The company is also cutting support off which could lead to the end of AeroScopes. If you purchase something through a Verge hyperlink, Vox Media may earn a percentage. Read our ethics policy.
Chinese drone producer DJI has informed The Verge that it will stop all deliveries of its products in as well Russia as well as Ukraine and won’t offer after-sales assistance due to concerns about the possibility of using its products to fight during Russia’s military invasion.
This is the first action the Chinese company DJI is taking to confront the conflict following Ukraine Vice-President Mykhailo Fedorov accused the company of assisting Russia to kill Ukrainian civilians tangled way (by making use of DJI’s AeroScope drone detection system to identify Ukrainian pilots in the ground which DJI did not anticipate). Both countries use DJI drones to conduct reconnaissance as well as we’ve seen news reports of Ukraine changing some of them into weapons for use in a makeshift fashion.
In the middle of march, DJI informed the Verge that it hadn’t stopped the sales of its products across Russia and Ukraine and had no plans to even though there were numerous other businesses who had been forced to leave Russia as a protest. “For 15 years, DJI has tried our best to stay out of geopolitics,” spokesperson Adam Lisberg told us.
However, Reuters reported that today the fact that DJI has decided to cease the sales of its products to these countries while keeping an open-minded stance. although DJI isn’t in actual charge of sales to these regions (existing products will remain available for sale) DJI has confirmed that all support and deliveries will end. This shouldn’t stop Russia from using or Ukraine from using the existing AeroScope drone tracking devices, either There’s a chance that DJI will not be able to reauthorize any AeroScope receivers that have expired licenses within this time.
“DJI has taken this step not to issue a statement regarding any nation, but rather to express our values. DJI is against any use of our drones that could create harm, so we have temporarily suspended the sales of these nations to ensure that nobody uses our drones for combat,” Lisberg tells us today.
Lisberg states that DJI had already warned dealers to not sell to those who intend to utilize drones to fight But they’ve observed drones being used in the war zone and this is an additional step. Lisberg adds that DJI recognizes that there isn’t an effective way to block drones’ use to carry out military operations Again I’ll remind you that DJI is not in control of the market in these countries and that putting a stop on support and deliveries could be detrimental to drone pilots in both countries who use drones for non-military purposes.
“But we have to do something because we don’t like seeing anyone use our products to hurt people,” Lisberg says. Lisberg.
DJI’s newsroom website doesn’t go as far, merely stating it DJI will be “internally reassessing compliance requirements in various jurisdictions” and that it has suspended business with Russia as well as Ukraine “pending the current review.”
It’s not possible to gather enough information to determine if this decision could harm both sides more so than one, however, I’ll say this: Ukraine is the only one that is who is fundraising publicly to pay for these low-cost consumer DJI drones for the defense of its nation.
This week, this week, the Biden administration called on Congress to allow more agencies to gain access to drone tracking technology including police departments at the state and local levels.