@@mjones82 The Bill itself. The original bill was the HR 6572 which was proposed by the same members of the House of Representatives in the last session. That bill (6572) died in committee. But now they have reintroduced the bill and it's HR 2864. So the next step is for it to go into committee again. First step, and the easiest is to write your local House Rep. and the House Reps that authored the bill. Second step, and this could have the greatest effect would be to attend a committee meeting. So if anyone is in the DC area, look up the time (public record), sign up to be a witness, and put together a little presentation/speech on how this will affect them personally and hopefully if enough people do that and attend and make their voices heard in the committee phase the bill will die a quick death in the committee phase just like it did last session. Remember it can't be brought to a vote by the House if the bill doesn't make it out of committee with a favorable vote of the committee members. So is there anyone out there that can attend the committee meeting(s)????
@@mjones82 I just read it and the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Act of 2019 ("the Act") to which it is linked. The proposal would place DJI under the umbrella of the Act. As far as I can tell with a quick review, this is a non-issue for private drone owners. It proscribes against federal funds being used to purchase DJI equipment and provides a fund to reimburse small business owners (defined with greater specificity in the Act language) that need to replace DJI equipment to comply with the law. The video didn't provide an explanation of what would purportedly be 'banned' in the parts that I watched - but I gave up watching once it seemed like details wouldn't be given. Maybe he doesn't know what's in it? Or wants more views and is using ambiguity to get them? If I'm wrong, would be great to see more explanation given somewhere.
@@mattanonymous6792 The ban would remove the use of DJI drones here in the united states. Anything that would require an FCC certification. Essentially the covered list removes the FCC cert from dji and prevents them from applying for new certs. They arent banning the company but more the means in which they can get approvals to opperate radio transmission here in the united states... thats the dumbed down version since you cleary can read a bill or understand... real quick to assume tho. typical
Hey Dobo, I honestly thought we were on top of the latest news regarding legislation and drones that would affect our business and here you are JUST ABSOLUTELY KILLING it in keeping us informed (as well as keeping us fired up!). PLEASE KEEP UP THE AMAZING CONTENT!! (Brilliant idea to keep the bill name in the thumbnail by the way) We will be writing our legislator ASAP and sending it TOMORROW!!
These bills are being heavily lobbied by Skydio and Brink. Until they stop pushing false narratives to get rid of their competitor we and you as a big influencer should stop buying and reviewing their products.
Dji is great and all but the CCP is a serious risk. We need to make our own version of dji here in the USA. Dji might not be bad on their own but the ccp demands stuff they can't deny or face being shut down and dissolved. Maybe even taken outright. That would be cool if they would make a program to analyze and determine if info is getting sent back. Block it and or make a new app separate of dji. So we can just use the "hardware" 🤔
@@anthonysmith9864 Anthony, until DEFINITIVE proof is established that private data is being exploited, why shoot the messenger? Yes China and it’s political party is not what I call appealing, but here you are punishing a company for not being a US company? How many BMW, or Fiat, or Lamborghini drivers are out there, as compared to how many drone enthusiasts are out there? (I hope you get my drift) Let’s not jump into the conspiracy rabbit whole, and let’s be pragmatic about all that.
@@anthonysmith9864 there are plenty of 3rd party apps. And there is an offline mode. These things already exist. The pentagon did an audit of them and found it safe. So I don’t know what you want?
It would totally work in their benefit... but they probably could get more sales, if they actually produced similar or better camera quality without charging 3x for the same thing.
@@KarlBlessing I am a big fan of the potential of Skydio products, generally. We had them come out and do a demo for us recently of the S2 and X2E. We have a fleet of about 50 drones. That being said, a 12MP camera, as opposed to a 48+, is really hard to stomach. I KNOW that MP is not the only determinant factor of image quality. I also understand due to the automated obstacle avoidance, you can fly lower, requiring less resolution. The handoff is needing more PC processing power to create orthomosaics and what time because of more images from flying at lower altitudes.
@@HighSpeedChase762 Wasn't even talking about the 12MP to 48MP , because the 48MP offered by DJI is just pixel shifting gimmick, it's not really any better there. What I was getting at, was on something closer to the consumer cost of the DJI drones, such as the Skydio 2+ , you have to spend close to 2 grands to get similar manual capabilities, but have a camera that's pretty much no different than a DJI Mini 2 (same sensor size, same bit rate, same color depth, etc). The Air 2S that's cheaper vs the Skydio that's more expensive, has a larger sensor, better video bit rate, and 10-bit color depth with both dlog-m and HLG color profiles to work with.
@@KarlBlessing i hate skydio for their lobying, but Skydio is selling an autonomous drone that uses 6 separate cameras and a beefy computer to map the environment. Air 2 doesnt do that. Go take your Air 2 in a dense forest environment, put it on Active Track and see how much time it survives. Go take your Air 2 and do precise keyframed flight with it. Yeah, you cant. You are comparing apples to oranges here.
@@AstroNootFPV Not neccessarily, if you get rid of DJI... what's the alternative in the same price range? Skydio can't provide what we got the Air 2S for in the first place. Yes it has excellent obstacle avoidance, but if you don't need that and want better pictures/videos, Skydio isn't it. It's extra features would be a waste.
Ken, thanks for doing this. I am from Wisconsin where people like Mark Gallagher get elected. I have contacted my congressman, Mark Pocan, and expressed my concerns, some of which you have enumerated in this video. I hope viewers will do what you are asking-they need to contact the congressmen who represent them and express their views. The only way to contact the two sponsors of this bill is to use the U.S. Mail. Email contact of congressmen not representing a person is not possible. Contact YOUR representative.
For anyone on the fence here…Apple products are made in China… Ken to your point the controller (A) communicating with the drone (B) as an AB communication. One could argue that the introduction of remote ID (by use of connecting to the internet on a drone) could potentially open the door for nefarious behavior by means that aren’t an issue now. Just a thought.
I received a call today from Congressman Jimmy Panetta (D, 20th District) office that only 2 republicans are behind the bill and it may never leave the committee .... They would keep an eye on it and report back to me if any changes... Thanks for bringing this to our attention.
Totally agree Ken, as a matter of fact I have a pending article at Droneblog, covering this topic. We should have been speaking up when the Drone Security Act of 2019. They slipped that one by us and as a result is what their using right now in your home state of Florida to ban DJI from the public services sector. Personally, this would destroy my business. As there is simply no alternative for the equipment, I use daily.
Well stated, Ken. I’ll definitely will be writing to my senators and representatives relating to the dangers to the economy, and life-safety, if the bill were to pass. I’ve attended over 10 “rally days” in Austin, (the Texas legislature only meets every 2 years for 120 day). I’ve spoken, in person, to my senators and representatives, during my professional career as an Architect, expressing my views as to various bills that have come up, that would have been detrimental to my architectural business of 38 years, on behalf of the Texas Homebuilders Association. I firmly believe, with participation in expressing our views and concern for our livelihood, that it does make a difference in talking to them. Most of them are very easy to talk to, and do listen to their constituents. Thx for your post.
I agree, this is getting serious. And now is the time to act. Contact your own Congressmen and Senators about not voting for this bill, they will listen to you more than Stefanik or Gallagher would. Great video, thanks for sharing your thoughts on this.
lol Congress people get voted in and then do their own thing... Nothing has changed because voters play partisan crap instead of real vetting of their own officials. Drone stuff is one of the least of their concerns. Even if 1 Million people in the USA are full time droners, that's a low ass number.
Agreed 1000000000000000% this is getting out of hand I sat down after this an looked at all my equipment 90% is from Dji 🤦♂️ time to take action! I’ll be expressing my opinion to these uneducated reps hopefully we can as a whole make an impact!!
@@trephonproductions I don't agree with politicians very often but I do 100% here. I know a handful of American companies that can't get into the drone market because the Chinese gov is subsidizing this market. If you like America and like American jobs then a DJI ban makes 100% total sense.
While I have been flying DJI for 6+ years, and I enjoy it very much...DJI is absolutely at the beck and call of the Chinese government. If they wanted to pull our cloud saves or see our data with our drones - they absolutely could. I think the real question is - what is the threat here? Doesn't the NSA do the same things to us and our phones all the time? Snowden showed all the cards - everyone is doing it.
I have spent over two decades in special operations and intelligence. I started my drone company as my retirement work and it’s done quite well and allowed me to see this industry from both sides. I can assure you we have tested and retested every possible threat Avenue with these drones and when you remove the politics there has never been one proven threat vector. More importantly we have war games and run through endless thought exercises about what could be exploited and there is simply nothing there. Could they get data on where thousands, tens of thousands even, of people fly, yes. Is that in any way a threat, no. By their very design they don’t let you fly these platforms in sensitive areas, a claim no other company can make. And while I make a living with a company inspecting a variety of assets across the country none of that information is of genuine intelligence value, is all available open source elsewhere, and none of the data transmitted to any servers anywhere includes even the full resolution photos/video. While I am all for buy and support American, when they make a genuinely good product that can compete I’ll be happy to do so. Until then I am going to confidently use the best tool for the job at the best price points and will absolutely not support a company that tries to legislate itself into success instead of innovate.
