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DJI ban passes the House and moves on to the Senate

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Re: DJI ban passes the House and moves on to the Senate

#31

Post by empath75 »

henvic wrote: post #28

DJI is, by far, the best drone equipment brand for photography, industrial usage, etc. It's disheartening to witness the US embracing protectionism for high-tech. If the United States does this, it might as well join the European Union's decadence in killing tech startups by stifling the competitiveness of their market...

It's definitely economic protectionism but it's mostly protectionism for national security reasons. I assume the US is going to start manufacturing drones for war in large numbers in the near term and they need to be made at home (or at least by allies).

Re: DJI ban passes the House and moves on to the Senate

#32

Post by h0l0cube »

ganoushoreilly wrote: post #12
sofixa wrote: post #3

"free market". Unless there's something better than what our own companies can do (Bombardier C-Series jets, DJI drones, BYD Electric Vehicles), then protectionism. Also, I have to say that I find it very weird that random unrelated legislation can be in the same "act".

When companies receive outsized state subsidies that allow them to undercut the markets, it's not an apples for apples comparison. As for the unrelated legislation, I agree. Too many things are tacked on / added on. NO ONE is reading these things in complete given that sometimes they receive the full 1k pages hours before the vote. The other issue is the number of things funded that shouldn't be in general but that's…

It does poke a hole through the concept of markets that are free of government intervention lead to cheaper goods. I doubt these subsidies don’t further government revenue in some way, so is the Chinese government a better capital allocator than the free market? They’ve made bets on solar, EVs, battery tech, and pretty much everything related to advanced manufacturing bar the latest CPU lithography, and right now they’re winning. Such a narrative couldn’t sit well with the US that poses as the poster child of laissez-faire capitalism (though often with heavy government interference of its own)

Re: DJI ban passes the House and moves on to the Senate

#34

Post by resoluteteeth »

itsacodething wrote: post #19
gwbas1c wrote: post #11

What is DJI, why is it being banned, and why should the general public care about this? (In all seriousness, nothing I've read about "DJI" even explains the basics of the issue.)

If you want to know why the US would have interest in limiting the growth of DJI look no further then Ukraine and the impact drones have on the war. The US wants to encourage domestic drone manufacturing by eliminating the largest Chinese manufacturer as an option.

> If you want to know why the US would have interest in limiting the growth of DJI look no further then Ukraine and the impact drones have on the war.

How is banning DJI drones in the US going to affect how they're being used in the war in Ukraine?

Or do you mean that banning them in the US will somehow stop them from being used against the US in the future?

Re: DJI ban passes the House and moves on to the Senate

#35

Post by rcpt »

nacs wrote: post #22
Havoc wrote: post #7

Seems a bit pointless banning the market leader?

Yes this is a strange one. There is no viable competitor to DJI for consumers when it comes to the software side especially -- DJI software is miles ahead of the other drone producers (on-drone and their mobile apps).

When I try to download DJI fly app from the Play Store it always crashes.

Re: DJI ban passes the House and moves on to the Senate

#36

Post by resoluteteeth »

Havoc wrote: post #7

Seems a bit pointless banning the market leader?

> Seems a bit pointless banning the market leader?

I guess that depends on what the goal is? If a foreign company is the market leader, banning it allows US companies to take over the domestic market without having to actually figure out how to be competitive with the market leader.

Re: DJI ban passes the House and moves on to the Senate

#37

Post by kaibee »

mc32 wrote: post #23
itsacodething wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you want to know why the US would have interest in limiting the growth of DJI look no further then Ukraine and the impact drones have on the war. The US wants to encourage domestic drone manufacturing by eliminating the largest Chinese manufacturer as an option.

They have Skydio for that. There is no profit in consumer-oriented drones. The money is in lower volume professional & semi-professional use drones. You cannot compete with China even if we annexed Mexico for cheap labor in order to manufacture high volume low profit drones.

This is exactly the problem. The military needs single-use drones in high volume, and the production capacity/scale for that can only exist if it's subsidized by the consumer industry.

> You cannot compete with China even if we annexed Mexico for cheap labor in order to manufacture high volume low profit drones.

DJI isn't making drones by hand, they have automated factories. But its only worth building an automated factory if you're selling at a massive scale. Banning DJI drones in the US lets you build a factory in the US that can eventually get costs down.

And it's also dumb to fund your opponent's war production lines.

Re: DJI ban passes the House and moves on to the Senate

#38

Post by nathancahill »

mc32 wrote: post #23
itsacodething wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you want to know why the US would have interest in limiting the growth of DJI look no further then Ukraine and the impact drones have on the war. The US wants to encourage domestic drone manufacturing by eliminating the largest Chinese manufacturer as an option.

They have Skydio for that. There is no profit in consumer-oriented drones. The money is in lower volume professional & semi-professional use drones. You cannot compete with China even if we annexed Mexico for cheap labor in order to manufacture high volume low profit drones.

I have the last consumer Skydio model, and I'm thinking of selling it to buy a DJI. Skydio has way more intelligence, but the camera quality just isn't there. Footage is ok for social media and that's about it.

Re: DJI ban passes the House and moves on to the Senate

#39

Post by itsacodething »

resoluteteeth wrote: post #34
itsacodething wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you want to know why the US would have interest in limiting the growth of DJI look no further then Ukraine and the impact drones have on the war. The US wants to encourage domestic drone manufacturing by eliminating the largest Chinese manufacturer as an option.

> If you want to know why the US would have interest in limiting the growth of DJI look no further then Ukraine and the impact drones have on the war. How is banning DJI drones in the US going to affect how they're being used in the war in Ukraine? Or do you mean that banning them in the US will somehow stop them from being used against the US in the future?

> How is banning DJI drones in the US going to affect how they're being used in the war in Ukraine?

It will not.

> Or do you mean that banning them in the US will somehow stop them from being used against the US in the future?

No.

This is about planning for the future. In the event of a war the US wants a large existing base of domestic drone manufacturers. Today, that just does not exist at scale as most are made in China. This is similar to efforts to re-shore chip manufacturing.

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