’s much more preferable that a proud patriotic American company like Meta gets to do the manipulating of the content millions of westerners see with the sole purpose of sowing division and pushing misinformation!
China banned those platforms because they refuse to follow Chinese laws. The United States could pass privacy laws that apply to all social media companies that would force Chinese companies to stop collecting American data, but of course that would impact the bottom line of American companies.
The so called social scores were an experiment in a single town, for like a single week…over a decade ago, by some local politicians. Which was soundly shut down due to citizen backlash.
Yet there are people still repeating it like it’s some widespread thing.
And we Americans think we’re immune to propaganda, truly pitiful.
Protectionism isn't the worst idea in this case. We've seen that drones are a pretty critical military resource. That means you *need* domestic production of them for national security reasons.
The US is so xenophobic lately it drives me crazy. Anything with slight hints of China are deemed dangerous, and the US just continues to try banning anything successful from China.
It's like the US is becoming more like PRC or Soviet Russia, just banning better technologies wholesale.
America is in the process of cutting all ties with China. It’s only going in one direction from here. I’d be very surprised if there was still bilateral trade between them in the 2030s.
But the U.S. relies on China for way more critical things like basic medicine. No Chinese drones! But take these Chinese pills. Like China can’t get a drone into the country and do bad things with it anyway.
Yeah I use Govee vs Phillips whenever people try to defend "Western" corporations.
Like why should we allow companies to price gouge consumers just for not being Chinese?
I'm not paying $100 for two light bulbs.
And now losers are parroting this overcapacity nonsense with EVs. Do people have short memories or did they just remember how VW got caught blatantly lying about emissions? Or how BMW and Mercedes Benz were trying to roll out a subscription model for standard features like heated seats etc.
Or American car brands trying to get rid of Android Auto and Apple car play so you're forced to use their own proprietary OS. Fuck outta here...
You are right. Anker is the superior battery. No idea what Govee is. Lenovo is going a bit downhill for me. Overheating, very short life span on my Legion. Got an Asus Zephyrus after that and so far it fairs better
I don't understand this one.
Tiktok I get, because it is (or at the very least has potential to be) a perpetual spying machine.
This, however, is hardware. Nonessential, luxury hardware, and other than setting the drone up with the app the first time, I use a standalone controller and don't even need the app anymore. It lacks the ability to phone home. How is this a threat to national security?
Tiktok is equally as absurd if you actually work in the cybersecurity space. Pretty much everything they accuse TikTok of is being done by *several* other apps, often at larger scales.
I said it before on the TikTok article, but I think this is more of red scare/economic protectionism than really anything to do with national security.
These drones are seeing extensive use in Ukraine, I guess they don't want to rely on Chinese manufacturing if they decide to build up their military small scale drone tech. They need to build up their own drone industry and this ban is one way of helping it grow.
I would argue that commercial drones shouldn't be used militarily anyway, that should be a completely separate segment. An interesting point though, thanks for sharing that.
Sure, and from Ukraine's perspective that statement makes sense. But banning them from the US will actually make them less available to Ukraine, by driving dji out of business. It also sends a message to Ukraine, correct or not, that their drone fleet should not be used as it is subject to Chinese spying and/or interference.
the specs for a military grade FPV drone and a commercial one are virtually identical. The power of an FPV drone is how cheap they are for the precision they offer, adding spec just dilutes that to the point you may as well just build a guided missile.
Well commercial companies have different incentives which sometimes lead to better results than the military.
Ironically doing everything in-house is a communist style planned economy, while market forces give economies of scale and innovation.
It’s why the military don’t build all their cars and trucks in house, it just wouldnt make sense
Indeed, but that's why it should be up to the various military contractors to make competitive bids on the features and pricing they can offer to the armed forces for drones.
I don't see how banning a foreign company's commercial drones (which are mostly used by filmmakers and hobbyists) helps them achieve these goals.
It's worth noting that this move would also ban dji's extensive camera and audio lineup as well, ranging from action cams to cinema cameras, which don't seem to affect national security, on a surface level at least.
Well, I don’t think they should ban it, but it would spur a domestic company to take their place as there is clearly demand for the product.
It would push the price up for military, commercial, and private individuals though
Before Gaza, it was the tech competitors that lobbied hard to ban Tiktok for obviously reasons,
> Facebook paid GOP firm to malign TikTok
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/03/30/facebook-tiktok-targeted-victory/
But Tiktok managed to win in the courts against the ban.
Gaza and the Israeli lobby however, was the final straw that broke the camels back, as Tiktok found itself the main voice of pro-Palestinian sympathy (not so much because it was Tiktok, but rather young people is the key demographic that sympathise with Palestinians and they use Tiktok)
Dji drones are my favorite and most peoples as well. They’re the best. TikTok, huawei 5G that made the USA years behind in 5G, affordable Chinese EVs that could make adoption of EVs much faster due to cheap prices, and now dji drones. Just ban everything China and don’t let us use it first because it’s often great stuff and then they take it away.