Seems like I remember something even being in the news about DJI enterprise having a chip that had no other purpose that we could deduce other than gathering information. It was the whole reason the DOD stop using DJI products in the first place, if I recall correctly. I agree with you, but it seems like there was some thing a few years ago in regards to information gathering.
@@londenard that may have been the case, but the DOD suspended the use of DJI commercial drones still to this day. If they didn’t have some reason or cause for concern, they would be using the drones today, because of the capabilities. I’ve worked for the department of defense many years, and the agency doesn’t act arbitrarily. That’s all I’m saying.
I really feel this is one that needs cleared up. I am this second retiring from 22 years in special operations and intelligence work. I have been a key developer of drone programs in a variety of countries overseas both at the defense industry level but also at the off the shelf utilization of everything available to them. We have tested and retested DJI drones through an endless series of programs from every agency you can think of and have ZERO proven instances of data leakage, nefarious data capture, or enterprise security concerns. On top of that there is no war game or thought exercise we have done where this data (a huge majority of which is simply people taking photos) poses any intelligence value. My company inspects and models hundreds of infrastructure sites a year but none of that data provides any true threat value. After over two decades of treating everything in my life as an intelligence and counterintelligence threat I confidently use over a dozen DJI aircraft across my company nearly every single day.
If you want to be fair here, your drone is either being controlled by the controllers with a smartphone or using the screen on board controllers. Your cell phone can be hacked and spied on giving a pathway to your drone when activated. Regardless, this government needs to be reeled in and given a kick in the ass!
What’s completely asinine about this bill on it’s face is how hypocritical it makes DC look! They have always been the strongest influence in moving virtually all US manufacturing off shore to China since Nixon’s days! Has anyone ever tried NOT to buy products made in China? You can’t! I challenge the single cell’d brain(s) who sponsored this bill to show me one piece of tech they themselves use that’s not made in China! I know for a fact they are either using an iPhone or a Google based phone and both are made in China! If any piece of tech is being used for espionage, it’s our damn cell phones, but because Congress Critters would never write legislation that would negatively affect their elite lives of posh and grandeur I guess we will get to keep our phones for now huh?
We need to get a standardized letter drafted to politicians in their language, so they fully understand this issue. We need to find someone in the drone community with the skill sets to draft a political letter and share with the rest of the drone community.
@Daelin Hulse Please! That would be awesome! I've never written to government officials before so I'm not at all familiar with the lingo. I've got a lot of personal stuff going on in my life right now so I don't have time to learn how to formulate an effective letter. If you are able to create a shareable document draft then I will definitely send it from my emails to where it needs to go as well !! Many thanks in advance if you are able to pull this off !!
What is DJI doing to lobby against it? Skydio, I heard through talks online, are moving totally away from any consumer drone and only moving forward with their x2 line. I wrote my Congressman from my district and I hope he cares enough to even blink at my letter. I also think these new CBO (community based organizations) that they want us all affiliated with, need to lobby also against the bill. All us hobbyist will be out thousands. Small business owners in the industry and the industries they support will all be hurt. Law Enforcement and those they serve in the use of drones will all be hurt. You think small agencies can afford to scrap a few drones. They hardly got funding to start these programs, and Skydio and Brink aren’t stepping up in price savings in replacements to all of us users of DJI. If this passes, the government should send us a check for every serial numbered DJI drone registered with the FAA we loose use of, or all those companies lobbying to kill competition because they can’t keep up with the challenge, should be told to give registered DJI owners with the FAA, a version of their drone that is comparable to what we are loosing. As stated in this video, write your representatives and don’t let this happen. No one else will do it for you. And those who live in districts of representatives who support the bill, should vote them out for their next term. Keep flying and be safe all.
I sent messages to my congresswoman and NY congresswoman. No response from NY. Had a response from my congressman just saying thank you for your response. Uneducated seems to be the problem. They will lose a lot of votes for sure. Seems most issues are the same. "Uneducated" Sadly It only comes down to one thing "money".
I love DJI products as much as the next guy, I do have a DJI drone that I LOVE. But there's no denying that you cannot separate ANY Chinese owned and Chinese based enterprise from Chinese Communist Party control - there is no such thing as a private enterprise in China. And given how sensitive the use of DJI drones is, limiting the impact adverse CCP actions through DJI can have is the right thing to do - as much as that hurts individual consumers like yourself or myself.
I think it is quite likely that the motivation behind this bill is economic more than security. If they can ban DJI, it would make it much easier for a US company to grab market share, even if they have an inferior product. Someone should look for ties between the sponsors of this bill and some company competing or wishing to compete in the drone or gimbal space.
I agree with you that dji should not be banned, but dji is definitely not a clean company. Dji has used their drones to watch over the Uyghurs and keep them in camps. But that is not a reason to ban dji in the US, but rather the government should be helping those Uyghurs instead of banning dji
So what are they going to do when the bill pass? like tell us we can't fly anymore? what about the cost of the product they allowed us to buy in the pass? do we own a Brick now?
I have a better way to fight back. Chevron deference is being challenged for the EPA and ATF. Why not challenge the FAA and the last reauthorization act that allowed them to essentially make laws that violate the 1st and 2nd amendments.
I don’t think it’s a bad idea to ban law enforcement from using them but, what we do as citizens, has nothing to do with LE or, Govt Agencies. They shouldn’t be allowed to use drones anyway. It’s just another back door to violate our privacy, along with violating our constitutional rights…
For the love of Gawd.....can somebody PLEASE tell us what SPECIFIC data is DJI getting from us and giving to the CCP? I suspect that they will say that DJI is feeding "technology" and IP to the Chinese military. I suspect that it has noting to do with "personal" customer data....it's that DJI is helping the Chinese military as a technology arm and as an advanced tech provider. I dunno.......
None, it's about Republican politicians stirring up fear with their base for votes. Those "evil Chinese are spying on us with drones" they not need facts to backup their fear campaign, just look at how many people still believe the 2020 election was stolen.
DJI needs to investigated by the consumer protection agency. They are fleecing owners around the world. We spend thousands of dollars on a product that is only good for a few years and then you can't find batteries and the drone is nothing more than a paper weight. Forcing you to buy another drone. I own two and the older drone has features that I love that the new one doesn't. Thats not fair and just not right. I love my DJI drones but something needs to be done about this.
Great band! Wouldn’t it be great if Florida Congress would do their job and help children with their education and decrease poverty and improve healthcare, and the overall quality of life? It’s time for Florida to secede and get the hell out of the country!
The US military doesn't use any chips from foreign countries and it's for a reason greater than our hobby. Because we can't see the dangers and seriousness of other countries potentially collecting data about our security infrastructure doesn't mean that it isn't an issue that needs to be addressed. If DJI gets banned solely, its deeper than that. Our security shouldn't be compromised and there are all American alternatives (not available to civilians) that should be used if security is an issue. Why would you put a security system up that your neighbors have access to if you don't trust them 100%? This isn't a hobbyist issue. I love DJI but if they are being targeted and not all the other companies running the same equipment, then they are doing something wrong. There are plenty of foreign consumer drones with the same capabilities and more. Misinformation is bad on both sides. In this video, you state ways that they could collect infrastructure data without even realizing you did. You also stated that these drones aren't connected to the internet, but I can tell you intimate details about every flight I've done on my DJI drones from looking on the internet. Most of my stuff is DJI. As a consumer, it would be very hard if not impossible to get rid of foreign parts.
@@grey_north9016 I never said they were? You can probably tell yourself a few ways that they collect data yourself without even trying to. Pull your logs off DJI's website. Isn't that "collecting data"? Just because you can't interpret it, or it isn't useful to you doesn't mean someone else can't or it isn't useful to them. Everyone is spying on everyone. They don't need to do it through drones. The globe is already saturated with electronics that we trust enough to use in every aspect of our lives that spy on us, and we accept it. The problem is when it becomes an official tool for government use and integrates with government systems.
My neighbor in Thailand used to work for DJI in China. He was an engineer for them for about 7 years. He said China tracks every video and every photo and every GPS coordinates when you fly your DJI drone. These are facts.
Sure they do😂 My neighbor in Korea who is best friends with the HNIC of DJI said DJI products will also give you free colonoscopies. These are just facts
I completely agree that we should write these guys and make it known how this could be a very destructive policy/bill/law to implement. Not a wise move and downsides and ramifications are too numerous to mention. Thanks for the content Ken. Keep up the good work and happy flying.
Just to clarify US HB 6572 Died in Committee. The new, active, bill is US HB 2864. If we are contacting congressmen, maybe we should use the new number HB 2864. Also, there is a "backup" bill in the Senate: S.3563.
There must be some communication back to the 'motherland.' How can DJI turn my Inspire or Mavic into a brick any time they want if there isn't a connection back to DJI? Yes, the third-party testers can evaluate that data. But you can't say that there isn't any transfer. I need an internet connection every time I try to geo-unlock. Or when I do a firmware update. I'm just saying there is a potential concern. For the record, I'm just flying my Autel Nano+ now. until the whole Remote ID thing settles down.
