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DJI no longer lets you fly its drones in Washington, DC
DJI really, really doesn't want to see its drones in the news for the wrong reasons. Just a day after the world learned that one of its robotic vehicles crash-landed at the White House, the company is pushing out a "mandatory" firmware update for its Phantom 2 drones that prevents you from flying anywhere within a 15.5-mile radius of downtown Washington, DC. (www.engadget.com) Más...Sort type: [Top] [Newest]
What about all the drones inside the White House? (Sorry. Couldn't resist)
That's Congress. (and not sorry)
I occurs to me that this the first of a long line of 'firmware upgrades'. They're going to need more ROM soon, I suspect as more sites get on that bandwagon.
DJ is actually fairly unique in that their firmware has enforced a form of No Fly Zones for a while. If you are near one of the airports in the list below, the drone will either not take off at all, or fly at a restricted altitude.
http://www.dji.com/fly-safe/category-mc
Adding the District of Columbia must have been trivial, and been a bit of an afterthought since operating a drone anywhere in Washington D.C. is prohibited by the FAA.
http://www.dji.com/fly-safe/category-mc
Adding the District of Columbia must have been trivial, and been a bit of an afterthought since operating a drone anywhere in Washington D.C. is prohibited by the FAA.
However, I think some people choose not to install firmware updates because they don't want the altitude limitations or other enforcements being done...
True. But that will only work with old drones running old firmware that haven't been updated in a few years, if you buy one today it will have reasonably up-to-date firmware. You'd still be able to fly it in D.C., but you wouldn't be able to fly it near LAX or JFK for instance.
I imagine it won't be long before a cottage industry of aftermarket firmware pops up, in the vein of DD-WRT, CHDK and so forth.