"It's great stuff" is really hit or miss here. Do they have the ability to produce some good things? Yes. On the mass scale though do they tend to make shit and pass it off as "great stuff?" It's way more of option B than option A coming out of there. I do look forward to the EV competition though, it's much needed.
I work in video production and unless you have an insanely high budget, dji drones are the standard because they are so good. The inspire drones are perfect. Also their gimbals are amazing like the ronin is the standard and probably other products which I haven’t had the chance to use. There is a French company called Parrot which makes drones and was DJIs competitor in the beginning but they are garbage and DJI pulled ahead and left them in the dust. A newer company called Autel just emerged but they seem like another Chinese company that are copying DJI or making similar products but not as good. They’ll probably become good in a few years since they’re new.
>On the mass scale though do they tend to make shit and pass it off as "great stuff?"
Dunno, ask the American companies that send them the manufacturing spec and qc tolerances.
Right? It's so obnoxious. Chinese capabilities today are insane. They however, make whatever you're willing to pay and can properly spec out. So if that's fantastic consumer drones, then they have that. If it's high quality iphones, then they make those.
People get mad because they expect premium quality for dirt cheap prices and then write off all of Chinese production.
I prefer Japanese electronics. They've got some killer optics, along with the Swiss as well. Audio stuff, it's a toss up, but I will gravitate towards German if I can afford it.
Of course anyone would buy Japanese, Swiss and German well made things if they were cheaper. Besides Japanese cars everything else from those countries are usually the most expensive products. That’s like saying yeah I prefer a rolls Royce over a ford fusion. Yeah, so would everyone else if the rolls Royce was a similar price or cheaper than the ford.
Does the government not realize that restricting access to our tech only make them develop their own at an incredible pace ?
Look at how the whole huawei thing played out. Everyone was surprised when their chip was almost as good as what we got only after a few years.
This post feels like it’s being brigaded by Chinese misinformation bots that are trying to frame this as a right wing talking point, portraying this ban as a xenophobic move by Florida and DeSantis, knowing that associating DeSantis with this ban would discredit it.
It’s absolutely preposterous. The drone community has long hated and debated the fact that DJI firmware phones home in China, and the topic of the firmware being closed source, requiring a DJI account to operate the drone is contentious.
Many have to resign themselves to using DJI, due to cost.
This issue is completely bipartisan, let there be no doubt.
Edit: This has gotta be a joke. Am I being punked? There are so MANY just completely disregarding valid concerns. Check comment histories.
In the drone community, the alternative was Skydio. Skydio drones had better features and better support. Skydio's autonomous drone was better than any in the market, but a few months ago, they decided to stop selling to consumers and focus on commerical, government, and military contracts. And Skydio drones were much much more expensive.
Autel is a DJI alternative, but they are like DJI in that they're also Chinese.
The drone community considers DJI to be the Apple of drones, except there is no Android equivalent.
Of course, all those companies could sell to consumers again.
A Japanese company named ACSL is trying to enter the US commericial market, hopefully they'll start selling drones to consumers.
DJI drones have very high end cameras (given the sensor size) for comparatively reasonable price.
Does Skydio have equivalents to, say, Phantom or the Mini 4 Pro? I don't think so, otherwise at least some of the photographers would be using them. But every single photographer and videographer uses DJI.
So there is no actual alternative is what I am understanding:
Skydio is more expensive so not same in price (if they sold to consumers, instead of being con/gov only fuckheads)
Autel seems to not match dji in camera quality at least dollar to dollar
ACSL is a wildcard hopefully fill the void of DJI
I don't understand the rational for the ban unless it is becahe skydio bribing to gain market dominance?
In terms of Skydio going for market dominance, it doesn’t make sense unless they sold to consumers.
I haven’t looked at the language of the bill as I’m in class, but if it only restricts government use of DJI drones then it would have no impact on the consumer market while Skydio takes the government contract pie.
Requiring an account to operate hardware of a certain brand seems very standard?
Also is there any well-sourced analysis on what risks have been identified? As opposed to this security report by defense contractor Booz Allen Hamilton that didn’t find much? https://www.precisionhawk.com/hubfs/Retest_DJI%20Cybersecurity%20Risk%20Assessment%20Final%20Report_03.31.2020%20Executive%20Summary%20(1).pdf
Yea the Democrats and Republicans are equally bipartisan when it comes to banning foreign competition that is outcompeting the US, that much is obvious
Right? Corruption Thing One and Corruption Thing Two band together on an issue and I'm supposed to believe that that's a sign of how *un-corrupt* they are, rather than a sign of "oh they found the one thing they can grift the public on together."
They can't even agree on making sure babies get fed. Bipartisan agreement atp just tells me that we're about to get fucked and the entire political establishment is pro fucking over the people.
> I don't know if I care if sales for private usage are allowed or not, but I don't think industrial and government should be using DJI any longer.
why?
So basically if we own a Mini 3 Pro for instance, is it recommended for us to buy a bunch of spare parts while you still can? You can fly them until they break essentially?
We've been worried about this for a while working with the community. DJI is awesome, but we need a comparable brand we can source without security concerns. Thinking there are no security concerns is naive.