Here are the sponsors of this nonsensical bill: Rep. Gallagher, Mike [R-WI-8], Rep. Tenney, Claudia [R-NY-22], Rep. Bacon, Don [R-NE-2], Rep. Cole, Tom [R-OK-4], Rep. Bice, Stephanie I. [R-OK-5].
I was looking today at buying the DJI Mini Pro 3, but I just can’t bring myself to spend $1K plus on a consumer recreational drone that may be banned and grounded per U.S. legislation. I’m not sure I even feel comfortable purchasing an Autel. It’s an awkward season for those of us wanting to purchase a new and recent quality UAV. I’m quite discouraged.
What I wrote on the daily caller and will post elsewhere: "I run the aerial remote sensing (drones) division of a 50 person survey firm. I've spent nearly 20 years professionally processing aerial mapping data, the last 7 exclusively with drones. The problem with banning DJI is that there are no equivalent non-chinese options even comparable. It's like comparing a ford fiesta to a ferrari. We purchased a $50,000 US made drone and it sits collecting dust because it is unsafe to fly and loses connection with the controller constantly. I know dozens in the surveying/mapping fields that have the same experience. I've successfully flown 1600 missions with DJI drones. The data collected stays on the memory card and I've never once had a failure or safety concern. If this bill passes it will CRIPPLE OUR INDUSTRY as there are currently ZERO options for safe/reliable non-chinese drones. The crappy options that do exist at 10x the cost of a DJI drones. We would have to replace our entire fleet at 10x the cost and as the manager I would not feel safe flying them. Look to Florida as an example - google how many police and first responders spoke up saying that forcing them to use non-dji literally puts them and others at safety risks. UNTIL THE U.S. HEAVILY INVESTS IN U.S. DRONE COMPANIES WITH FEDERAL LEVEL FUNDS this ban cannot be allowed to pass or it will devastate thousands of U.S. companies like the one I work for. I highly doubt that these two politicians have actually talked to any industry that truly relies on drones for work"
You are wrong about DJI not having its hand in the cookie jar. I'm adding links to the research and a white paper as reply in this, I just wanted to post this long part first. And the cookie jar, I'm not talking about DJI partnering with the Chinese security forces to help imprison Uighurs (which it did). There's an understanding by the US and European intel community that China has a data dominance strategy, in which data collection by things such as network monitoring (TikTok, Huawei 5G), remote sensing systems (drones and mobile phones), radio frequency usage, and location data is leveraged using advanced intelligence systems to develop and analyze economic, military, and social data for influence operations by the PLA. There's a white paper that has recently been making the rounds at places like Hoover, Brookings, and Hudson (all policy wells), as well as openly available research on DJI firmware issues and overseas servers. The white paper was recently featured in a discussion at Stanford, so it's tied in with a lot of the Congressional leadership in Silicon Valley, specifically Ro Khanna (who happens to be a Stanford alum and professor and has another speech on Hoover where he talks about DJI/China). Khanna collaborates a lot with Mike Gallagher, both of whom are chairmen for House technology committees. Both Congressmen were given copies of this paper. I fly DJI craft nearly exclusively, and I'm just kind of a little bit pissed off with DJI because this is their biggest market. I don't think it would be a huge disruption to their development work or manufacturing (it's highly automated) to set up shop in the US or even Mexico. Japanese auto manufacturers did so in the 90s and 2000s, and Japan is a close ally. China isn't, so I think DJI would have understood that by now, and that's another issue- DJI's ties to the PLA. DJI essentially lied to everybody about their ties to the Chinese military, they denied it and then finally admitted that they were in part backed by a Chinese public/militay dual use investment fund . Lenovo seems to escape a lot of scrutiny. I understand Lenovo has all or most of their US product development operations here in the US, why can't DJI do the same? It would really screw a lot of owner-operator guys here in the US if DJI got banned, it would push all the small operators out of business because only the bigger companies could take on pricey American drones. Yes, reach out to your congressman, but also reach out to DJI and tell them that they are not seriously engaging the market here given the current political environment. I've looked it up, and I know DJI has tried lobbying somewhat its way through DC (opensecrets.org). But when you have both political parties who have been at each other's throats for the past 12 to 20 years, agreeing on this issue, I think the political impetus won't be shifted so easily, especially given that every few weeks we see some sort of Chinese military near-confrontation with Western forces. The Japanese figured this out; China/DJI better too. They shut down the whole damn economy for COVID, and the government won't even blink when it comes to banning Chinese drones.
I didn't read all of that but, 1. DJI has been vetted and cleared of this garbage several times. 2. The "credentials" of the person saying something doesn't make it true. Very similar people with very similar credentials say just the opposite. 3. DJI had all but broke ground on a US facility before the the blacklist came down. They had also developed firmware that had been cleared by the US military as safe and free of any data mining. My problem with this crap is it's been done so many times now. Every year or two "DJI is spying on you" is shouted from the rooftops. Then it's debunked and/or there's an election and suddenly it all goes away. This exact bill died in committee last year.
I watched the plea in admiration. I thought we have retarded rules here in Europe when it comes to drone flying, especially in the Netherlands, but what you are dealing with now is completely crazy! It seems more like political aid for drone manufacturers from the US and taking DJI out of the US market. Good luck and thanks for doing it this way!
The US government is happy to allow US based companies to do all of the unregulated data mining and collection that they want. A Chinese company, however, they have no control over. There is a level of some legitimate concern because of that... (you cannot keep the chinese government out of any chinese company data) and it doesn’t seem we are able to have healthy discussions about it to come to a middle ground. This is just like the TikTok platform being targeted. TikTok was allowed to grow for years, and now that there are tensions with China, the app is no longer OK. And see what happened with that? When the TikTok CEO came here to defend the company, and answer questions or educate, there was nothing but political grand standing. They did not want to be educated. Do the people heading this care to be educated either? Has DJI made any effort to deal with the privacy and data security issues with their app and flight logging? It is popular (especially on the right, but also on the left), to be looked at as being “tough on China.” It’s been a long running narrative that China is completely screwing us all when really it’s been a relationship that’s worked both ways. And I have been concerned that the attitude toward TikTok could spread to DJI, because the political climate is ripe for it, and DJI is an easy target. They have not done enough to address issues in the past and present. I still do not think they’ll end up making on it the covered list, but only because congress is a cluster-f right now. It’s possible one of the bills could eventually get traction so we’ll have to keep an eye on it… we’re in some kind of digital Cold War.
Almost everything electronics these days are made in China. So, if they really want to go this road, they will also have to ban ALL other electronics made in China, leaving the US without cell phones, smart TV, computer component...etc This is totally ridiculous. And then yes, I agree with you as well on the fact that, why US made products are "safe" to buy (for another country) in such case versus other countries products ? If everybody thinks that everybody spies on each other through their products, then all sales of everything should stop right ?... Non sense... 🙄
Look I'm owner of DJI mini 3 pro and I think this bill should be no brainer! How can you simply be ok with Chinese spywares flying around and putting our countries at risk of giving information away to an enemy ???? Maybe instead you should ask people to ask congress to come up with software that replaces current chinese spyware in dji drones
This government we have here these days in the United States is a slap in the face to the founding fathers. This government is the red headed stepchild of that former glorious government. This gov getting a bit too big for their britches………
Here we go again. The war it against quadcopters/drones is exhausting and an absolutely waste of time. Let's inform the misinformed and kill this bill.
I don't believe this will happen this year either. Out of the entire Republican Congress she could only find one other to co-sponsor this. The bills she introduces as a whole don't seem to be well received.
What is the AOPA Aircraft owners and Pilots Association Doing about this. What is the American Model Association Doing About this, I pay dues as I am sure many of you do into these organizations to protect my rights as an FAA Pilot. All I hear from them are crickets.
Not in my neighborhood, they even give out tickets for not wearing seat belts. Bottom line, if they make them illegal, then when a cop or Karen sees a drone, there's no more grey area as to who is right. You will instantly be seen as breaking the law.
I used DroneXL's template and contacted my Congressman. Of all the bigger issues going on in this country with proven threats, this is what they choose to focus on....SMH
5 failures in 1.5 years with the US approved drones while DJI had 0....I know back door deals when I see one. I will boycott Skydio and spread the word
The fact that Skydio holds a large degree of responsibility for pushing DJI out of the US purely for monetary reasons looks even more blatant when you consider almost every one of their products runs a smear campaign against DJI in their product videos. They literally start off the X2 product video by intentionally running an Inspire into a garage door with no context. And the camera man says some shit eating 'glad that was on video' line. Says a lot about your company that you would openly target a competitor so specifically. Why build a decent product when you can force consumers to have no other options, right?
I swear the ignorance of lawmakers that do these types of actions in the attempt to curry some favor or just towing the line without research or understanding is unbelievable. Thank you for the awareness Ken!
Everybody spies on everybody. To think otherwise is delusional. But I agree with the fact that this is just overly draconian regulations to be in "control" and to spread their narrative.
I'm American... I'd like to put some cameras in your house. Oh wait maybe I'm not American and maybe the cameras are Chinese! But you won't mind... everyone spies on everyone. I guess its okay for you... if your from Ukraine... i promise nothing will happen to you😉 I'll let you move to Taiwan... let me know how well that works out for you... its okay I'll send you a parting gift... more cameras at your new location.
