Future of the Drone Industry
I don’t expect anyone to find this or to spend the time read it, I’m just going to write it for myself to get out the irritation, frustration, and fear I have. And it all has to do with the unavailability of DJI drones. When we first started Meadowlark Drones, we spent a lot of time researching drones to try to figure out which would be the best path forward for us, especially when we started looking into specialized drones. DJI was by far the winner. They were the best, but they were also the most affordable. For any business owner, it is a no brainer. So that was the way we went. We now have a DJI mini 3 pro and all three of the Mavic 3 drones.
Even when we started Meadowlark Drones, there was talk about banning Chinese made drones and some attempts through congress to do it. The fear was that those drones were a national security threat because they might be collecting images and sending them to the Chinese government. It feels far-fetched and I haven’t seen anything to support that. It seems to be more about trying to hamstring a company because they are based in China and are much more competitive than any American drone companies. Most of the efforts to ban DJI drones didn’t go anywhere until recently it was added into the defense bill that a review of DJI (and other foreign drone companies) will need to be done. It seems reasonable to have a review done and if there is an issue they will be banned, but if they find no issue they will be allowed to continue to operate. The rub comes when if no review is completed, the ban will still go into effect. And needless to say, no government entity picked up the ball to complete that review and it is now nearing the deadline.
What’s all that mean for our company? The good news is that the drone ban will only apply to new drones, so the ones we have we will still be allowed to fly. The part that worries me is what happens if I crash any of drones or they get out of date. It has gotten me worried about flying my drones and the risks that come from that. If I crash my favorite thermal drone, I can’t get it replaced and if I were to buy a new thermal drone that was American made, we would be spending about three times more on an already expensive piece of equipment. The reality is that it probably wouldn’t make good business sense to replace the drone in that scenario so we would no longer be able to offer the services that drone provides.
It is a similar story for why we haven’t invested in spray drones. After a lot of research, we had decided the best drone for our needs was one of the DJI Ag drones. We have gotten close to buying one and have even gone through the complicated process to be able to fly the large drones. But when it came down to it, it felt too risky to buy such an expensive drone. Even though if we got it before a drone ban goes into effect, we’d still be able to fly it, it feels like once the precedence has been set, the next step would be to ban the current DJI drones.
Most of my frustration comes with not being able to get the best quality drones for my business. Our market has become so hostile to Chinese drone companies that DJI no longer releases their new drones here. It definitely creates a vacuum for an American drone company to come in and scoop up the now vacant market space, but without competition from the biggest player is there much reason for exceptional innovation?
There’s no real solution here. This is just a bit of rant, and it only affects people in this industry. It is a total unknown and unimportant issue for most people. But for people who work with or utilize drones, it is a bit of a step backward.