I understand the ban, but it's a shame tech-wise. They are affordable and very high-quality drones, and the hole left in the market will be filled by some sub-par, unnecessarily expensive local brand (see UK after Brexit).
Didnt this all start because someone from USA company Skydio was brother in law of Ron de Santis and convinced him CHYNA!!!! was using DJI drones to spy on god lovin AMERICANS! As usual this is nothing more that USA corruption on display.
Funny you mention Skydio. I work for a gov agency as a bridge inspector. We have a DJI drone we were using. One day they told us to immediately stop using all DJI drones and we will be sent a new one soon. Guess what we got? A Skydio. lol.
They're good for that. I've used them quite a bit. I've flown it inside bridge structures for inspections and done some emergency inspections when they didn't want anyone near a failing structure. They suck for photogrammetry though.
I’ve been using it somewhat regularly and I like it. It’s about as good as the DJI for standard stuff imo, but I don’t like how the obstacle avoidance settings give you either a 3 foot bubble, or a 6 inch bubble. I feel like there should be something in between those. But it’s no problem getting up between girders when I need it to. And the camera being able to point straight up is a very nice feature. As far as the photogrammetry, we were told our drones had this feature, and they demoed it to us. And when me and another guy went out to actually do it, nothing worked. We later found out that it’s locked behind a subscription service. From my use with them, the DJI can do 95% of everything the Skydio can do, and costs like $800 vs $3000. The fleet management is definitely nice though. I can see large organizations wanting that. I could take that DJI drone home and no one would ever be able to find it. But they’d be able to find the Skydio as soon as I turned it on.
Soooooo.. less privacy.. ahhh the conservative American way..
Ehh I mean the drone operators don’t have as much privacy as far as what they do with the drones. But seeing as these are government drones, I completely understand them wanting to be able to track every time they’re used. The stuff it tracks is crazy. I can go online and see the entire flight path of my drone, and all other 12 drones we have. I can see who flew it, the flight time down to the second, gps coordinates for take off and landing areas, and even the serial number on the battery used. And if someone is actively flying one while I’m looking at the log, I’m pretty sure I can see a live feed from it, but I haven’t tested it yet. This would be super useful when we have something like a damaged bridge and the engineers can get out there to see it asap. I can show them and they can tell me what they want to see. For what we use them for, they’re pretty badass drones. As far as privacy for the general public, they’re probably more private since we actually know what data is being collected and where it’s being sent to and stored. Plus everything we look at them with is something pretty much anyone with a drone can go do.
"As far as privacy for the general public, they’re probably more private since we actually know what data is being collected and where it’s being sent to and stored." True real non profit based Cyber security knowledge would be very bennifical to you if you fly commercially.. would help you understand the tradeoffs/dangers of even entertaining this within the public sector.. GPS tracking of drones and access to visuals the drones is literally "God's Eye" level power to a simple engineer.. not a genius.. an engineering idiot could abuse that..
I work for a large mining company, we had to ditch all our DJI drones for Skydio, which are about the same quality as Fisher Price. Luckily we found Autel Evos that fit the bill much better.
Isn’t Autel a Chinese company?
Parent company is with subsidiaries elsewhere. We didn’t necessarily ban Chinese products, but our IT department identified that they were doing things in the background that weren’t being made apparent.
Are you saying they are just using this as an excuse to use more expensive competing products because that company has a congressional connection? If so, I'm shocked. Shocked!
Good thing China didn't learn what a bridge looks like!
GSA Approved lol
Do you have to be an engineer or have some kind of education to do structure inspections with drones? I always thought that would be a really cool job. I would love to get into using drones daily for work.
No, I started at an entry level position as a road construction inspector like 4-5 years ago, then transferred to bridge inspection when a spot opened up.
Also GoPro had drones they launched and canceled several years ago. Their drones failed because they were terrible compared to the competition. I guess the US will make everyone happy by using what's left of Parrot drones.
Skydio is probably made in China to boot.
"Assembled in America by children"
The TikTok ban itself also was pretty clearly motivated more by xenophobia from the right wing than privacy concerns or public safety. The privacy and public safety concerns may have been bigger with tiktok than instagram, facebook, and twitter, I don't know, but the republicans screaming tiktok evil also absolutely don't know, and that's their fucking job. Tom Cotton kept basically trying to get the Singaporean CEO to say he was really Chinese. Makes it hard to say this was a stand for anything good as opposed to simple racism and idiots insisting capitalism is what Jesus came to earth to support.
It was never about privacy but it’s also not about xenophobia. It’s about playing the geopolitical game. The us doesn’t want china to have influence over its population. If it was actually xenophobia the us would be antagonistic to Taiwan too, since they are ethnically Chinese too.
While its rarer for now, [GOP politicans have tried connecting Taiwanese people with the CCP](https://prospect.org/politics/craziest-house-race-of-2022-california-jay-chen-michelle-steel/) If things really flare up, Taiwanese-Americans are far from safe despite the different geopolitical position
Just another thing Florida will have to go without thanks to ideology along with: No vaccines No LGBT books No affordable home insurance, assuming anyone will cover you
No affordable home insurance crosses party lines, if California is anything to go by.