I don't have an issue with private citizens using DJI, or FIMI, or any other drone product. What I do have issues with is if military is using it. Unless they shut off space restrictions, meaning hacking the firmware, then there is issues with potential shut downs.
No military branch or government branches are using DJI. There is no information being shared or collected as of right now with DJI. They’ve even stated that the information is on Amazon servers held here in the US. So for 100% control of the data I don’t see the problem.
@@OriginaldoBo I know the military doesn't use them, but point being is that is one area, I would have issue if they were. Also realistically outside of potentially transmitting via cell the coordinates, and flight information, it isn't like they are stealing video. I mean I guess at some point they could, but I don't think they do. I don't like geo fencing which is my one major issue with DJI. Outside of that they have some really well developed products. Most commercial drone operators I know all use a MAVIC 3. It is the best out there, for the price, unless you go way up in cost. No one out there has the same level of product to price, Autel is close, but they are Chinese made as well. Yes they have an Autel division in Washington state, and even and office in San Francisco, but the parent company is Chinese.
I own 6 Mavic 3 drones for my landscaping company. At roughly 3k each I’d be loosing a ton of money if this passes. Already sent my rep a letter and suggest everyone else do the same. They proved they can force us to use products during the pandemic so if they pass this bill they would be now controlling what products we can and can’t buy or use.
Ok, I guess I can read the legislation, but when I watch a youtube video on the subject, I sort of expect a better explanation of what this bill is doing. The little tidbit I saw somewhere else was that FCC and government agencies couldn't purchase DJI drones. If that is the case, what does that do in terms of impact for private people to buy them? Does the FCC need to buy drones to test so they can approve them, so no new DJI drones would be allowed, or what?
Bro it’s so crazy how greed can cause people that are already rich to create false narratives that will in attempts to cost every DJI drone owner, that makes money off of these drone’s THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS! Both from cost of equipment and cost of replacing said equipment by subpar competitors. Would love an American supplier but as you said and to reiterate NO ONE COMES CLOSE!
I have contacted the House Respresentative for my state and asked them not to support this bill. I gave them several good reason why not too as well. This is coming from a new pilot and a new student studying for Part 107 exam and wanting to change career paths at 50 :)
So just how are they going to enforce such a ban, other that first responders. Just look at who is proposing bans on everything and everyone. It's all coming from the same party. That is where you start.
kinda wondering what it is that the gov. is wanting to force DJI into doing for them that DJI doesn't want to do is what its really starting to sound like. The gov. is upset because they are wanting something from DJI that DJI isn't wanting to give up is what its sounding like. If they do this think about how its going to affect the film industry as well as action cameras because it would include those products as well oddly enough. DJI actually has more geo fencing involved with flying their drones than most others do. These laws become issues when ignorant politicians get elected and have no clue. Wonder if either one of these two if not both have stocks by chance in some parts of DJI's competition companies by chance?
Wait...it looks like the Feds will not fund DJI in gov agencies. Where does it say nation wide ban? Where are commercial pilots effected? Send me the documents please.
Read the bill they want DJI added to the covered list. This list would make it to where any new dji product would not be allowed to apply for fcc certification hence can’t be sold in the United States
And if you all think that this won’t affect any Chinese Drone manufacture, eventually it all will. And when you look across the board to see what options we have, you’ll realize that there aren’t any.
@@OriginaldoBo Innovation needed and fast.... If theirs a genuine issue your government is aware of them surely their must be other options? Or a slow phase out rather than a sudden ban?? Just my thoughts I'm in the UK and my knowledge on this is limited but I too see the public's and the authorities miss information causing issues at times
You sure this would be a blanket ban? The bill summary actually says, “Current law prohibits the use of federal funding available through specified FCC programs for purchasing or maintaining listed equipment or services.” Applicable bit being “federal funding available through specified FCC programs.” Also, this isn’t new - it was introduced in February of 2022.
It's spreading mate. Here in Australia just today the AFP (Australian Federal Police) have been told to stop using DJI by our Govt. And our Foreign Affairs Dept has stated they will be replacing dji "as quickly as possible". It's the uninformed misleading the masses
While I agree that a broad ban on DJI would affect a lot of folks, the counter-points aren't really addressing the security concerns. China is actively seeking a fusion between the defense and civilian sectors for military development and production and it seems DJI is not excepted. I think very few users are aware of this. The Washington Post uncovered four previously unreported entities with ties to the Chinese government that have funded DJI, including a state asset manager committed to building partnerships that support the Chinese military. Perhaps a transfer of user data to an airtight US-based entity would leviate concerns enough to avoid a total ban, like they did with TikTok. So instead of creating a global DJI account, you'd have a US DJI account separate from the global DJI account and that cannot communicate with entities outside US.
Drone manufacturers in the U.S. are too concerned with chasing the defence contracts. Why should they care about civilian drone markets? Well, DJI, provider to drone to the civilian market, their drones are being used right now in a war zone. Not the expensive military drones. Good old commercial drones. Companies should stop and take a good hard look at themselves.
If the US bans DJI drones it will set it back decades into a drone dark age. Would be great if there was a US or European company that made the best drones in the world but that's DJI. Even if this imaginary US drone existed where would they get their electronic components and chips from? Utter madness.
Love your approach. I'll take it one step forward. Skydio.......thank you for the backdoor approach. You know....lobbying against another major brand. Just keep Pushing. You're on the right track. I hope that sarcasm conveys through the web. Skydio..from what I have heard, you guys are kicking another brand while it is on the ropes. get out of the ring and into the light. Innovate!!! Step up!!! I hope I have not stepped on your toes Original Dobo but Damn..... I hear you.
Mass non-compliance... Follow though with noted intent to remove sponsor/supporters from office. This will work as others have in past legislation.(dropped dead in position
If anything from China should be banned for fear of spying this iPhone I’m using should be. Not my drone. How can anyone but DJI stop it’s drones from flying. I have Litchi anyway but maybe they can disable them somehow. I won’t be updating for a while until I know something. I’ve been flying DJI drones since the first Phantom,still have it and it works fine. None of the other drones I own or have flown even comes close to the flying capabilities of DJI especially the Mavic series or even the mini series. I would be really pissed if they all just stopped working one day!🤬🤯😤
American drone companies know where the line is and yet they fall drastically short of it every damn time. DJi products are far superior and that's why we buy them!
Updated current proposed Bill www.congress.gov/118/bills/hr2864/BILLS-118hr2864ih.pdf
Just tried to read that update but not getting what changed ...So what changed?
@@mjones82 The Bill itself. The original bill was the HR 6572 which was proposed by the same members of the House of Representatives in the last session. That bill (6572) died in committee. But now they have reintroduced the bill and it's HR 2864. So the next step is for it to go into committee again. First step, and the easiest is to write your local House Rep. and the House Reps that authored the bill. Second step, and this could have the greatest effect would be to attend a committee meeting. So if anyone is in the DC area, look up the time (public record), sign up to be a witness, and put together a little presentation/speech on how this will affect them personally and hopefully if enough people do that and attend and make their voices heard in the committee phase the bill will die a quick death in the committee phase just like it did last session.
Remember it can't be brought to a vote by the House if the bill doesn't make it out of committee with a favorable vote of the committee members. So is there anyone out there that can attend the committee meeting(s)????
When you read the bill and they use words like Surveillance Equipment it’s not good, instead of words like Arial Photographic Equipment.
@@mjones82 I just read it and the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Act of 2019 ("the Act") to which it is linked. The proposal would place DJI under the umbrella of the Act. As far as I can tell with a quick review, this is a non-issue for private drone owners. It proscribes against federal funds being used to purchase DJI equipment and provides a fund to reimburse small business owners (defined with greater specificity in the Act language) that need to replace DJI equipment to comply with the law. The video didn't provide an explanation of what would purportedly be 'banned' in the parts that I watched - but I gave up watching once it seemed like details wouldn't be given. Maybe he doesn't know what's in it? Or wants more views and is using ambiguity to get them? If I'm wrong, would be great to see more explanation given somewhere.
@@mattanonymous6792 The ban would remove the use of DJI drones here in the united states. Anything that would require an FCC certification. Essentially the covered list removes the FCC cert from dji and prevents them from applying for new certs. They arent banning the company but more the means in which they can get approvals to opperate radio transmission here in the united states... thats the dumbed down version since you cleary can read a bill or understand... real quick to assume tho. typical
Hey Dobo, I honestly thought we were on top of the latest news regarding legislation and drones that would affect our business and here you are JUST ABSOLUTELY KILLING it in keeping us informed (as well as keeping us fired up!). PLEASE KEEP UP THE AMAZING CONTENT!! (Brilliant idea to keep the bill name in the thumbnail by the way) We will be writing our legislator ASAP and sending it TOMORROW!!
These bills are being heavily lobbied by Skydio and Brink. Until they stop pushing false narratives to get rid of their competitor we and you as a big influencer should stop buying and reviewing their products.
