Now's a good time to buy a drone, I guess

[cameraz]

According to DroneDJ, "The US House of Representatives has approved a bill to ban the operation of new drones from Chinese manufacturer DJI in the United States." The bill still requires approval of the Senate.

Seems like this would be a good time to buy a new drone, as apparently any DJI drone you own before the bill is passed will still be able to be flown. The story says the proposed ban would not affect DJI drones already in use within the country.

I've been holding off on buying a Mini Pro 4, but I may bite the bullet.

 

[Max Headroom]

Seems like this would be a good time to buy a new drone, as apparently any DJI drone you own before the bill is passed will still be able to be flown. The story says the proposed ban would not affect DJI drones already in use within the country.

That makes no sense whatsoever like saying its OK for China to spy on you if they are only using drones sold before X date but not after.

 

[msinger]

If interested, you can find lots of existing threads on this topic in these search results.

 

[mavic3usa]

That makes no sense whatsoever like saying its OK for China to spy on you if they are only using drones sold before X date but not after.

Two different approaches. First you establish the fact (which they haven't yet done so, to the public's satisfaction) but honestly, I guess they don't have to because they are "government" and they make the rules.

Then second, where do you draw the line. You can do nothing or you can ground *everything* forever in the future and in the past. Or you can figure out what you can get away with somewhere in between and at this point, I don't think the legislation has decided on where to draw the line but nothing would surprise me.

Don't read too much into the article, the decision won't be made based on when a drone was sold but it *will* likely be made on when a drone is made (which could be loosely translated as fcc approval date). Remember, we recently had an RID mandate and it has similar (not exact) time constraints which were mitigated with a solution (external module) for grandfathering. The opposite is true here, drones "made" after a certain date much be....made in the USA, maybe?

 

[Max Headroom]

Then second, where do you draw the line

In my opinion there is no line to draw if your government are going to ban sales of all Chinese drones because in their view they are being used to spy on you what are they gaining by banning new ones and allowing millions of old ones to carry on spying on you.

 

[mavic3usa]

In my opinion there is no line to draw if your government are going to ban sales of all Chinese drones because in their view they are being used to spy on you what are they gaining by banning new ones and allowing millions of old ones to carry on spying on you.

I dunno, drones have different capabilities and technologies and abilities. None of us know what list Congress has or what list of model numbers they are looking at. None of it makes sense but like everything else, sometimes it's a strategy to mitigate the threat instead of eliminating it (completely) when you don't have all the evidence and want this to pass scrutiny with the American people.

I don't think a complete ban would go over well so if they are being told by the intelligence community a partial ban would go a long long way to help until something else can be figured out.....sometimes that's why they roll into these decisions over time and begin to chip away at the threat slowly instead of trying to knock it out in one punch.

Just so you know, I don't believe the focus is completely on an ongoing constant active thread but one element of this is the drone provides the capabilities should the CCP decide to trigger their drones to do bad things. DJI is seeding the country with dormant cells that can be activated later upon command and begin the collection process when it's go time or when the red balloons go up....you know, the fears from the 9/11 days that are forever with us.

 

[SmilingOgre]

Yup, we’ve taken the next step to become the next China, bab, ban, ban!

 

[jiggermutt]

It’s hard to believe that there are people out there that think our DJI Drones are going to be a problem with the country’s security. I just bought and installed a dash cam in my car that was made in China. It runs and records every minute that I drive. It also has wifi capabilities. Should I be worried?

 

[Cafguy]

I have heard that those Chinese Dashcams are programed to change the light color when you get close. In case of hostilities with China all of our fighting men and women will be in traffic court instead of the front.

 

[Melvoid]

Spying on us? You know, from my accumulated videos, China now knows where some old effigy mounds are, and the building they replaced an old roadside motel with. Oh, and that creek that overflowed in Witwen earlier this summer. How careless I've been!

 

[Melvoid]

It’s hard to believe that there are people out there that think our DJI Drones are going to be a problem with the country’s security. I just bought and installed a dash cam in my car that was made in China. It runs and records every minute that I drive. It also has wifi capabilities. Should I be worried?

You certainly should be worried. Now China knows where you shop for groceries.

 

[Cafguy]

I myself LOVE DJI's answer to all this ignorance: They just flooded our market with what could be one of their Highest selling easiest to use yet Drone. The NEO!

 

[SmilingOgre]

Absolutely absurd. There's nothing in any of my videos that the Chinese couldn't get from google earth. We are again or still the laughing stock of the planet per the actions of our politicians. They fostered the problem to begin with and now they are going to make it worse with their "cure". A new twist on fix a problem that doesn't exist.

 

[JavaJack]

That makes no sense whatsoever like saying its OK for China to spy on you if they are only using drones sold before X date but not after.

I operate mostly in Canada and while this ban in the USA shouldn’t affect me, Canada does tend to follow the USA rules of the sky. I have a DJI Inspire 3 in my cart to replace an aging Inspire 2, but this could be a very expensive business mistake should Canada also ban drones from China. Has anyone north of the border heard any rumours about the future of Chinese drones in Canada?