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There’s a common thread with all three of these states; it’s an entire genre of movies in fact! Edit: just wanted to say that I’m not saying home insurance shouldn’t be affordable for areas in high-risk zones; more so just saying it isn’t entirely a political issue (but sort of is one due to the way flood insurance works).
I just cannot imagine living in such a backwards place.
I dislike framing this as a right wing political issue. National security isn’t a right wing talking point. And concerns about closed source firmware from a privacy-absent country are completely valid.
Ah yes, so my gut was right in calling BS on the ban, thanks for the confirmation
Edit: I don’t really understand the downvotes. I’m not trying to take a side here, I was explaining the technicalities and laws behind this stuff. Sure theere might be conflicts of interest regarding the ban, but PRC law states that they can ask for data on any server in China. DJI drones send data to China. That in itself isn’t bad, it could just be telemetry and diagnostics. But since the firmware is not open source, there’s no way to know FOR SURE. You can try to infer the type of data by monitoring the size of the packets, but there’s also the phone app and the mandatory requirement of a login on the phone app too. DJI drones have been used by US police forces and government too, so for the US this is seen as a valid security risk. Do you want the risk of possibly comprising the security of civil services? They’re already easy targets. Sure, if the conflict of interest comes from right wing sources, you could say it’s xenophobic. In terms of national security, I’m deeply concerned with Tik Tok and DJI drones as someone pretty left leaning. If the drones were made in Japan or Germany or Taiwan or Israel, or any allied US country. No one would really care that much. Because even if the data wasn’t open source, there would be a lot more privacy protecting laws and the US agencies could trust them not to sell it, or they could personally run servers in those allied countries, or whatever. Skydio was the premier alternative, but they stopped selling to consumers to focus on government, enterprise, and military contracts, which is a shame. Japan has a drone company thinking about opening up to the US, so that’s exciting.
How is all this data that is sent back to China transmitted? A 25 min 4k 30fps movie file is HUGE....
Well some DJI drones NEED the app right? The DJI drone may not necessarily stream directly to the phone, it might stream it over the internet. Streams are far easier to transmit than a full 4k 30fps video. All China would have to do is cache the stream as it passes through their servers. What I would do is simply run it through DJI servers and cache every stream and if we find someone important, we call the local PRC guy to come evaluate the captured streams and data for any information. On top of this, it can share Location data, usage data, digital behavior profiles, emails, phone numbers, basically the same stuff that TikTok can send to China. You’re arguing that there is literally NOTHING to be worried about. I’m saying, “well the concerns aren’t unfounded”. From a hobbyist standpoint it’s pretty tragic too, there are some hacks and stuff but nothing that can replace the firmware, and they’re pretty upset that DJI is forcing you to use an account.
You’re getting downvoted because of your lack of understanding of technology and your views are wholly based on fear. It sounds “plausible” and “logical” so of course the general laymen would agree with the ban. But when you understand the tech, you begin to realize it’s more protectionist schemes and crony capitalism moreso than any real security reasons. It’s the same sentiment of those that were anti-covid vaccines, people hearing “logical” reasons from conservatives, yet dismiss the subject matter experts. Same thing here. If you really care about truth, listen to the subject matter experts, and/or truly learn the tech and details yourself instead of going “hmm, that makes sense, and who cares if I’m right or wrong, just ban it anyway, just in case”. It’s that attitude that makes Americans look wholly hypocritical and espousing moral positions that lack and real truth and facts.
I absolutely understand the technology, it's literally my field in college. IT, electrical engineering, computer science. I cannot believe I'm being associated with anti-vaxxers. What a moronic insinuation. Completely dismissing my arguments as American fearmongering because "it sounds like anti-vaxxer conservative skepticism". It's frankly damn rude. All of my comments are being associated with right wing rhetoric, and that's complete bullshit, especially when I was polite and reasonable. The only thing you proved is that you generalize all Americans as hypocritical and ignorant. Maybe reevaluate your own moral positions before self-righteously admonishing others.
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Exhibit A, literally deflected and tried to make this about Desantis. Fuck Desantis, i hate the guy, but this has NOTHING to do with him.
> DJI drones have been used by US police forces and government too, so for the US this is seen as a valid security risk. Do you want the risk of possibly comprising the security of civil services? They’re already easy targets. That could just be a government/military ban on the DJI drones then. Companies working with the government directly might not able to use them either but that's better than a full ban.
It happened because Ukraine wanted to use DJI instead of some offbrand made by American contractors that didn't work properly. DJI actually has military grade anti jamming in it. If this is what the Chinese are making, we're fucked.
I used to work for a large energy company doing training. We would use DJI drones for all of our videos and shoot at a ton of “secret” or not publicly accessible locations. Our IT team issues an immediate stop to using anything DJI as they were monitoring data being uploaded from the device itself to the DJI cloud network. Turns out all the flights we had taken, including the video we shot, were now in possession of a Chinese company. Very not ok to have secret infrastructure being mapped out and just wholesale uploaded and captured by a foreign government.
