Key Points
- A new DJI update enables everyday operators to fly their drones over and into airports, military bases, sensitive infrastructure, wildfires, and national no-fly zones in the United States.
- Hundreds of sensitive-site operators may be forced to deploy counter-drone solutions. The update comes just days after a DJI drone crashed into a firefighting waterbomber over California.
- DJI promises to place “control back in the hands of the drone operators, in line with regulatory principles of the operator bearing final responsibility” — and tells Hunterbrook that it has given “authorities the tools they need to enforce existing rules.”
- DJI, by one estimate, controls 90% of the global consumer drone market. The company currently faces the risk of a total ban in the U.S.
I am not a coder myself, but based on what I know, I assume it would be trivial code the drones so that when they went into the exact same areas where they used to be restricted, the video from the camera gets flagged and sent back to China in real time for analysis.
It’s already baked into the cloud software, actually. when you fly into restricted airspace, it should provide a warning. (and previously would require some kind of permit or something. I dunno. DJI’s suck. but that’s a rant for another time.)