The Chinese drone manufacturer DJI will no longer block the ability to fly over areas previously excluded from use.

If you have ever had the opportunity to play the role of a drone operator, you probably know that in some areas we cannot fly unmanned aerial vehicles. These include airports, some power plants, military bases, national parks and natural disaster sites where rescue services operate. DJI – one of the most popular drone manufacturers – has been complying with these bans for over a decade, preventing the drone from being launched in excluded areas from the software level. Now, however, the Chinese giant unexpectedly changes its tactics, just after the incident that prevented firefighters from extinguishing the burning Los Angeles.

A controversial decision right after the incident

The recordings from California resemble a disaster movie – however, it is not a director’s fiction, but a real tragedy, resulting in 25 deaths and thousands of hectares of burned earth. Fire departments from several counties are working tirelessly, using air assistance in the form of CL-415 firefighting aircraft. Unfortunately, due to the recklessness of a commercial drone user who wanted to film the ashes of burning Los Angeles, one of the “Super Scooper” planes was seriously damaged after a collision with a drone, as I wrote about in this publication.

Both the state authorities and representatives of the Federal Aviation Administration reportedly took the matter very seriously, announcing severe punishment for all people who disrupt the fire brigade’s activities with drones. And it is in the face of desperate requests from American firefighters to refrain from using drones in fire-prone areas that DJI’s strange decision to stop using software restrictions on the Chinese manufacturer’s devices in the US appears. Why was this decision made?

The specter of punishment is supposed to be sufficient

A DJI representative told The Verge that geofencing rules were introduced years ago, when commercial drones were new and users were not yet aware of potential threats. Now prohibitions will be replaced with warnings displayed on the screens of control devices. DJI believes that the potential penalty imposed on the user is sufficient, and the authorities should be responsible for enforcing these rules. The representative also added that the current geofencing was an act of good will on DJI’s part, and not the implementation of an imposed obligation.

The geofencing system that was in place before was a voluntary security measure introduced by DJI over 10 years ago, when small mass-produced drones were new to the airspace and regulators needed time to establish rules for their safe use – a DJI representative told The Verge

This is very important in the face of the current conflicts between the US authorities and the Chinese company. The US Department of Commerce is considering regulations that will limit or even ban the sale of Chinese drones in the United States – the reason for this decision is fear of espionage. This decision may also be dictated by the desire to cut off the manufacturer’s liability for incidents with drones during fires, because, as evidenced by numerous videos from Los Angeles, users ignored firefighters’ requests to stop using drones in areas covered by rescue operations.

According to commentators from overseas, DJI’s new policy is supposed to be something like a twit in the nose of the Trump administration, which will soon decide to possibly block sales in the US – and as we know, Donald Trump does not have good relations with the Middle Kingdom, so the scenario is easy to predict. predictions.

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