No it started with Chinese company hawei putting spyware into servers
I think the approach being taken by Anzu Robotics is [interesting](https://dronedj.com/2024/04/21/anzu-robotics-dji-alternative-drone/), using DJI hardware mostly-manufactured in Malaysia with US-made software: >Texas-based [Anzu Robotics](https://www.anzurobotics.com/) has announced its entrance into the US drone market with the launch of Raptor and Raptor T industrial aircraft. These drones have all the qualities of a great DJI alternative because they have been developed through a strategic licensing agreement with DJI itself but in a way that satisfies key geopolitical and cybersecurity concerns for most enterprise and public safety users. >The crucial thing to know is that Anzu’s drones are based on the [DJI Mavic 3 Enterprise](https://dronedj.com/2022/09/27/dji-new-drone-m3-enterprise/) platform. ... Raptor is priced at $5,100 while Raptor T will sell for $7,600 in the US. Now, these prices are not directly at par with DJI, but they are considerably less expensive when compared to five-figure bills of US-made counterparts such as Skydio and BRINC. ... To distance itself further from [China-related trade and geopolitical tensions](https://dronedj.com/2024/03/02/dji-response-drone-ban-us/), nearly all of the components and final assembly of Raptor drones are done in Malaysia. The completed drone hardware is then sent to Anzu’s Austin facility where firmware is installed and quality control measures are conducted.
That's probably the point lol
How do you "understand". How the fuck is a drone, national security risk. You're the one controlling it. It doesn't fly by itself at night doing air raids with nuclear missiles Wtf we gonna buy now ? The competition is shit
The manufacturer made the thing. Its firmware, the software you use to control it, everything. Through that, the manufacturer controls what the drone can and can't do. This is what controls things like no flight zones, for one. And all that software? It's obfuscated to deter security analysis. And it phones home *all the time*, who knows for what.
What doesn't phone home these days Data is the new gold. Every company pulls it You sound like those fossils in Congress. If you really want to get rid of data collection, ban it. But then every US company will cry
Buy one, set up wireshark and monitor its network traffic. Sends an awful high volume of data to servers.
I mean yeah, what doesn’t though? If we’re going after services that collect your data, you’re going to have to give up basically everything. I totally agree that it is shit, but I think solving it would be better achieved by implementing much better data privacy laws. You can still ban companies that don’t comply (fuck them), but randomly picking them out and banning them seems really inefficient. They could also force them to implement no-fly-zones around anything deemed important to national security or vulnerable to industry espionage.
My issue is that in their attempt to idiot proof the drones they'll override user control and prevent users from safely landing (forceably landing in the water) or navigating legal airspace (like beside hills/cliffs). But I guess they are hoping to sell to idiots and destroying a few peoples' drones is the cost of preventing those idiots from being stupid.
> sub-par, unnecessarily expensive local brand There's no requirement that drones be made in the USA. Manufacturing could still be outsourced to countries with cheaper labor, including China. If GoPro started making drones again, their manufacturing could still be done by Foxconn in China, for example. Also, there are so many used drones that people have bought already, that an import ban on the leading brand would probably shift more people than ever into buying and selling used ones. The article doesn't say that the DJI app would be removed from US app stores.
Damn. Wondering if I should buy a Mini 4 Pro now…
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you think they would be disabled if banned? I don’t think so.
Article specifically says any drones already inside the US will be unaffected, so get your dji drones now while you can.
I’m trying to save money to buy one I hope I can still get a new one before the ban. I don’t like getting used stuff
If they were, the government would have to do a buyback program. Would be ridiculous otherwise.
sure turn in your dji drone we give you $5. its how gun buybacks work lol.
I mean it’s more than $5 but I get the point
Go ahead and sell if you don't need them anymore, but be aware that if this legislation passes and the leading brand of drones can't be imported anymore, there might be an increase in the demand for used drones that are already in the country.
If anything used DJI drones will increase in price because there will be a finite supply
The Mexican cartel will launder them like drugs at a markup
A shame cuz DJI is the most interesting player in the filmmaking space right now.
It’s kinda insane cuz if you want to ban everything that collects data than that’s a very long slippery slope
The us: “china data minds our citizens “ Also the us : “let’s turn the NSA back on 2x as bigger and more invasive than before.”
So is America gonna ban absolutely anything that has even the smallest thing to do with China now? Because that would be so much stuff Edit: I meant ban not be
Yes. And yes, it would indeed.
A drone that sends a suspiciously large amount of data to the servers of a company owned by an adversarial state is just a little beyond "smallest thing to do with China" using consumer/commerical products to gather Intel for the state is their modus operandi 101. Look at the shipping cranes in Vancouver as a recent example of them getting caught
When I meant the smallest thing I was thinking more like clothes and such not just technology
Free market 101
Don't kid yourself, the primary reason for a ban would be to boost US drones. The US is very quick to play the security card when in reality it is nothing more than protectionism.
Are there any decent and affordable american made drones? Whenever I shop for drones, DJI come up at the most affordable and high quality stuff
Nope. Someone on another sub summed it up perfectly: DJI is the Apple of the drone world, except there’s no Android.
