Less than a month after drone swarms haunted New Jersey’s night skies, DJI removed the geofencing features that finally ended the panic over the Garden State. The Chinese drone producer announced a software update that replaced the guardrails that prevented operators from flying into restricted airspace with an in-app warning that can be easily ignored.
The Federal Aviation Administration doesn’t require drone manufacturers to lock out operators from no-fly zones, like around airports and the White House. In late December, the agency designated the skies above 22 communities in New Jersey as “national defense airspace,” immediately preventing drones from flying there. However, DJI voluntarily geofenced these areas defined by the FAA for a decade. That’s now gone. The Verge looked into the reasoning behind DJI’s decision:
In a blog post, DJI characterizes this as “placing control back in the hands of the drone operators.” DJI suggests that technologies like Remote ID, which publicly broadcasts the location of a drone and their operator during flight, are “providing authorities with the tools needed to enforce existing rules,” DJI global policy head Adam Welsh tells The Verge.
In a later blog post, DJI bluntly stated, “Politics does not drive safety decisions at DJI.” The federal government, especially the incoming Trump administration, has a hostile relationship with the People’s Republic of China and Chinese-owned companies. The c ban on TikTok is a perfect example. Federal agencies have accused DJI drones of spying for China and attempted on multiple occasions to blacklist its products from the US.
DJI believes that Remote ID is an adequate replacement for geofencing. The feature allows authorities to actively track the locations of flying drones and their operators. However, small devices aren’t equipped with Remote ID. The drone that struck and grounded a firefighting plane in Los Angeles last week didn’t have location-tracking software, leaving law enforcement to find the culprit on their own.