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FCC moves to ban Lidar-equipped foreign drones from US

tomshardware.com

61–70 of 128 posts

Re: FCC moves to ban Lidar-equipped foreign drones from US

#61
post #3

How’s a Lidar is a national risk?! (It’s easy to build a lidar based drones in a weekend project) Also, knowing plenty of US based drone manufacturers, most of their stuff are dependent on Chinese parts, the radio communication is on top of that list. If I were DJI, I would make Lidar and similar components modular, so they can still sell these drones while consumers can buy these modules later or DIY it, like litera…

> How’s a Lidar is a national risk?! The anti-flock community believes it's because they can destroy image sensors from a distance. And banning the foreign ones means they can order domestic-made drones to have firmware that prevents them from operating in certain ways or in certain (government) areas, among other things. The finance community thinks they just don't want competition that might rival or sell better th…

I am sure if the US gov asks DJI to do those things they will be happy to comply. They are just here to make money.

Re: FCC moves to ban Lidar-equipped foreign drones from US

#62
post #44

What about Lidar-equipped (and why not, even cameras) foreign cars that scan every one of the country's roads and everything around them? Cars are increasingly packing this kind of tech and telemetry.

Volvo EX90 has a lovely lil bump above the windshield collecting LIDAR stats for some future purpose … Volvo … Li … Geely … PRC … feeling sleepy … can’t stay focused … everything is fine.

Re: FCC moves to ban Lidar-equipped foreign drones from US

#63

Another move to remove competition for Don Jr.?

That, or to avoid surrendering yet another technology relevant to the future to China. As if them manufacturing the bulk of world's solar panels, wind turbines and heading for EVs isn't bad enough.

Maybe if half of the US government wasn't trying to discourage solar power, wind power, and EVs there might be more interest in making them domestically.

Re: FCC moves to ban Lidar-equipped foreign drones from US

#64
post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the Pentagon’s most secure electronics would be made by the Soviet Union under Kremlin supervision What electronics here are among the Pentagon's most secure? Why would the Pentagon have to buy LIDAR from a Chinese company? Will we ban every import of something the Pentagon might buy? > Imagine running an aerial LiDAR/SLAM over gov sites > a technology whose output can be an extremely detailed representation of the…

The goal of such policies is not to act as air tight measures but as deterrent/obstacles .. its not instantaneous in effect or benfit .. but over time it allows other players (inside of that country) to fill that void .. and develop their own home grown solutions ..

That doesn't seem to address the prior comment ?

> over time it allows other players (inside of that country) to fill that void .. and develop their own home grown solutions ..

By eliminating competition, it forces Americans to subsidize second-rate manufacturers, and to pay more to get less. What incentive do local manufacturers have to improve?

Also, the US only has a fraction of world output; they can't replicate everything everyone else does.

Re: FCC moves to ban Lidar-equipped foreign drones from US

#65
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If we cared enough to be effective, we would be subsidizing / encouraging local manufacture of all of those at a competitive, non-luxury price.

That would need to start with building the manufacturing infrastructure. But that requires to work on long term goals, something the west hasn’t been doing that well over the last 30+ years

Market bubbles make way more money than making things. That's why making things gets no money, only bans.

Re: FCC moves to ban Lidar-equipped foreign drones from US

#66
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If we cared enough to be effective, we would be subsidizing / encouraging local manufacture of all of those at a competitive, non-luxury price.

That would need to start with building the manufacturing infrastructure. But that requires to work on long term goals, something the west hasn’t been doing that well over the last 30+ years

No argument here.

Re: FCC moves to ban Lidar-equipped foreign drones from US

#67
The government's response to the security threat of drones has been illogical and negligent at every turn.

For example, the Big Beautiful Bill only appropriated $800M for counter-UAV systems. That's insanely low given the broad threat exposure and the fact that they've literally changed what ground combat looks like. For perspective, we spent $400M on the Qatari 747 retrofit and appropriated $400M on the hope that "naval shipbuilding autonomy and AI" might be a thing.

Re: FCC moves to ban Lidar-equipped foreign drones from US

#68

American consumers are stuck with crappier and much more expensive tech. Thanks Mr President! I'm sure that's what your voters were asking for!

Keep in mind people knowingly voted for a Kleptocracy, this market is what everyone expected.

As investment markets overheat on a perfectly legal 1.6Tn debt-bubble created by the magnificent 7 driven index funds, it is not our job to "fix" policy issues... but merely profit by the situation.

It is naive to blame a single geriatric man for the situation, as royal courts have created kings since the dawn of civilization. =3

Re: FCC moves to ban Lidar-equipped foreign drones from US

#69
post #45
post #3

How’s a Lidar is a national risk?! (It’s easy to build a lidar based drones in a weekend project) Also, knowing plenty of US based drone manufacturers, most of their stuff are dependent on Chinese parts, the radio communication is on top of that list. If I were DJI, I would make Lidar and similar components modular, so they can still sell these drones while consumers can buy these modules later or DIY it, like litera…

The obvious concern would be China building high-res maps of every inch of US cities.

Buy an iPhone, download an app (polycam, scaniverse, strayscanner, etc), build professional grade point clouds/maps. Technology itself is everywhere.

Re: FCC moves to ban Lidar-equipped foreign drones from US

#70
post #44

What about Lidar-equipped (and why not, even cameras) foreign cars that scan every one of the country's roads and everything around them? Cars are increasingly packing this kind of tech and telemetry.

Foreign lidar cars are already effectively banned under the same 7 year old (renewed yearly) "emergency powers" Executive Order that led to this drone ban. https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2019/05/17/2019-10...

And more properly there is an introduced bipartisan bill - SAFE LiDAR Act.

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