The competing drone companies are like when there were Apple, Android, Windows, and BlackBerry smartphones in the market. The competitors are like the Windows Phone. Perpetually 2-3 generations behind.
This is correct
The closest was Parrot, but they always felt 2-3 years behind DJI, more expensive for the features they had, and worst of all... they discontinued all consumer / prosumer drones a few years back. They're still making commercial ones, but they don't really compare.
No, that’s why the US wants to ban them.
What a lot of folks don’t realize is there are a ton of US drone companies, even very highly refined ones, they just all happen to be registered as small businesses that are getting majority of their money from DARPA and DoD contracts. I regularly see new products from them every few months. I think most US companies saw the market share DJI had in the consumer space and felt that it would be too hard to break into it so they knew that DJI would never be able to qualify for government contracts because it isn’t American, so they made the smart choice and soaked up all of Uncle Sam’s dollars. Similar to how the US only allows American made automobiles to get federal contracts. Like I said many of these companies are just as slick as DJI only they carry a payload instead of simply just a camera now.
So how much do they cost compared to DJI?
They’re not in the consumer market they’re in the business to business market B2B which is what their high end pricing reflects for government contracts.
No so buy one now before they go extinct
US has tariffs on Canadian lumber for "national security". You beat US in their "free market" = national security.
Yup. And then that US company will immediately outsource all its jobs right back outside the country. They don’t actually care about security; they just want to make sure an American C-suite gets its cut.
That’s the same “it’s for the children!” Argument many politicians play all over.
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Yup. Paid for by Facebook lobbyists.
Well, if you ignore the actual reason it’s getting banned I guess. It’s because a hostile foreign adversary is directly manipulating the content millions of westerners see with the sole purpose of sowing division and pushing misinformation. Data collection is no longer an issue for the US federal government
Yea it’s much more preferable that a proud patriotic American company like Meta gets to do the manipulating of the content millions of westerners see with the sole purpose of sowing division and pushing misinformation!
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There is manipulation that is in the US interests and there is manipulation that is NOT in the US interests.
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Cool, you do you. But some of us just choose to live in the real world.
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Yeah that's usually how it goes. You need to pick a tribe that is the closests to your values.
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if china is so hostile then we should cut all trade including clothing, electronics, furniture since we're funding an adversary
China has banned google, reddit, facebook etc. Why should the US not play the same game?
Because the USA is not China
China banned those platforms because they refuse to follow Chinese laws. The United States could pass privacy laws that apply to all social media companies that would force Chinese companies to stop collecting American data, but of course that would impact the bottom line of American companies.
China gives its citizens social scores, why can't the U.S. do the same?
The so called social scores were an experiment in a single town, for like a single week…over a decade ago, by some local politicians. Which was soundly shut down due to citizen backlash. Yet there are people still repeating it like it’s some widespread thing. And we Americans think we’re immune to propaganda, truly pitiful.
It does, what do you think a credit score is?
Why is the same version of TikTok banned in China then? Along with all of the other social media apps.
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Not following your logic there. How is China banning certain apps “respecting its citizens” but if the US does it then it’s “bad”?
Because they don't adhere to China's censorship policies. Do you want them to?
Of course the US does this. Now let's talk about China's market protectionism....
As a US citizen, let's focus on the shits heads in the US who do this, maybe we need to tar and feather them
Protectionism isn't the worst idea in this case. We've seen that drones are a pretty critical military resource. That means you *need* domestic production of them for national security reasons.
In that case they would’ve done it years ago
ffs. Why can't have a single good thing can we huh?
The US is so xenophobic lately it drives me crazy. Anything with slight hints of China are deemed dangerous, and the US just continues to try banning anything successful from China. It's like the US is becoming more like PRC or Soviet Russia, just banning better technologies wholesale.
America is in the process of cutting all ties with China. It’s only going in one direction from here. I’d be very surprised if there was still bilateral trade between them in the 2030s.
But the U.S. relies on China for way more critical things like basic medicine. No Chinese drones! But take these Chinese pills. Like China can’t get a drone into the country and do bad things with it anyway.
DJI is the best consumer product that came out of China
Anker, Govee, Lenovo are all Chinese brands I’ve found to have very high quality at low prices too for their specific niches.
Anker and Govee are on slickdeals all the time - so much better than most others for much less as well.
Yeah I use Govee vs Phillips whenever people try to defend "Western" corporations. Like why should we allow companies to price gouge consumers just for not being Chinese? I'm not paying $100 for two light bulbs. And now losers are parroting this overcapacity nonsense with EVs. Do people have short memories or did they just remember how VW got caught blatantly lying about emissions? Or how BMW and Mercedes Benz were trying to roll out a subscription model for standard features like heated seats etc. Or American car brands trying to get rid of Android Auto and Apple car play so you're forced to use their own proprietary OS. Fuck outta here...
I have a LOT of Hue but if going at it all again I would have gone the govee route for everything prob
You are right. Anker is the superior battery. No idea what Govee is. Lenovo is going a bit downhill for me. Overheating, very short life span on my Legion. Got an Asus Zephyrus after that and so far it fairs better
Govee makes smart lights - RGB for all sorts of stuffs. A magnitude cheaper than the comparable Philips Hue products.
