DJI ban: What happens to the drone I already own?

[moldorf]

Wait, you believe the drone portion of the ban will be amended and thus derail the entire bill or you believe that portion of the bill dealing with DJI drones will be amended and therefore stricken from the overall bill?

Is that all the senate has to do is disagree with other bills that get added and those bills get dropped making the house process of adding stuff to the bill useless? Or does their disagreement mean it goes back to the house for further re-agreement?

Each bill is different and often different under each congressional leadership, I don't know exactly how this works.

IIRC, with annual appropriation bill like the NDAA, each chamber stars from a basic framework and constructs a bill based upon mission, focus and intent. They add their own amendments and pet projects (+ pork, grandstanding, and sneaky junk). The two competing bills are then forwarded to a conference committee comprised of members of both chambers who iron out and bargain about the differences. Often, if provisions are in one version (usually the House) that aren't in the other, they may not survive the process.

there may not be the appetite in the Senate bill for this kind of grandstanding on DJI. But there is that section in the Senate mission statement about unmanned aircraft. However, I think that's focused on actual military aircraft rather than domestic drones

 

[dave canada]

i could come up with about a hundred hours of video footage of cedar trees and desert landscape and an occasional cow and wildlife ,after about two hours they would probably throw the whoe deal out as what a waste of taxpayers money

 

[mavic3usa]

i could come up with about a hundred hours of video footage of cedar trees and desert landscape and an occasional cow and wildlife ,after about two hours they would probably throw the whoe deal out as what a waste of taxpayers money

Unfortunately it would take 5,000 chinese agents in a basement using AI about 20 seconds to scrub thru a thousand hours of drone footage. /sarcasm

 

[anotherlab]

Unfortunately it would take 5,000 chinese agents in a basement using AI about 20 seconds to scrub thru a thousand hours of drone footage. /sarcasm

It just takes one Chinese graduate student attending the University of Minnesota...

 

[boatdoc]

one more reason to ignore the latest dji( and other drone company) update notifications. who knows what is in them .

 

[WDavies]

HR 2864 requires the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to add DJI to its “Covered List.” If DJI is added to this list, the FCC would no longer be able to approve new equipment authorizations for DJI products or software in the US. The agency could also create a process to revoke existing authorizations.

This means no new DJI products would be approved in the US going forward, cutting you off all the latest innovations by the company. And the DJI drones currently approved for the US may also be grounded in the future. The bill could also add any software capable of operating on DJI products to the Covered List, including software produced by US software developers, subjecting them to the same restrictions.

This type of action by the FCC would mean the federal government could decide at any point that you are no longer allowed to fly the DJI drones or software that runs on DJI drones you have already purchased, no matter if you are flying for business, public safety, or even recreationally. The drone maker estimates that the financial impact of such a ban could be as high as $116 billion.’

DJI ban: What happens to the drone I already own?

With Congress only hours away from deciding DJI's future in the US, pilots are wondering what a ban would mean for their existing drones.

dronedj.com

If they do this technically they are robbing the people that already own one the government should atleast make an effort for those who already own one of those drones can register their drone specifically and still be allowed to operate it otherwise they are pretty much going full dictatorship as the government doesn't own the drone the individual purchased it so the government can regulate them but if they stop people from using them thats pretty much taking someone's right to fly a drone they purchased with their own money which is not democracy I hope however they handle this they don't screw over the people who bought them due to some paranoid delusion that China is using them to spy on the country even if China is spying which is a likely 999% chance they aren't they aren't gonna risk war with the US between Canada and the uk China would stand no chance they have advanced technology and military but even then they don't stand the chance against a united front nor do I think they are stupid enough to risk world war 3 who ever brought this so high up the chain better go make them self a tinfoil hat as for all they know a alien could take control of them because of how paranoid they are

 

[David Metcalf]

Exactly. Far bigger fish to fry here right now than me worrying about an FCC secret agent taking me down at my park.
Fly common sense TRUST and that’s enough. They can come and get mine before I let this stuff ruin my flight time. Vote accordingly. Just my opinion.

Ironically, we who feel the same can be accused of being gun fanatics. "they'll only pry them out of my cold dead hands...."

 

[moldorf]

I know next to nothing about software code and what's possible

but I'm wondering: if DJI was really serious about maintaining their presence in the USA market, couldn't they just completely open their DJI Fly app's code and allow a 3rd party app to replace the DJI Fly app that had no obligation, at all, to communicate with DJI?

it could be an installation component of the 3rd party app that DJI Fly be uninstalled

obviously that would create warranty issues and might cancel Care Refresh, but if DJI drones have no reason to phone home after sale, how could the drones transmit any data back to China?

personally, I've always thought that DJI was way too intrusive and controlling in their post-sales requirements. For example, the requirement that you had to log-in to DJI every 30 days (now 90) in order not to have your drone essentially grounded

this would certainly be useful for all the existing DJI drone owners and I'd bet almost all of them would be willing to pay for software that would allow their drones to keep flying, legally

 

[Wreckhunter]

If they do this technically they are robbing the people that already own one the government should atleast make an effort for those who already own one of those drones can register their drone specifically and still be allowed to operate it otherwise they are pretty much going full dictatorship as the government doesn't own the drone the individual purchased it so the government can regulate them but if they stop people from using them thats pretty much taking someone's right to fly a drone they purchased with their own money which is not democracy I hope however they handle this they don't screw over the people who bought them due to some paranoid delusion that China is using them to spy on the country even if China is spying which is a likely 999% chance they aren't they aren't gonna risk war with the US between Canada and the uk China would stand no chance they have advanced technology and military but even then they don't stand the chance against a united front nor do I think they are stupid enough to risk world war 3 who ever brought this so high up the chain better go make them self a tinfoil hat as for all they know a alien could take control of them because of how paranoid they are

We do not stand a chance if a war breaks out now,as all of the weapons and such were basically in a nice way donated to a different country.