Dji is great and all but the CCP is a serious risk. We need to make our own version of dji here in the USA. Dji might not be bad on their own but the ccp demands stuff they can't deny or face being shut down and dissolved. Maybe even taken outright. That would be cool if they would make a program to analyze and determine if info is getting sent back. Block it and or make a new app separate of dji. So we can just use the "hardware" 🤔
@@anthonysmith9864 Anthony, until DEFINITIVE proof is established that private data is being exploited, why shoot the messenger? Yes China and it’s political party is not what I call appealing, but here you are punishing a company for not being a US company? How many BMW, or Fiat, or Lamborghini drivers are out there, as compared to how many drone enthusiasts are out there? (I hope you get my drift) Let’s not jump into the conspiracy rabbit whole, and let’s be pragmatic about all that.
@@SonsoftheRevolution1776 You are being silly! Contribute something meaningful or go outside and play!
They are going to have to replace any foreign chips in their drones as well.
@@anthonysmith9864 there are plenty of 3rd party apps. And there is an offline mode. These things already exist. The pentagon did an audit of them and found it safe.
So I don’t know what you want?
Skydio is one of the main pushers of this.
It would totally work in their benefit... but they probably could get more sales, if they actually produced similar or better camera quality without charging 3x for the same thing.
@@KarlBlessing I am a big fan of the potential of Skydio products, generally. We had them come out and do a demo for us recently of the S2 and X2E. We have a fleet of about 50 drones. That being said, a 12MP camera, as opposed to a 48+, is really hard to stomach. I KNOW that MP is not the only determinant factor of image quality. I also understand due to the automated obstacle avoidance, you can fly lower, requiring less resolution. The handoff is needing more PC processing power to create orthomosaics and what time because of more images from flying at lower altitudes.
@@HighSpeedChase762 Wasn't even talking about the 12MP to 48MP , because the 48MP offered by DJI is just pixel shifting gimmick, it's not really any better there.
What I was getting at, was on something closer to the consumer cost of the DJI drones, such as the Skydio 2+ , you have to spend close to 2 grands to get similar manual capabilities, but have a camera that's pretty much no different than a DJI Mini 2 (same sensor size, same bit rate, same color depth, etc).
The Air 2S that's cheaper vs the Skydio that's more expensive, has a larger sensor, better video bit rate, and 10-bit color depth with both dlog-m and HLG color profiles to work with.
@@KarlBlessing i hate skydio for their lobying, but Skydio is selling an autonomous drone that uses 6 separate cameras and a beefy computer to map the environment. Air 2 doesnt do that.
Go take your Air 2 in a dense forest environment, put it on Active Track and see how much time it survives.
Go take your Air 2 and do precise keyframed flight with it.
Yeah, you cant. You are comparing apples to oranges here.
@@AstroNootFPV Not neccessarily, if you get rid of DJI... what's the alternative in the same price range? Skydio can't provide what we got the Air 2S for in the first place. Yes it has excellent obstacle avoidance, but if you don't need that and want better pictures/videos, Skydio isn't it. It's extra features would be a waste.
Let’s dump iPhone then
Apple is American mate, DJI is Chinese.
@Jellan yes Apple is an American company, but the phone is made in China
Good point on Apple
IPhones & Samsung's, why are they different from DJI.
Exactly!!
Ken, thanks for doing this. I am from Wisconsin where people like Mark Gallagher get elected. I have contacted my congressman, Mark Pocan, and expressed my concerns, some of which you have enumerated in this video. I hope viewers will do what you are asking-they need to contact the congressmen who represent them and express their views. The only way to contact the two sponsors of this bill is to use the U.S. Mail. Email contact of congressmen not representing a person is not possible. Contact YOUR representative.
For anyone on the fence here…Apple products are made in China…
Ken to your point the controller (A) communicating with the drone (B) as an AB communication. One could argue that the introduction of remote ID (by use of connecting to the internet on a drone) could potentially open the door for nefarious behavior by means that aren’t an issue now.
Just a thought.
The difference is, the servers are not controlled by china
@@22jacobhilton Who says that RID data can't be misused by Americans?
I received a call today from Congressman Jimmy Panetta (D, 20th District) office that only 2 republicans are behind the bill and it may never leave the committee .... They would keep an eye on it and report back to me if any changes... Thanks for bringing this to our attention.
That’s awesome to hear that he acknowledged the bill and that there’s Minimal traction
I'm not even in the US and I feel this will set a precedent for other countries to make the same mistake. Thanks for this info and amazing energy!
Totally agree Ken, as a matter of fact I have a pending article at Droneblog, covering this topic. We should have been speaking up when the Drone Security Act of 2019. They slipped that one by us and as a result is what their using right now in your home state of Florida to ban DJI from the public services sector. Personally, this would destroy my business. As there is simply no alternative for the equipment, I use daily.
Well stated, Ken. I’ll definitely will be writing to my senators and representatives relating to the dangers to the economy, and life-safety, if the bill were to pass. I’ve attended over 10 “rally days” in Austin, (the Texas legislature only meets every 2 years for 120 day). I’ve spoken, in person, to my senators and representatives, during my professional career as an Architect, expressing my views as to various bills that have come up, that would have been detrimental to my architectural business of 38 years, on behalf of the Texas Homebuilders Association. I firmly believe, with participation in expressing our views and concern for our livelihood, that it does make a difference in talking to them. Most of them are very easy to talk to, and do listen to their constituents. Thx for your post.
This videos needs to go viral!
I dont personally see this happening, but im damn sure gonna try and stop it like everyone else should!
I agree, this is getting serious. And now is the time to act. Contact your own Congressmen and Senators about not voting for this bill, they will listen to you more than Stefanik or Gallagher would. Great video, thanks for sharing your thoughts on this.
lol Congress people get voted in and then do their own thing... Nothing has changed because voters play partisan crap instead of real vetting of their own officials. Drone stuff is one of the least of their concerns. Even if 1 Million people in the USA are full time droners, that's a low ass number.
I emailed them. And they used that magic word "safety" and pretty much-repeated everything the policy said. This is Pennsylvania
Agreed 1000000000000000% this is getting out of hand I sat down after this an looked at all my equipment 90% is from Dji 🤦♂️ time to take action! I’ll be expressing my opinion to these uneducated reps hopefully we can as a whole make an impact!!
Imagine what will happen when all DJI drones come with Tiktok pre-installed out of the box? The politicians will explode! 😛
If you're bringing up TikTok, then I'd hate to think about what they may have put in the DJI Fly phone app.
@@CaptainKush420it’s American politicians that hurt Americans. Educate yourself
@@trephonproductions I don't agree with politicians very often but I do 100% here. I know a handful of American companies that can't get into the drone market because the Chinese gov is subsidizing this market. If you like America and like American jobs then a DJI ban makes 100% total sense.
@@ZinnNasty no it doesn’t. They’re making better drones. But to use spying as an excuse while still having tik tok tells the whole story.
While I have been flying DJI for 6+ years, and I enjoy it very much...DJI is absolutely at the beck and call of the Chinese government. If they wanted to pull our cloud saves or see our data with our drones - they absolutely could.
I think the real question is - what is the threat here? Doesn't the NSA do the same things to us and our phones all the time? Snowden showed all the cards - everyone is doing it.
I have spent over two decades in special operations and intelligence. I started my drone company as my retirement work and it’s done quite well and allowed me to see this industry from both sides. I can assure you we have tested and retested every possible threat Avenue with these drones and when you remove the politics there has never been one proven threat vector. More importantly we have war games and run through endless thought exercises about what could be exploited and there is simply nothing there. Could they get data on where thousands, tens of thousands even, of people fly, yes. Is that in any way a threat, no. By their very design they don’t let you fly these platforms in sensitive areas, a claim no other company can make. And while I make a living with a company inspecting a variety of assets across the country none of that information is of genuine intelligence value, is all available open source elsewhere, and none of the data transmitted to any servers anywhere includes even the full resolution photos/video. While I am all for buy and support American, when they make a genuinely good product that can compete I’ll be happy to do so. Until then I am going to confidently use the best tool for the job at the best price points and will absolutely not support a company that tries to legislate itself into success instead of innovate.
Thanks for the information man. Its sad when we dont have proper data and decisions are just being made smh.....
Governments don’t care what it’s citizens want
Seems like I remember something even being in the news about DJI enterprise having a chip that had no other purpose that we could deduce other than gathering information. It was the whole reason the DOD stop using DJI products in the first place, if I recall correctly. I agree with you, but it seems like there was some thing a few years ago in regards to information gathering.
We are not the dod and the NSA and everyone else knows everything about us already and where we're at it's a joke and obviously a business scheme
Substantiate and provide links or shut up.
That was debunked.
@@londenard that may have been the case, but the DOD suspended the use of DJI commercial drones still to this day. If they didn’t have some reason or cause for concern, they would be using the drones today, because of the capabilities. I’ve worked for the department of defense many years, and the agency doesn’t act arbitrarily. That’s all I’m saying.