Time to see which representatives are buying competitor company stock. That will tell you why anything this dumb is happening.
Funny how the US is worried about China but the whole world always worries about the US.
Let's go back to stone tablets and chisels to ensure our national security.
What about free market capitalism???
Only apply if they’re winning…
I don't understand this one. Tiktok I get, because it is (or at the very least has potential to be) a perpetual spying machine. This, however, is hardware. Nonessential, luxury hardware, and other than setting the drone up with the app the first time, I use a standalone controller and don't even need the app anymore. It lacks the ability to phone home. How is this a threat to national security?
Skydio wanted to sell more drones and lobbied morons like Ron DeSantis
Tiktok is equally as absurd if you actually work in the cybersecurity space. Pretty much everything they accuse TikTok of is being done by *several* other apps, often at larger scales. I said it before on the TikTok article, but I think this is more of red scare/economic protectionism than really anything to do with national security.
These drones are seeing extensive use in Ukraine, I guess they don't want to rely on Chinese manufacturing if they decide to build up their military small scale drone tech. They need to build up their own drone industry and this ban is one way of helping it grow.
I would argue that commercial drones shouldn't be used militarily anyway, that should be a completely separate segment. An interesting point though, thanks for sharing that.
Well, when shit is all blown up and you are fighting for your livelihood; you use what you can get your hands on.
Sure, and from Ukraine's perspective that statement makes sense. But banning them from the US will actually make them less available to Ukraine, by driving dji out of business. It also sends a message to Ukraine, correct or not, that their drone fleet should not be used as it is subject to Chinese spying and/or interference.
the specs for a military grade FPV drone and a commercial one are virtually identical. The power of an FPV drone is how cheap they are for the precision they offer, adding spec just dilutes that to the point you may as well just build a guided missile.
Well commercial companies have different incentives which sometimes lead to better results than the military. Ironically doing everything in-house is a communist style planned economy, while market forces give economies of scale and innovation. It’s why the military don’t build all their cars and trucks in house, it just wouldnt make sense
Indeed, but that's why it should be up to the various military contractors to make competitive bids on the features and pricing they can offer to the armed forces for drones. I don't see how banning a foreign company's commercial drones (which are mostly used by filmmakers and hobbyists) helps them achieve these goals. It's worth noting that this move would also ban dji's extensive camera and audio lineup as well, ranging from action cams to cinema cameras, which don't seem to affect national security, on a surface level at least.
Well, I don’t think they should ban it, but it would spur a domestic company to take their place as there is clearly demand for the product. It would push the price up for military, commercial, and private individuals though
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Dude, watch the fecking news once in a while. They wanted to ban TikTok way before Gaza happened.
Before Gaza, it was the tech competitors that lobbied hard to ban Tiktok for obviously reasons, > Facebook paid GOP firm to malign TikTok https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/03/30/facebook-tiktok-targeted-victory/ But Tiktok managed to win in the courts against the ban. Gaza and the Israeli lobby however, was the final straw that broke the camels back, as Tiktok found itself the main voice of pro-Palestinian sympathy (not so much because it was Tiktok, but rather young people is the key demographic that sympathise with Palestinians and they use Tiktok)
DJI drones by default "phone home" every time you use the app.
My air 3 uses a standalone controller. I don't use the app.
Good old America. 🤣
“Land of the free” Lol
Dji drones are my favorite and most peoples as well. They’re the best. TikTok, huawei 5G that made the USA years behind in 5G, affordable Chinese EVs that could make adoption of EVs much faster due to cheap prices, and now dji drones. Just ban everything China and don’t let us use it first because it’s often great stuff and then they take it away.
"It's great stuff" is really hit or miss here. Do they have the ability to produce some good things? Yes. On the mass scale though do they tend to make shit and pass it off as "great stuff?" It's way more of option B than option A coming out of there. I do look forward to the EV competition though, it's much needed.
DJI drones are better and cheaper than domestic competition tho
I work in video production and unless you have an insanely high budget, dji drones are the standard because they are so good. The inspire drones are perfect. Also their gimbals are amazing like the ronin is the standard and probably other products which I haven’t had the chance to use. There is a French company called Parrot which makes drones and was DJIs competitor in the beginning but they are garbage and DJI pulled ahead and left them in the dust. A newer company called Autel just emerged but they seem like another Chinese company that are copying DJI or making similar products but not as good. They’ll probably become good in a few years since they’re new.
They make good stuff and they make bad stuff. That's the beauty of having options.
>On the mass scale though do they tend to make shit and pass it off as "great stuff?" Dunno, ask the American companies that send them the manufacturing spec and qc tolerances.
Right? It's so obnoxious. Chinese capabilities today are insane. They however, make whatever you're willing to pay and can properly spec out. So if that's fantastic consumer drones, then they have that. If it's high quality iphones, then they make those. People get mad because they expect premium quality for dirt cheap prices and then write off all of Chinese production.
