DJI has just removed geofencing restrictions that prevented their drones from flying in restricted areas … [+]
Chinese drone maker DJI announced a software update this week for US operators: they’re removing the handrails from all of their drones. From January 13ththe geofencing feature that prevented drones from flying in restricted areas such as airports and military bases will no longer work.
Instead, when flying in a restricted area, the drone will simply emit a warning message, “putting control back in the hands of drone operators” as the company says.
The move comes at a time when Chinese drone makers in general and DJI in particular are under government scrutiny as the Commerce Department considers a blanket ban on Chinese drones in the US on national security grounds. There are many possible explanations for DJI’s move. An interpretation that the company – which controls about 70% of the global consumer drone market – is showing what it can do with a swift move.
Danger zones for drones
Geofencing as many applications. In the case of small drones, it uses the drone’s GPS navigation to prevent it from flying into designated areas.
Quadcopters and airplanes must stay away from each other
It has been clear since the days of hobbyists flying radio-controlled aircraft that drones pose a potential threat to larger aircraft. Bird strikes are dangerous and have resulted in many crashes, for example the Miracle on the Hudson in 2009, when an Airbus 320 collided with a log of Canada geese and was forced to ditch in the Hudson River.
Drone attacks are much worse. Birds are relatively soft, light, organic materials. Drones, although not heavier, contain much stronger and denser materials, such as batteries, which will do more damage to aircraft windows or turbines, and studies have shown that they pose a much greater risk, leading to drones being described as ‘mechanical geese from hell’.
Airport operations have been suspended on numerous occasions because drones have been seen flying nearby, such as when flights at London Gatwick were disrupted for 36 hours during the busy holiday season in 2018.
The dangers of airspace sharing were highlighted again recently when a ‘super scupper’ firefighting aircraft shot down a drone in California. The crash left a hole in the wing of the plane, which was fighting the Pacific Palisades fire, grounded for five days for repairs. The unauthorized drone was flying in violation of the FAA’s temporary flight restriction in the Los Angeles area.
A DJI drone that crashed on the White House lawn in 2015 because the operator was flying under … [+]
There are other places where drones are not welcome. In 2015, a DJI Phantom drone crashed on the White House lawn. It turned out that an unidentified member of the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, in a drunken state, had thrown the drone through the window of a nearby apartment. DJI immediately updated their geofencing zones to prevent
From “No Fly Zones” to “Expanded Warning Zones”
DJI geofencing is now optional. Their press release states:
“Areas previously designated as Restricted Areas (also known as No-Fly Areas) will be displayed as Enhanced Warning Areas, consistent with FAA designated areas. In these areas, in-app alerts will notify operators flying near FAA-designated airspace, putting control back in the hands of drone operators, consistent with the ultimate operator’s regulatory principles..”
Without geofencing, authorities are relying on operators to behave responsibly.
DJI also notes their many contributions to drone safety, including being the first to install GPS-based geofencing, the first to offer autonomous homing technology, the first to include anti-collision sensors, and the first to applied remote identification technology to help authorities identify and monitor drones in the air.
A more detailed post on the company’s official blog titled “DJI’s GEO System Is An Education – Not Enforcement – Tool” dated January 16th reiterates the idea that operator responsibility is key. They state that the decision was not made out of politics and is consistent with the FAA’s own principles.
What could go wrong?
When the Geofences go down
Geofencing has never presented a real obstacle to established operators with technical skills. In particular, DJI has publicly stated that its drones should never be used for military purposes and that geofencing is applied to prevent their use in the Ukraine conflict. But both sides operate tens of thousands of DJI drones and have industrial-scale processes for hacking firmware to counter geofencing.
In that sense, the change will make little difference. Bad actors, including terrorists and drug cartels, can already break the rules.
What that means is that hundreds of thousands of casual drone users can now do things they couldn’t do before. This includes the random, the curious and the reckless. And, as the White House incident reminds us, the drunk.
Drones are so cheap and easy to use that people can pick one up without a second thought. It’s not like getting a pilot’s license. This leads to situations like the tourist who accidentally shot down a drone at the World Trade Center in 2021.
There are also many thrill seekers who are willing to break the law to get amazing video footage of a place no one else has been. Trying to fly a drone over a nuclear power plant, an active wildfire, or Area 51 in Nevada, or the White House would be foolish and also illegal. But that won’t stop everyone, and many drone users may believe they won’t get caught, which adds to the temptation.
There are already many videos of illegal drone flights on YouTube. And while we don’t know the cause of mass drone sightings over US military bases, nuclear power plants and other locations, throwing hobbyist drones into the mix won’t make the problem any easier to solve. The new movement may not cause chaos, but the potential is now there.
According to FAA figures, there are now more than a million drones registered in the US, in addition to the large number of smaller drones like the DJI Neo, which do not need to be registered.
A pious request from the creators – “DJI reminds pilots to always ensure that flights are conducted safely and in compliance with all local laws and regulations” – may not be enough to keep a million drone operators out of trouble.
And, of course, this only applies to one country. The decision to remove it in the US may not have been political, but geofencing in China has not.
