Comment by gwbas1c

>The industry can fight with quality or price against Chinese bad products and non Chinese good products, but products that are both Chinese and top notch quality are going to dominate the market because of comparatively lower costs

I think the sooner the west (read US/Canada and Europe, some say Australia/NZ) realized and wake up from their denial the better. Gone are the days of the narrative we're not going to export to you our superior and more expensive products, but now the narrative we're not going to import your superior and cheaper products, how the table are turning 180 degree. It's not uncommon to watch western Youtubers praising the good quality DJI products and at the same being critical of GoPro sub-par quality products, and they're not even reviewing the products but just honest remarks from professional users going about their filming and recording routines.

> they can't make a generic law against say suspicious code running on consumer devices that could be used to exfiltrate personal data, as it would potentially hit every connected device out there, including western branded ones. My impression is that they (the law makers) are almost facing the wall where they should admit that closed proprietary devices are generally unsafe and bad

The issue is even bigger than that. It doesn't matter what the device does now, nor does it matter whether it is open or proprietary.

When it comes to national security, ask yourself "what could happen in a time of war?" Some obvious answers are:

1. If it connects to foreign service providers, those services could be shut off or changed to be malicious

2. If the device uses parts/support/updates from foreign service providers, those could be discontinued, or changed to be malicious

3. If you need the product, but don't make them locally, they may no longer be available.

etc.

This feels like rehashing much of the conversation about TikTok, and earlier Huawei.

It is a national security concern. Whether the cure is better than the poison only time will tell.

I agree with your impression.

It reminds me.. when someone is cheating on a partner, they are more likely to think they are being cheated on too. I have experienced this, being accused non-stop when actually they were the one cheating all along.

Just because USA likes tampering with proprietary code and using NDA’s with Silicon Valley to bug just about anything they want (because they can), that paranoia consumes them that other countries are doing the same.

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.

I very much prefer my Skydio2 drone over any DJI product I've ever flown. Totally subjective experience. I got tired of fixing DJI 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.

> 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.

It has to do with spurring US manufacturers as the primary outcome. It’s not about affecting Ukraine in the short term or stopping them from being used against the US.

It will force western r&d and production to ramp.