Flying drones is the safest form of aviation there is, claims DJI, based on an analysis of public data on flight hours and reported incidents. In the past year alone, millions of flying hours were made with recreational drones, resulting in zero deaths. DJI, therefore, believes that the regulations should not be made much stricter.
Dronemaker DJI says it is investigating whether it is possible to provide drones with a Cx CE label retroactively. Such a label will be mandatory in Europe after January 1, 2023, to fly in Open subcategories A1 and A2. As part of the procedure, customers would have to take their drone to a DJI service center to either have their drone upgraded or a self-performed upgrade checked.
DJI officially announces the agricultural drone, the Agras T20, while at the same time introducing its new flagship, the Agras T30, and smaller T10 in China, during the DJI Dajing conference in Shenzhen.
DJI will supply the Mercedes-Benz EQ Formula E Team with the latest aerial imagery and creative camera technology to bring racing fans closer to the action on and off the track.
In an email, DJI sent out the following announcement, saying Capture Magic At Hand. It makes us wonder what this could be, although to be honest, we suspect this will be the new DJI Osmo Pocket 2, as we reported earlier already.
The winners in the 2020 AUVSI XCELLENCE Humanitarian and Public Safety Award have been named. DJI sponsors the Award for Drone Missions to help People, Animals and the Environment.
In a letter to Congress this week, the Alliance for Drone Innovation (ADI) has raised concerns around the proposed ban on Chinese-made drones. The group said that such a ban would “hurt the drone industry” and would leave the federal government with fewer options.
The four-day DJI training at the historic military academy is not merely a weekend team-building event, as explained by a DJI spokesperson. Nor is it a corporate paintball adventure, as suggested by some of our readers. The military-style training took place at the historic Whampoa Military Academy and had a strong focus on education, creating good habits, and experiencing “life of the barracks and cultivating the hard-working spirit and perseverance.”
Ok, here’s the latest. DJI military training is required for all employees in China to ‘prepare for war’ as the world’s largest drone maker is undergoing radical changes in company culture and employees.
Updated as of 11:50 am on 9/25/2020 with an official response from DJI. See below for details.
Read part 2 here.
What happened to the consumer drone market? This is a question that seems to keep coming back. Where did the hobbyist drone pilot go? Looking at different sources of information, you could argue that the consumer drone market peaked somewhere in 2016. Let’s check in with the DroneAnalyst for some more up-to-date background info and context.
Here are the latest DJI rumors on the DJI Ronin RS2, the Mavic 3, a new Mavic Mini 2, two DJI FPV drones, and the Osmo Action 2 and Osmo Pocket 2. This information comes directly from DJI‘s offices in China from a source that we have been working with for some time now. Believe it. Don’t believe it. I’ll leave that up to you.
Update 9/25/2020: DJI Osmo Pocket 2 will be released on October 20th, 2020.
Earlier this year the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) posted a notice on the Federal Register about the type certification of drones. 67 individuals and organizations commented among whom Brendan Schulman from DJI, and in a separate comment, the People’s Republic of China.
Over the last couple of years, various U.S. government officials and lawmakers have expressed concerns about DJI and the data security of DJI drones and possibly stored on DJI servers in China. DJI has always maintained that the drone operator is in charge of the data and can decide to use their DJI drones offline without risk of any data being transmitted overseas. Various studies some of which were paid for by DJI have not shown any evidence of data being transmitted to China. The Australian government recently conducted their own cyber vulnerability review on the usage of DJI drones for their Defense Department and concluded that it was comfortable with using the unmanned aircraft in non-classified situations.
Yesterday, in a self-serving opinion piece on Bloomberg, 3DR’s CEO Chris Anderson offered four ways DJI and other Chinese hardware companies can keep itself ‘out of the penalty box.’ However, there’s a fifth solution that isn’t mentioned in the article, but that Anderson would likely know about.
DroneXL already covered the main part of this news yesterday, but I think it is important to highlight the findings from FTI. The cybersecurity firm FTI Consulting analyzed DJI’s data sharing, or more accurately the lack thereof, and concluded that not only does the Chinese drone maker employs security best practices, but that ‘when DJI’s Local Data Mode (LDM) is enabled, no data that was generated by the application was sent externally to infrastructure operated by any third party, including DJI.
DJI expands data privacy protections for government and commercial drone operators. Following a new cybersecurity audit, Local Data Mode feature is now coming to more DJI drones to eliminate internet connection and prevent transmission of drone flight data.
A recent tweet from DJI Global indicates that the launch of the DJI Ronin RS2 is delayed, but that there will be two versions of this popular handheld gimbal stabilizer. A third photo shows what seems to be a pre-production model of the DJI Ronin RS2 balancing a hefty RED Komodo camera and cinema lens, indicating that the new gimbal combines lightweight and strong performance.
Update: later in the afternoon we received a confirmation from DJI:
“At DJI, our goal is always to bring products to the market that inspire creativity and push the industry forward. After careful consideration, we have decided to reschedule the September 9th announcement for a later date in October. We ask you to stay tuned a little longer to see a lot more. The next generation of gimbal technology will now be unveiled next month, so we can present the world’s creators with two incredible new options for capturing the world around you.”
