The DJI Ban Effort – Facts vs. Opinions

Unless any major developments occur, this will be my last video about the potential ban of DJI drones in the United States for a while. Although it’s an important issue, it’s also kind of tiring to keep hearing about it, talking about it, and reading about it. It’s exhausting. I think we just need to get back to flying drones, learning new tricks, tips, and tutorials, and understand that there is nothing stopping us right now from enjoying this hobby.

At the end of this video, I’m going to share an epiphany I had about why this might be happening, and it may not be for the reason we all think.

Current Status of DJI Drones and Products

Even if American lawmakers decide that anything from DJI that uses our network should be banned, the products you currently own and even the products you will buy in the immediate future will continue to work. They’re still going to get FCC certification, and you’re going to still be able to fly anything that you have from DJI.

For instance, if DJI releases something like the DJI Air 4 or a brand new drone this coming fall and you purchase it, you have nothing to worry about because it was produced and sold before any sort of ban was put into place.

Legislative Process and Timeline

There are so many things in the House of Representatives version of The National Defense Authorization Act that the Senate is just not going to accept, and I’m assuming vice versa. The likelihood of that NDAA passing before this December is very low. It’s going to take a lot of negotiating between the House and the Senate before they come up with a National Defense Authorization Act that they agree on.

This means there is still a lot of time before any actual legislation targeting DJI products is put into place. My guess is that if it does actually happen, it’s not going to be until late 2025 or even 2026 before the FCC actually quits certifying DJI products.

Claims of National Security Concerns

Our lawmakers pushing this legislation continue to claim that it is in the best interest of our country to disallow DJI drones from flying over our cities and lakes, all because of national security. However, nobody in their right mind or with any knowledge about drones and how they work actually believes that this has anything to do with national security.

The claims being made are based on speculation and conjecture, and they are choosing to omit the fact that you can fly a DJI drone without being connected to any network.

A More Reasonable Approach

If this truly were about security, it would be an actual reasonable bill. They would be banning everything and anything made by DJI right now, instantly. But no, it’s going to be 2 or 3 years before anything actually gets into place if this does pass.

Here’s a reasonable suggestion: require all drones from DJI to be air-gapped, and for any information that does need to be sent to DJI (like the activation process), give the US government the ability to monitor any information that is transferred. Keep all of the data here in the United States, which seems to be already happening as all the data is stored on Amazon servers.

Market Impact and Alternatives

There are no current American alternatives to DJI that can fill the gap that will be created by removing them from the market in the five-figure range. There are a few options, but anything less than $10,000 is non-existent. This basically puts any small commercial drone fleets like mine out of business and takes away the rights of nearly 2 million Americans to enjoy their hobby.

If any kind of DJI ban does pass, I think there will eventually be a few companies, both American and abroad, that will fill the void with viable options. However, it’s going to take a very long time, but good old capitalism will prevail in the end. That being said, I don’t believe that we will ever see the same quality and commitment to excellence that DJI has in their drones and products.

The Commercial Drone Alliance

It’s well known that the Commercial Drone Alliance has been working towards the integration of UAVs into the national airspace system for a few years now. The board members of this Alliance are from companies like Wing, Zipline, Skydio, Amazon Prime Air, and others who want to cash in on the UAV wave.

Here’s a little-known fact: the executive director of the Commercial Drone Alliance and seven of the other ten staff members all work as lawyers for the same law firm. I don’t know if that means anything; I just found it to be very interesting.

Seven members of the Commercial Drone Alliance (CDA) team work for the law firm Hogan Lovells. These members include Lisa Ellman, Emily Kimball, Gretchen West, Arjun Garg, Mike Bell, Matt Clark, and Allisa Newman

A Possible Hidden Agenda

Integrating drones into the national airspace system has been quite a challenge, mostly due to all of the regulations, but also because it’s nearly impossible to figure out how to create a commercial UAV highway with all of these recreational drones flying around.

Maybe this isn’t just about bolstering the American drone market. Maybe if the Commercial Drone Alliance could find a way to remove a couple million drones from the sky in one fell swoop, then they could move forward with their UAV superhighway. Remote ID was the first step. The next step: eliminate 70% of the air traffic by grounding them through legislation.

There’s no other way to stop the recreational Drone Industry. If I’m on the right track, it certainly would be an effective strategy, don’t you think? But I’m just a YouTuber, so what do I know?

What is behind the DJI Drone Ban?

What do you think? Could there be more to this effort to ban DJI in the United States? Talk about it in the comments, hit the thumbs up, and subscribe if you love drones and pretty much anything tech-related. Lots of new fun stuff coming real soon. See you!

You can read more about Elise Stefanik’s Countering CCP Drones Act and the Drones for First Responders Act right here on DroneXL.