 

[Wreckhunter]

We do not stand a chance if a war breaks out now,as all of the weapons and such were basically in a nice way donated to a different country.

Got off topic briefly sorry bout that.

 

[anotherlab]

but I'm wondering: if DJI was really serious about maintaining their presence in the USA market, couldn't they just completely open their DJI Fly app's code and allow a 3rd party app to replace the DJI Fly app that had no obligation, at all, to communicate with DJI?

For the drones that it supports, the Litchi app lets you operate the drone and it doesn't send back data to China.

DJI can easily provide their source code to the Defense Department for review. The NDAA for 2025 already has provisions for the Defense Department to analyze DJI drones for this.

DJI is not the starting or ending point for Chinese drone ban. The House Armed Services Committee has published one-page summaries of their NDAA 2025 bill on various topics from their bill. The one for "Deterring China" is just two pages and can be read here. That link comes from House NDAA 2025 Resources page.

From that "one-pager"

Requires DoD to assess whether additional Chinese drone manufacturers should be added to the 1260H list and banned from contracts with the Department.

 

[moldorf]

For the drones that it supports, the Litchi app lets you operate the drone and it doesn't send back data to China.

as far as I know though, because DJI was not providing SDK's, the Mavic 3 Pro, Mavic 3, Mavic 3 Classic, Mini 4 Pro, and the Mini 3 Pro won't work with Litchi (maybe the Mini 3 Pro might be compatible by now?). I'm also thinking that most of the newer DJI Enterprise drones aren't compatible either

at this point, I'd think a majority of drone owners would have upgraded to at least one of those non-compatible drones

I have to wonder if DJI had not been so obsessive about controlling their drones and tech thru their app if they would be so close to being banned right now

 

[anotherlab]

.... I have to wonder if DJI had not been so obsessive about controlling their drones and tech thru their app if they would be so close to being banned right now

I don't think that would have made any difference. They are the global market leader and because of minority ownership by the Chinese government, they have been classified as a Chinese military company. This article on DJI's involvement with human rights abuse has some good data on DJI's reach and the global sanctions that have been applied to it.

If the proposed sanctions go into effect and people start buying drones made by other Chinese companies, the same thing will happen to those companies.

 

[smoluse]

Since China steals everyones technology and trade secrets, The US should copy the DJI software and make it avaiable to all new American drone companies.

 

[mavic3usa]

Since China steals everyones technology and trade secrets, The US should copy the DJI software and make it avaiable to all new American drone companies.

Already did that; the US companies didn't know what they were lookin' at.

 

[anotherlab]

Since China steals everyones technology and trade secrets, The US should copy the DJI software and make it avaiable to all new American drone companies.

There are companies with their own apps for at least some of the DJI drones. On the software side, the US is very competitive.

It's on the hardware side where DJI beats everyone.

 

[Ms Ivy]

For the drones that it supports, the Litchi app lets you operate the drone and it doesn't send back data to China.

DJI can easily provide their source code to the Defense Department for review. The NDAA for 2025 already has provisions for the Defense Department to analyze DJI drones for this.

DJI is not the starting or ending point for Chinese drone ban. The House Armed Services Committee has published one-page summaries of their NDAA 2025 bill on various topics from their bill. The one for "Deterring China" is just two pages and can be read here. That link comes from House NDAA 2025 Resources page.

From that "one-pager"

You can fly all dji drones with Aloft's air control app, its free, and it logs your flights But then you have the USA goverment spying on your drone flights instead of china.. so it boils down to who do you trust?

click to view my airdata stats
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[chadCO]

Who are the members in congress signing on to this ban?

The ones being paid large bribes.

 

[@Rip]

In Oregon we have:
Senator Ron Wyden (email)
Senator Jeff Merkley (email)
Representative Val Hoyle (email)
I used Drone Advocacy Alliance - Home to oppose the bill(s) and used my own words for the submission, not the canned predefined response.
I have received responses from all three of my reps.
(pretty much just canned responses)

 

[anotherlab]

In Oregon we have:
Senator Ron Wyden (email)
Senator Jeff Merkley (email)
Representative Val Hoyle (email)
I used Drone Advocacy Alliance - Home to oppose the bill(s) and used my own words for the submission, not the canned predefined response.
I have received responses from all three of my reps.
(pretty much just canned responses)

If you want anything besides a canned response, call your representatives' local office. The level of effort to email or leave a comment on a website is much less than the effort it takes to call and try to reach someone.