I really feel this is one that needs cleared up. I am this second retiring from 22 years in special operations and intelligence work. I have been a key developer of drone programs in a variety of countries overseas both at the defense industry level but also at the off the shelf utilization of everything available to them. We have tested and retested DJI drones through an endless series of programs from every agency you can think of and have ZERO proven instances of data leakage, nefarious data capture, or enterprise security concerns. On top of that there is no war game or thought exercise we have done where this data (a huge majority of which is simply people taking photos) poses any intelligence value. My company inspects and models hundreds of infrastructure sites a year but none of that data provides any true threat value. After over two decades of treating everything in my life as an intelligence and counterintelligence threat I confidently use over a dozen DJI aircraft across my company nearly every single day.
If you want to be fair here, your drone is either being controlled by the controllers with a smartphone or using the screen on board controllers. Your cell phone can be hacked and spied on giving a pathway to your drone when activated. Regardless, this government needs to be reeled in and given a kick in the ass!
What’s completely asinine about this bill on it’s face is how hypocritical it makes DC look! They have always been the strongest influence in moving virtually all US manufacturing off shore to China since Nixon’s days! Has anyone ever tried NOT to buy products made in China? You can’t! I challenge the single cell’d brain(s) who sponsored this bill to show me one piece of tech they themselves use that’s not made in China! I know for a fact they are either using an iPhone or a Google based phone and both are made in China! If any piece of tech is being used for espionage, it’s our damn cell phones, but because Congress Critters would never write legislation that would negatively affect their elite lives of posh and grandeur I guess we will get to keep our phones for now huh?
We need to get a standardized letter drafted to politicians in their language, so they fully understand this issue. We need to find someone in the drone community with the skill sets to draft a political letter and share with the rest of the drone community.
Fantastic idea!
I have a paid ChatGPT account, guarantee it could do you one better.
@@DaelinTV would really appreciate it
@@Zomeone13 I'll draft it today and maybe post it in a public drive if anyone is interested.
@Daelin Hulse Please! That would be awesome! I've never written to government officials before so I'm not at all familiar with the lingo. I've got a lot of personal stuff going on in my life right now so I don't have time to learn how to formulate an effective letter. If you are able to create a shareable document draft then I will definitely send it from my emails to where it needs to go as well !! Many thanks in advance if you are able to pull this off !!
What is DJI doing to lobby against it? Skydio, I heard through talks online, are moving totally away from any consumer drone and only moving forward with their x2 line.
I wrote my Congressman from my district and I hope he cares enough to even blink at my letter. I also think these new CBO (community based organizations) that they want us all affiliated with, need to lobby also against the bill. All us hobbyist will be out thousands. Small business owners in the industry and the industries they support will all be hurt. Law Enforcement and those they serve in the use of drones will all be hurt. You think small agencies can afford to scrap a few drones. They hardly got funding to start these programs, and Skydio and Brink aren’t stepping up in price savings in replacements to all of us users of DJI. If this passes, the government should send us a check for every serial numbered DJI drone registered with the FAA we loose use of, or all those companies lobbying to kill competition because they can’t keep up with the challenge, should be told to give registered DJI owners with the FAA, a version of their drone that is comparable to what we are loosing.
As stated in this video, write your representatives and don’t let this happen. No one else will do it for you. And those who live in districts of representatives who support the bill, should vote them out for their next term.
Keep flying and be safe all.
I sent messages to my congresswoman and NY congresswoman. No response from NY. Had a response from my congressman just saying thank you for your response. Uneducated seems to be the problem. They will lose a lot of votes for sure. Seems most issues are the same. "Uneducated" Sadly It only comes down to one thing "money".
I love DJI products as much as the next guy, I do have a DJI drone that I LOVE. But there's no denying that you cannot separate ANY Chinese owned and Chinese based enterprise from Chinese Communist Party control - there is no such thing as a private enterprise in China. And given how sensitive the use of DJI drones is, limiting the impact adverse CCP actions through DJI can have is the right thing to do - as much as that hurts individual consumers like yourself or myself.
Has a draft letter template been created so we can sign it and send it?
I think it is quite likely that the motivation behind this bill is economic more than security. If they can ban DJI, it would make it much easier for a US company to grab market share, even if they have an inferior product. Someone should look for ties between the sponsors of this bill and some company competing or wishing to compete in the drone or gimbal space.
I agree with you that dji should not be banned, but dji is definitely not a clean company. Dji has used their drones to watch over the Uyghurs and keep them in camps. But that is not a reason to ban dji in the US, but rather the government should be helping those Uyghurs instead of banning dji
So what are they going to do when the bill pass? like tell us we can't fly anymore? what about the cost of the product they allowed us to buy in the pass? do we own a Brick now?
I have a better way to fight back. Chevron deference is being challenged for the EPA and ATF. Why not challenge the FAA and the last reauthorization act that allowed them to essentially make laws that violate the 1st and 2nd amendments.
I don’t think it’s a bad idea to ban law enforcement from using them but, what we do as citizens, has nothing to do with LE or, Govt Agencies. They shouldn’t be allowed to use drones anyway. It’s just another back door to violate our privacy, along with violating our constitutional rights…
For the love of Gawd.....can somebody PLEASE tell us what SPECIFIC data is DJI getting from us and giving to the CCP? I suspect that they will say that DJI is feeding "technology" and IP to the Chinese military. I suspect that it has noting to do with "personal" customer data....it's that DJI is helping the Chinese military as a technology arm and as an advanced tech provider. I dunno.......
None, it's about Republican politicians stirring up fear with their base for votes. Those "evil Chinese are spying on us with drones" they not need facts to backup their fear campaign, just look at how many people still believe the 2020 election was stolen.
DJI needs to investigated by the consumer protection agency. They are fleecing owners around the world. We spend thousands of dollars on a product that is only good for a few years and then you can't find batteries and the drone is nothing more than a paper weight. Forcing you to buy another drone. I own two and the older drone has features that I love that the new one doesn't. Thats not fair and just not right. I love my DJI drones but something needs to be done about this.
Great band! Wouldn’t it be great if Florida Congress would do their job and help children with their education and decrease poverty and improve healthcare, and the overall quality of life? It’s time for Florida to secede and get the hell out of the country!
Florida is fine… quit being an idiot
The US military doesn't use any chips from foreign countries and it's for a reason greater than our hobby. Because we can't see the dangers and seriousness of other countries potentially collecting data about our security infrastructure doesn't mean that it isn't an issue that needs to be addressed. If DJI gets banned solely, its deeper than that. Our security shouldn't be compromised and there are all American alternatives (not available to civilians) that should be used if security is an issue. Why would you put a security system up that your neighbors have access to if you don't trust them 100%? This isn't a hobbyist issue. I love DJI but if they are being targeted and not all the other companies running the same equipment, then they are doing something wrong. There are plenty of foreign consumer drones with the same capabilities and more. Misinformation is bad on both sides. In this video, you state ways that they could collect infrastructure data without even realizing you did. You also stated that these drones aren't connected to the internet, but I can tell you intimate details about every flight I've done on my DJI drones from looking on the internet. Most of my stuff is DJI. As a consumer, it would be very hard if not impossible to get rid of foreign parts.
Tell me in which way are they collecting data. Show me the backdoor running and sending the data.
@@grey_north9016 I never said they were? You can probably tell yourself a few ways that they collect data yourself without even trying to. Pull your logs off DJI's website. Isn't that "collecting data"? Just because you can't interpret it, or it isn't useful to you doesn't mean someone else can't or it isn't useful to them. Everyone is spying on everyone. They don't need to do it through drones. The globe is already saturated with electronics that we trust enough to use in every aspect of our lives that spy on us, and we accept it. The problem is when it becomes an official tool for government use and integrates with government systems.
My neighbor in Thailand used to work for DJI in China. He was an engineer for them for about 7 years. He said China tracks every video and every photo and every GPS coordinates when you fly your DJI drone. These are facts.
Cool than they will have a lot of my dick pics
@@OriginaldoBo with the zoom?
Sure they do😂 My neighbor in Korea who is best friends with the HNIC of DJI said DJI products will also give you free colonoscopies. These are just facts
@@RSI24 You can make fun all you want, but you probably voted for Biden.
Wow, I came across your video and I’m very glad. Your video informed me tremendously! I want to get involved.
I completely agree that we should write these guys and make it known how this could be a very destructive policy/bill/law to implement. Not a wise move and downsides and ramifications are too numerous to mention. Thanks for the content Ken. Keep up the good work and happy flying.
Just to clarify US HB 6572 Died in Committee. The new, active, bill is US HB 2864. If we are contacting congressmen, maybe we should use the new number HB 2864. Also, there is a "backup" bill in the Senate: S.3563.
Added in the description
There must be some communication back to the 'motherland.' How can DJI turn my Inspire or Mavic into a brick any time they want if there isn't a connection back to DJI? Yes, the third-party testers can evaluate that data. But you can't say that there isn't any transfer. I need an internet connection every time I try to geo-unlock. Or when I do a firmware update. I'm just saying there is a potential concern. For the record, I'm just flying my Autel Nano+ now. until the whole Remote ID thing settles down.
We consider this go pro did something similar when the Karma GPS was failing they pushed a software update bricking some
Called my Congressman in Washington to let him know I do not support this bill.
