Drones are the worst. Not because of the technology (that’s cool as hell) but because the people who pilot these things can be little troublemakers. Sure, it’s not all of them but just look at the stigma BMW and Tesla drivers have. A few bad eggs can really spoil the cake.
And things are looking to get much worse because for reasons unknown to just about anyone (we have a sneaking suspicion though), DJI is getting rid of their geofencing feature that’s built into their drones. This coming on the heels of one of their drones crashing into a Canadian water bomber plane during the LA wildfires this week, taking it out of commission for several days.
In the past, you could not fly a DJI drone over restricted airspace in the United States. This makes perfect sense, because, you know, good fucking reasons. The software inside the drones would prevent an operator from flying over say, airport runways, power plants, the White House, and, you know, wildfires. This was in place so DJI drones wouldn’t cause damage, injury, or even death to people, aircraft, and first responders in the area.
The company says it will no longer stop users from flying in “No-Fly Zones,” and will now simply offer a gentle warning that you might be doing something really stupid. So, if you want to fly your drone over say, LAX, you now can and DJI will only suggest kindly that you not do that because it might be a frowned upon.
DJI created their geofencing tools out of the kindness of their hearts back in the day, but it’s unclear why they are removing the feature now. The company states that this rollback is “placing control back in the hands of the drone operators,” but it also might be because the United States is now blocking some DJI imports and has, you know, called DJI a “Chinese Military Company” that’s now in line for a ban inside the United States.
It’s no wonder that DJI isn’t playing nice with authorities anymore and since the FAA does not require geofencing for any drone maker, DJI is totally in the clear with what they are doing. Still, many are concerned about the feature removal, one of them being Brendan Schulman, the former head of global policy at DJI posting to Twitter about the situation.
Interesting timing: Ten years almost to the day after a DJI drone infamously crash-lands on the White House lawn, DJI has removed the built-in geofencing feature that automatically impedes such an incident, replacing it with warnings that the user can choose to ignore.
Who knows what the future will hold for DJI inside the United States. The incoming administration could roll back the pressure placed on DJI and other Chinese tech companies such as TikTok, who itself is about to be banned outright in the US by the current administration. That is left to be seen, but in the meantime get ready for some wild news stories about drunk drone pilots crashing drones into places they shouldn’t be!
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