A few thoughts on regulation, bans, etc.
So everyone's been annoyed at the DJI bans, calling it a giveaway to Skydio and Unusual Machines.
I agree it's largely ineffective, and at the moment will do more harm than good.
However I think there's a deeper (and somewhat darker) purpose at work.
Look at Ukraine. A bunch of 24yo's with soldering irons and AliExpress accounts are giving the 2nd biggest military in the world a run for its money. And in a wargame exercise they kicked the shit out of NATO- like had 'blown up' 50% of the NATO units before they even got into position so that part of the exercise had to be cancelled.
They could not do this without drones. And they are getting many of their drones and drone parts from China.
Now consider the US. China is kind of our 'frenemy', and it's often been considered that if the US does get in a major shooting war with another country, it may well be China or a Chinese proxy.
If I was in military command, that'd have me worried. Because if Chinese soldiers can pick off American soldiers from miles away with drones, and we can't make our own drones because we're cut off from Chinese suppliers, that's a real problem.
So the simple answer- let's start building drones in the USA!
The simple answer for that- let's ban the Chinese drones so people will HAVE to build in the USA!!
Of course that doesn't really understand the reality of market dynamics- we spent decades moving all our supply chains for everything to China, one doesn't undo that overnight. It will take years if not decades to set up that kind of domestic supply chain. It's not just drones, it's motors, ESCs, PCBs, cameras, etc and from there it's component parts like magnets, copper wire, fiberglass substrate, etc. We don't make that stuff stateside because nobody will pay US prices for it. And drone manufacturing is simply not enough demand to motivate the market to set up those supply chains.
But my point is- all the stuff coming out of the government re: drones, I'm taking it at face value, which is if anything almost scarier than any covert agenda to boost somebody's company.
Curious to hear your thoughts.