Ken can you create a letter we all can use to share with our elected officials to make sure ALL concerns are addressed? Just a thought!
Here are the sponsors of this nonsensical bill:
Rep. Gallagher, Mike [R-WI-8], Rep. Tenney, Claudia [R-NY-22], Rep. Bacon, Don [R-NE-2], Rep. Cole, Tom [R-OK-4], Rep. Bice, Stephanie I. [R-OK-5].
Oh, look at that all freaking Republicans
Absolutely no shocker we need to really find a new theme. The China bandwagon is getting old.
I was looking today at buying the DJI Mini Pro 3, but I just can’t bring myself to spend $1K plus on a consumer recreational drone that may be banned and grounded per U.S. legislation. I’m not sure I even feel comfortable purchasing an Autel. It’s an awkward season for those of us wanting to purchase a new and recent quality UAV. I’m quite discouraged.
remember Huawei? probably has more to do with market share than national security.
Thanks for making this man!
What I wrote on the daily caller and will post elsewhere: "I run the aerial remote sensing (drones) division of a 50 person survey firm. I've spent nearly 20 years professionally processing aerial mapping data, the last 7 exclusively with drones. The problem with banning DJI is that there are no equivalent non-chinese options even comparable. It's like comparing a ford fiesta to a ferrari. We purchased a $50,000 US made drone and it sits collecting dust because it is unsafe to fly and loses connection with the controller constantly. I know dozens in the surveying/mapping fields that have the same experience. I've successfully flown 1600 missions with DJI drones. The data collected stays on the memory card and I've never once had a failure or safety concern. If this bill passes it will CRIPPLE OUR INDUSTRY as there are currently ZERO options for safe/reliable non-chinese drones. The crappy options that do exist at 10x the cost of a DJI drones. We would have to replace our entire fleet at 10x the cost and as the manager I would not feel safe flying them. Look to Florida as an example - google how many police and first responders spoke up saying that forcing them to use non-dji literally puts them and others at safety risks. UNTIL THE U.S. HEAVILY INVESTS IN U.S. DRONE COMPANIES WITH FEDERAL LEVEL FUNDS this ban cannot be allowed to pass or it will devastate thousands of U.S. companies like the one I work for. I highly doubt that these two politicians have actually talked to any industry that truly relies on drones for work"
You are wrong about DJI not having its hand in the cookie jar. I'm adding links to the research and a white paper as reply in this, I just wanted to post this long part first. And the cookie jar, I'm not talking about DJI partnering with the Chinese security forces to help imprison Uighurs (which it did). There's an understanding by the US and European intel community that China has a data dominance strategy, in which data collection by things such as network monitoring (TikTok, Huawei 5G), remote sensing systems (drones and mobile phones), radio frequency usage, and location data is leveraged using advanced intelligence systems to develop and analyze economic, military, and social data for influence operations by the PLA.
There's a white paper that has recently been making the rounds at places like Hoover, Brookings, and Hudson (all policy wells), as well as openly available research on DJI firmware issues and overseas servers. The white paper was recently featured in a discussion at Stanford, so it's tied in with a lot of the Congressional leadership in Silicon Valley, specifically Ro Khanna (who happens to be a Stanford alum and professor and has another speech on Hoover where he talks about DJI/China). Khanna collaborates a lot with Mike Gallagher, both of whom are chairmen for House technology committees. Both Congressmen were given copies of this paper.
I fly DJI craft nearly exclusively, and I'm just kind of a little bit pissed off with DJI because this is their biggest market. I don't think it would be a huge disruption to their development work or manufacturing (it's highly automated) to set up shop in the US or even Mexico. Japanese auto manufacturers did so in the 90s and 2000s, and Japan is a close ally. China isn't, so I think DJI would have understood that by now, and that's another issue- DJI's ties to the PLA. DJI essentially lied to everybody about their ties to the Chinese military, they denied it and then finally admitted that they were in part backed by a Chinese public/militay dual use investment fund . Lenovo seems to escape a lot of scrutiny. I understand Lenovo has all or most of their US product development operations here in the US, why can't DJI do the same? It would really screw a lot of owner-operator guys here in the US if DJI got banned, it would push all the small operators out of business because only the bigger companies could take on pricey American drones.
Yes, reach out to your congressman, but also reach out to DJI and tell them that they are not seriously engaging the market here given the current political environment. I've looked it up, and I know DJI has tried lobbying somewhat its way through DC (opensecrets.org). But when you have both political parties who have been at each other's throats for the past 12 to 20 years, agreeing on this issue, I think the political impetus won't be shifted so easily, especially given that every few weeks we see some sort of Chinese military near-confrontation with Western forces. The Japanese figured this out; China/DJI better too. They shut down the whole damn economy for COVID, and the government won't even blink when it comes to banning Chinese drones.
I didn't read all of that but,
1. DJI has been vetted and cleared of this garbage several times.
2. The "credentials" of the person saying something doesn't make it true. Very similar people with very similar credentials say just the opposite.
3. DJI had all but broke ground on a US facility before the the blacklist came down. They had also developed firmware that had been cleared by the US military as safe and free of any data mining.
My problem with this crap is it's been done so many times now. Every year or two "DJI is spying on you" is shouted from the rooftops. Then it's debunked and/or there's an election and suddenly it all goes away. This exact bill died in committee last year.
I watched the plea in admiration. I thought we have retarded rules here in Europe when it comes to drone flying, especially in the Netherlands, but what you are dealing with now is completely crazy! It seems more like political aid for drone manufacturers from the US and taking DJI out of the US market. Good luck and thanks for doing it this way!
Next up, banning jeans made in China. Meanwhile Facebook is listening to me and it’s not on the covered list.
I’ll share my voice to help out.
Done.... sent my 2 cents in! While not a pro here, I don't want to see my drones grounded. PERIOD.
The US government is happy to allow US based companies to do all of the unregulated data mining and collection that they want. A Chinese company, however, they have no control over. There is a level of some legitimate concern because of that... (you cannot keep the chinese government out of any chinese company data) and it doesn’t seem we are able to have healthy discussions about it to come to a middle ground.
This is just like the TikTok platform being targeted. TikTok was allowed to grow for years, and now that there are tensions with China, the app is no longer OK. And see what happened with that? When the TikTok CEO came here to defend the company, and answer questions or educate, there was nothing but political grand standing. They did not want to be educated. Do the people heading this care to be educated either? Has DJI made any effort to deal with the privacy and data security issues with their app and flight logging?
It is popular (especially on the right, but also on the left), to be looked at as being “tough on China.” It’s been a long running narrative that China is completely screwing us all when really it’s been a relationship that’s worked both ways. And I have been concerned that the attitude toward TikTok could spread to DJI, because the political climate is ripe for it, and DJI is an easy target. They have not done enough to address issues in the past and present.
I still do not think they’ll end up making on it the covered list, but only because congress is a cluster-f right now. It’s possible one of the bills could eventually get traction so we’ll have to keep an eye on it… we’re in some kind of digital Cold War.
Almost everything electronics these days are made in China. So, if they really want to go this road, they will also have to ban ALL other electronics made in China, leaving the US without cell phones, smart TV, computer component...etc This is totally ridiculous. And then yes, I agree with you as well on the fact that, why US made products are "safe" to buy (for another country) in such case versus other countries products ? If everybody thinks that everybody spies on each other through their products, then all sales of everything should stop right ?... Non sense... 🙄
Look I'm owner of DJI mini 3 pro and I think this bill should be no brainer! How can you simply be ok with Chinese spywares flying around and putting our countries at risk of giving information away to an enemy ???? Maybe instead you should ask people to ask congress to come up with software that replaces current chinese spyware in dji drones
Thanks Ken....
This government we have here these days in the United States is a slap in the face to the founding fathers.
This government is the red headed stepchild of that former glorious government.
This gov getting a bit too big for their britches………
I emailed my representative and no response yet :(
Wouldn't be a real hoot if some US based company stole the IP from DJI and made the clone drones over here! Think about it, turnabout is fair play!
Here we go again. The war it against quadcopters/drones is exhausting and an absolutely waste of time. Let's inform the misinformed and kill this bill.
I don't believe this will happen this year either. Out of the entire Republican Congress she could only find one other to co-sponsor this. The bills she introduces as a whole don't seem to be well received.
Good information dude. We need to stop the government matrix.
What is the AOPA Aircraft owners and Pilots Association Doing about this. What is the American Model Association Doing About this, I pay dues as I am sure many of you do into these organizations to protect my rights as an FAA Pilot. All I hear from them are crickets.
How will they enforce this? Cops barely enforce normal traffic.
Amen. Enforcement, especially on recreational flyers, will never happen.
Not in my neighborhood, they even give out tickets for not wearing seat belts. Bottom line, if they make them illegal, then when a cop or Karen sees a drone, there's no more grey area as to who is right. You will instantly be seen as breaking the law.
Thank You!
I used DroneXL's template and contacted my Congressman. Of all the bigger issues going on in this country with proven threats, this is what they choose to focus on....SMH
Emailing those and Montana reps and senators today.
