bicx
2 months ago
Why can’t they just require government agencies to purchase US-made drones? Why is this a bigger threat than any of the millions of foreign electronics used to communicate in the U.S.?
remarkEon
a month ago
Because there's a non-trivial element of the current USG (and probably a decent sized portion of American voters) who think we'll be at war with PRC within the next couple years, at some point when the next Taiwan invasion windows open (April and October each year). From that perspective, this is prudent policy. If you don't think this is likely, or don't care about broader historical or geopolitical trends, then yes it's very annoying.
VerifiedReports
a month ago
That doesn't explain it, though. In this case and the TikTok case, nobody has been able to cite exactly what all these "personal data" are. Not once have I seen a citation of what TikTok has "stolen" from users, somehow defying data sandboxing implemented on mobile devices.
This fake hysteria over drones is even worse, considering that the drones don't have the means of sending arbitrary data to remote servers.
whatevermom4
a month ago
They do, the DJI app can send whatever it wants. In China, all flight logs are sent to the relevant authority for enforcement.
VerifiedReports
a month ago
It can't send "whatever it wants." The user has to grant access to various categories of personal data.
And whatever it sends can and would have been sniffed by now. It's incredible how much time people have to expend on way-more-obscure snooping than that.
whatevermom4
a month ago
It has your location and your phone number and flight logs. The later are systematically sent to the Civil Aviation Administration of China along with your phone number which is a unique ID in China. I am not talking about hypotheticals, I am talking about what's happening right now in 2025 in China and that will happen all around the world as governments tighten the grip.
ulfw
a month ago
If you think that is likely there won't be a USA or much of the rest of the world anyway.
So this whole thing is utterly stupid
JumpCrisscross
a month ago
> If you think that is likely there won't be a USA or much of the rest of the world anyway
America and China will probably find themselves in a proxy and/or hybrid war before 2035 (unless China stops trying to invade Taiwan).
None of that requries a nuclear exchange, nor even conventional strikes by China on the American homeland or vice versa.
ukblewis
a month ago
[flagged]
herewulf
a month ago
There is nothing to prepare for because the only possible war between the USA and China is a nuclear war and such a war has no victor. Both countries are "prepared" in terms of nuclear weapons.
The USA is clearly not prepared to sacrifice any of its own cities to prevent an invasion of Taiwan.
All this sabre rattling and military buildup only serves to put money in the pockets of the military industrial complex and/or build military capabilities for each country to exert its will within its own sphere of influence.
RealityVoid
a month ago
> There is nothing to prepare for because the only possible war between the USA and China is a nuclear war and such a war has no victor.
I think there are 2 false statements here. First, you could have conventional conflict alone, the same way you had WW2 without extensive use of chemical weapons.
Second, there are possible paths to have a winnable nuclear war, actually, the US did have one a couple of decades ago and it won. I do agree that saying this out loud though is dangerous because the reason for nuclear taboo is also based on the perception of "end of world" it has.
herewulf
a month ago
Chemical weapons were not used in WWII because in WWI the combatants figured out that they were really ineffective.
Modern nuclear weapons seem to be very effective, but as you note, it has only been tested once (when only one side had them).
wkat4242
a month ago
> Second, there are possible paths to have a winnable nuclear war, actually, the US did have one a couple of decades ago and it won.
Well yeah because at that time they were the only one who had a nuclear bomb. That situation didn't last long.
I think it's really great that it's such a taboo, otherwise these things would be used a lot, incurring all sorts of pollution, mass casualties and chances to escalate. It's a good thing that these have not been used since WWII though I do think their existence as a deterrent has brought us a bit more peace.
gbear605
2 months ago
At least theoretically, there could be code in the China-made drones that allows them to be taken over in the event of a war between China and the US. In practice, this is probably just protectionist.
VerifiedReports
a month ago
Taken over how, though? They are controlled by short-range radio, and have no cellular transceivers.
gbear605
a month ago
A lot of them are controllable from mobile devices through apps that could have new code remotely deployed to them - for example https://www.dji.com/downloads/djiapp/dji-go-4. The apps are mostly for controlling the camera, but presumably they're not airgapped from the flight controls.
jacquesm
a month ago
And they run heavily encrypted firmware, so you have no idea what is actually happening. There is so much CPU power in those things it puts your cell phone to shame and a lot more sensors to boot. Some models have 8 onboard cameras.
bad_haircut72
2 months ago
Its probably protectionism to protect/boost the domestic drone industry
herewulf
2 months ago
What domestic drone industry?
sowbug
2 months ago
It's right down the street from US domestic coffee, semiconductor, game console, laptop, rare earth mineral, graphite, and banana industries. All these US industries are protected by baseline and reciprocal tariffs.
klooney
a month ago
We have a big semiconductor industry! We just didn't have TSMC.
klooney
a month ago
Skydio and Freefly and a bunch of defense contractors. Skydio is pretty big, IIRC
AndrewKemendo
a month ago
The entire point is to force the creation of one
expedition32
a month ago
A US drone industry would still have to compete with China on the global market. The entire developing world doesn't give a shit about US sanctions.
hmm37
2 months ago
Perhaps Trump Jr's Unusual Machines.
jubjubbird
a month ago
Department of Interior tried that, but "Interior faces challenges with maintaining a sufficient drone fleet because drones compliant with its policies are more expensive and do not always have sufficient capabilities, among other issues, according to officials."