The decision to let drones fly in dangerous areas is not political according to the company
A comment on DJI’s announcement that the United States will no longer be able to fly in restricted airspace: Some remarks on Welsh’s blog
Welsh is suggesting that its apps in the United States won’t go that far. “To be clear: DJI flight apps will continue to voluntarily generate warnings if pilots attempt to fly into restricted airspace as designated by the FAA, provided that pilots keep their flight apps up to date,” he tells The Verge.
“This update has been in development for some time, following similar changes successfully implemented in the E.U. last year, which showed no evidence of increased risk,” says Welsh. However, last year’s changes reportedly kept mandatory no-fly zones around UK airports.
In a blog post, DJI characterizes this as “placing control back in the hands of the drone operators.” Adam Welsh, global policy head of the company, says remote ID, a technology that broadcasts the location of a drone and their pilot during flight, is helping authorities with tools to enforce existing rules.
While the post does contain a variety of additional details about what is and isn’t happening to the company’s geofencing system, it does not dispute that DJI has eliminated the feature that prevents the vast majority of US drone pilots, by default, from flying over airports, power plants, active wildfires, military bases, and government buildings like the White House, apparently without exception.
The FBI said it will have to work backwards through investigative means to figure out who was behind the damage to the Super Scooper airplane, a sub 250 gram model that may not requireRemote ID to operate.
Brendan Schulman, the former head of global policy at DJI doesn’t think that this is a good move. Here are a few choice phrases he’s posted to X:
This is a remarkable shift in drone safety strategy with a potentially enormous impact, especially among drone pilots who are less aware of airspace restrictions and high-risk areas.
The move helps remind us that the drones are less of a national security risk because they’re kept away from important facilities. The US will only understand once it takes the feature away.
Yes, this GEO update applies to all locations in the U.S and aligns with the FAA’s Remote ID objectives. With this update, prior DJI geofencing datasets have been replaced to display official FAA data. The areas that used to be known as No-Fly Zones will now be displayed as Enhanced Warning Zones.
3) Did DJI make this decision in consultation with or by direction of the US government or any specific government bodies, agencies, or representatives? Which one, if so? Why not?
This GEO update aligns with the principle advanced by aviation regulators around the globe — including the FAA — that the operator is responsible for complying with rules.
Even if this decision has nothing to do with China, the company has very strong reasons to get on the radar of US regulators right now — it’s currently facing a total import ban of its drones and cameras in the United States, until or unless “an appropriate national security agency” publicly declares that its products are not an unacceptable national security risk.
“We had planned to roll this update in the US months ago but delayed the implementation to ensure the update would work properly,” the company’s unsigned blog post reads.
The current political environment in the US is not linked to this update and it is also dangerous.
If politics didn’t drive that decision, what did? The post doesn’t quite say it. The true reason for this update is that it is a part of the principle of operator responsibility and that it is the reason for its No Fly Zones.
“This was especially challenging for commercial operators, drone businesses — and most critically — public safety agencies performing lifesaving work, where delays are simply unacceptable,” DJI writes.