5 failures in 1.5 years with the US approved drones while DJI had 0....I know back door deals when I see one. I will boycott Skydio and spread the word
The fact that Skydio holds a large degree of responsibility for pushing DJI out of the US purely for monetary reasons looks even more blatant when you consider almost every one of their products runs a smear campaign against DJI in their product videos.
They literally start off the X2 product video by intentionally running an Inspire into a garage door with no context. And the camera man says some shit eating 'glad that was on video' line.
Says a lot about your company that you would openly target a competitor so specifically. Why build a decent product when you can force consumers to have no other options, right?
I swear the ignorance of lawmakers that do these types of actions in the attempt to curry some favor or just towing the line without research or understanding is unbelievable.
Thank you for the awareness Ken!
Everybody spies on everybody. To think otherwise is delusional. But I agree with the fact that this is just overly draconian regulations to be in "control" and to spread their narrative.
Yep scared someone in the sky with drone may see coruption they shouldn’t have by gov 😂😂🤣
I'm American... I'd like to put some cameras in your house. Oh wait maybe I'm not American and maybe the cameras are Chinese! But you won't mind... everyone spies on everyone.
I guess its okay for you... if your from Ukraine... i promise nothing will happen to you😉 I'll let you move to Taiwan... let me know how well that works out for you... its okay I'll send you a parting gift... more cameras at your new location.
Thank you for your clear and straight speech/comment. And I'm from Europe. This comment can be applied to way more topics than this one.
I don't have an issue with private citizens using DJI, or FIMI, or any other drone product.
What I do have issues with is if military is using it. Unless they shut off space restrictions, meaning hacking the firmware, then there is issues with potential shut downs.
No military branch or government branches are using DJI. There is no information being shared or collected as of right now with DJI. They’ve even stated that the information is on Amazon servers held here in the US. So for 100% control of the data I don’t see the problem.
@@OriginaldoBo I know the military doesn't use them, but point being is that is one area, I would have issue if they were.
Also realistically outside of potentially transmitting via cell the coordinates, and flight information, it isn't like they are stealing video. I mean I guess at some point they could, but I don't think they do.
I don't like geo fencing which is my one major issue with DJI. Outside of that they have some really well developed products. Most commercial drone operators I know all use a MAVIC 3. It is the best out there, for the price, unless you go way up in cost.
No one out there has the same level of product to price, Autel is close, but they are Chinese made as well. Yes they have an Autel division in Washington state, and even and office in San Francisco, but the parent company is Chinese.
DJI has been above and beyond open..so much it has hindered many of us lawful users.
Thanks for the information, my understanding is this was not the first time this bill was proposed it just didn’t go through.😊
I own 6 Mavic 3 drones for my landscaping company. At roughly 3k each I’d be loosing a ton of money if this passes. Already sent my rep a letter and suggest everyone else do the same. They proved they can force us to use products during the pandemic so if they pass this bill they would be now controlling what products we can and can’t buy or use.
Ok, I guess I can read the legislation, but when I watch a youtube video on the subject, I sort of expect a better explanation of what this bill is doing. The little tidbit I saw somewhere else was that FCC and government agencies couldn't purchase DJI drones. If that is the case, what does that do in terms of impact for private people to buy them? Does the FCC need to buy drones to test so they can approve them, so no new DJI drones would be allowed, or what?
Bro it’s so crazy how greed can cause people that are already rich to create false narratives that will in attempts to cost every DJI drone owner, that makes money off of these drone’s THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS! Both from cost of equipment and cost of replacing said equipment by subpar competitors. Would love an American supplier but as you said and to reiterate NO ONE COMES CLOSE!
I have contacted the House Respresentative for my state and asked them not to support this bill. I gave them several good reason why not too as well. This is coming from a new pilot and a new student studying for Part 107 exam and wanting to change career paths at 50 :)
To be fair China is sketchy af and the fact that you have to side-load the app is scary.
So just how are they going to enforce such a ban, other that first responders. Just look at who is proposing bans on everything and everyone. It's all coming from the same party. That is where you start.
Remote ID will show them exactly who is in the air and where to go write up a ticket and confiscate the drone most likely.
kinda wondering what it is that the gov. is wanting to force DJI into doing for them that DJI doesn't want to do is what its really starting to sound like. The gov. is upset because they are wanting something from DJI that DJI isn't wanting to give up is what its sounding like. If they do this think about how its going to affect the film industry as well as action cameras because it would include those products as well oddly enough. DJI actually has more geo fencing involved with flying their drones than most others do. These laws become issues when ignorant politicians get elected and have no clue. Wonder if either one of these two if not both have stocks by chance in some parts of DJI's competition companies by chance?
Not having internet doesn’t change anything. There is still data collected
Collected data can’t fucking transmit take your tin foil hat off
Wait...it looks like the Feds will not fund DJI in gov agencies. Where does it say nation wide ban? Where are commercial pilots effected? Send me the documents please.
Read the bill they want DJI added to the covered list. This list would make it to where any new dji product would not be allowed to apply for fcc certification hence can’t be sold in the United States
@OriginaldoBo I went and looked at the FCC document and it was for funding. Anything else I'm missing?
They show us nothing because they have nothing!
My thought is if there was a issue why wait until now
Maybe they know more than we do???
I severely doubt that most of this is just political meandering
And if you all think that this won’t affect any Chinese Drone manufacture, eventually it all will. And when you look across the board to see what options we have, you’ll realize that there aren’t any.
@@OriginaldoBo Innovation needed and fast.... If theirs a genuine issue your government is aware of them surely their must be other options? Or a slow phase out rather than a sudden ban??
Just my thoughts I'm in the UK and my knowledge on this is limited but I too see the public's and the authorities miss information causing issues at times
@@realitywave I'm sure it's a multitude of issues/concerns
I'm a little confused. You mention that it is bill H 6572 but your link points to bill H.R. 2864. Am I missing something?
Bill was updated hence why.
I had the old bill which was nulled in favor of the new draft
You sure this would be a blanket ban? The bill summary actually says, “Current law prohibits the use of federal funding available through specified FCC programs for purchasing or maintaining listed equipment or services.” Applicable bit being “federal funding available through specified FCC programs.”
Also, this isn’t new - it was introduced in February of 2022.
Please read the new document we added to support the current Ban there are 2 different version
It's spreading mate. Here in Australia just today the AFP (Australian Federal Police) have been told to stop using DJI by our Govt. And our Foreign Affairs Dept has stated they will be replacing dji "as quickly as possible". It's the uninformed misleading the masses
While I agree that a broad ban on DJI would affect a lot of folks, the counter-points aren't really addressing the security concerns.
China is actively seeking a fusion between the defense and civilian sectors for military development and production and it seems DJI is not excepted. I think very few users are aware of this.
The Washington Post uncovered four previously unreported entities with ties to the Chinese government that have funded DJI, including a state asset manager committed to building partnerships that support the Chinese military.
Perhaps a transfer of user data to an airtight US-based entity would leviate concerns enough to avoid a total ban, like they did with TikTok. So instead of creating a global DJI account, you'd have a US DJI account separate from the global DJI account and that cannot communicate with entities outside US.
Data resides on Amazon servers is that airtight no but it’s us based
Yup, all data is on Amazon servers.. just like almost every other company.
You are 1000% correct.
Drone manufacturers in the U.S. are too concerned with chasing the defence contracts. Why should they care about civilian drone markets? Well, DJI, provider to drone to the civilian market, their drones are being used right now in a war zone. Not the expensive military drones. Good old commercial drones. Companies should stop and take a good hard look at themselves.
I have contacted my congressman, James (Jim) Baird of Indiana and made my thoughts known.
If the US bans DJI drones it will set it back decades into a drone dark age. Would be great if there was a US or European company that made the best drones in the world but that's DJI. Even if this imaginary US drone existed where would they get their electronic components and chips from? Utter madness.
Government lobbyists ruining it for everyone but Skydio 🤬
Love your approach.
I'll take it one step forward.
Skydio.......thank you for the backdoor approach.
You know....lobbying against another major brand.
Just keep Pushing.
You're on the right track.
I hope that sarcasm conveys through the web.
Skydio..from what I have heard, you guys are kicking another brand while it is on the ropes.
get out of the ring and into the light.
Innovate!!!
Step up!!!
I hope I have not stepped on your toes Original Dobo but Damn..... I hear you.
Mass non-compliance... Follow though with noted intent to remove sponsor/supporters from office. This will work as others have in past legislation.(dropped dead in position
If anything from China should be banned for fear of spying this iPhone I’m using should be. Not my drone. How can anyone but DJI stop it’s drones from flying. I have Litchi anyway but maybe they can disable them somehow. I won’t be updating for a while until I know something. I’ve been flying DJI drones since the first Phantom,still have it and it works fine. None of the other drones I own or have flown even comes close to the flying capabilities of DJI especially the Mavic series or even the mini series. I would be really pissed if they all just stopped working one day!🤬🤯😤
This is terrible. Remember those who voted for those people to be in office.
American drone companies know where the line is and yet they fall drastically short of it every damn time. DJi products are far superior and that's why we buy them!
They are just jealous of the money dji is making. If that’s the case why is tik tok still here!????