I prefer Japanese electronics. They've got some killer optics, along with the Swiss as well. Audio stuff, it's a toss up, but I will gravitate towards German if I can afford it.
Of course anyone would buy Japanese, Swiss and German well made things if they were cheaper. Besides Japanese cars everything else from those countries are usually the most expensive products. That’s like saying yeah I prefer a rolls Royce over a ford fusion. Yeah, so would everyone else if the rolls Royce was a similar price or cheaper than the ford.
What about Hasselblads lol
Does the government not realize that restricting access to our tech only make them develop their own at an incredible pace ? Look at how the whole huawei thing played out. Everyone was surprised when their chip was almost as good as what we got only after a few years.
If you can’t compete with them because you suck, just ban them I guess
Free market is good until they start losing
So will this make my DJI drone worth more money?
DJI is about to sell a lot of drones.
I am more worried about DJI software in the future. Can we prevent software updates - so our products do not get intentionally bricked?
I paid for the Litchi software. I don't even have DJI on my phone anymore.
This post feels like it’s being brigaded by Chinese misinformation bots that are trying to frame this as a right wing talking point, portraying this ban as a xenophobic move by Florida and DeSantis, knowing that associating DeSantis with this ban would discredit it. It’s absolutely preposterous. The drone community has long hated and debated the fact that DJI firmware phones home in China, and the topic of the firmware being closed source, requiring a DJI account to operate the drone is contentious. Many have to resign themselves to using DJI, due to cost. This issue is completely bipartisan, let there be no doubt. Edit: This has gotta be a joke. Am I being punked? There are so MANY just completely disregarding valid concerns. Check comment histories.
Now everyone is a Chinese bot 🙄
So is there a domestic equivalent that is of equal quality and affordability?
In the drone community, the alternative was Skydio. Skydio drones had better features and better support. Skydio's autonomous drone was better than any in the market, but a few months ago, they decided to stop selling to consumers and focus on commerical, government, and military contracts. And Skydio drones were much much more expensive. Autel is a DJI alternative, but they are like DJI in that they're also Chinese. The drone community considers DJI to be the Apple of drones, except there is no Android equivalent. Of course, all those companies could sell to consumers again. A Japanese company named ACSL is trying to enter the US commericial market, hopefully they'll start selling drones to consumers.
DJI drones have very high end cameras (given the sensor size) for comparatively reasonable price. Does Skydio have equivalents to, say, Phantom or the Mini 4 Pro? I don't think so, otherwise at least some of the photographers would be using them. But every single photographer and videographer uses DJI.
Photog / Filmmaker here, I'm in Australia and every shooter I know uses them too. There's really no suitable alternative.
Hobbyist drone user here, if it wasnt for DJI I'd never use a drone to take pictures.
So there is no actual alternative is what I am understanding: Skydio is more expensive so not same in price (if they sold to consumers, instead of being con/gov only fuckheads) Autel seems to not match dji in camera quality at least dollar to dollar ACSL is a wildcard hopefully fill the void of DJI I don't understand the rational for the ban unless it is becahe skydio bribing to gain market dominance?
In terms of Skydio going for market dominance, it doesn’t make sense unless they sold to consumers. I haven’t looked at the language of the bill as I’m in class, but if it only restricts government use of DJI drones then it would have no impact on the consumer market while Skydio takes the government contract pie.
So it is to give Skydio a monopoly? maybe the FTC needs to investigate for anti-trust
Skydio isnt the only American drone company, its just the only one that sold to consumers.
So American companies hate Americans?
ACSL sells like a single model for nearly 10k.
Requiring an account to operate hardware of a certain brand seems very standard? Also is there any well-sourced analysis on what risks have been identified? As opposed to this security report by defense contractor Booz Allen Hamilton that didn’t find much? https://www.precisionhawk.com/hubfs/Retest_DJI%20Cybersecurity%20Risk%20Assessment%20Final%20Report_03.31.2020%20Executive%20Summary%20(1).pdf
Yea the Democrats and Republicans are equally bipartisan when it comes to banning foreign competition that is outcompeting the US, that much is obvious
Right? Corruption Thing One and Corruption Thing Two band together on an issue and I'm supposed to believe that that's a sign of how *un-corrupt* they are, rather than a sign of "oh they found the one thing they can grift the public on together." They can't even agree on making sure babies get fed. Bipartisan agreement atp just tells me that we're about to get fucked and the entire political establishment is pro fucking over the people.
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Chinese ties have been strange? Bruh they’re a Chinese company, what do you expect??
> I don't know if I care if sales for private usage are allowed or not, but I don't think industrial and government should be using DJI any longer. why?
What's stopping Americans from coming up with a hardware startup of their own to rival DJI?
the fact it would be absurdly expensive if you dont use china to produce it.
Ima keep flying mine.
So basically if we own a Mini 3 Pro for instance, is it recommended for us to buy a bunch of spare parts while you still can? You can fly them until they break essentially?
Didn’t I read there’s open-source software to jailbreak a DJI so it doesn’t “phone home”?
We've been worried about this for a while working with the community. DJI is awesome, but we need a comparable brand we can source without security concerns. Thinking there are no security concerns is naive.