America is close to freezing out the world’s dominant drone maker over security fears.
On the outskirts of Cambridge, surveyor Michael Wilkie taps a controller button and his DJI Matrice drone throws itself into the air as its rotors cut a high-pitched whine across a new subdivision development.
Beneath the aircraft is a DJI-produced LiDAR sensor able to build a high-definition, three-dimensional model of the land below.
Flying a pre-programmed path, the drone or RPAS (remotely piloted aircraft system) gathers thousands of data points in a few hours, doing the work that once took Wilkie two days using older surveying methods.
“It’s an awesome piece of equipment, it certainly attracts me to the job,” Wilkie says.
“It’s so much better – I just wish it could bang in boundary pegs for me.”
In days, DJI – the world’s dominant commercial and consumer drone manufacturer – could effectively be banned from the United States over national security fears.
In the US, the move has instigated plenty of social media commentary, with commercial operators and hobbyists fearful of losing access to new products or software updates.
In New Zealand, where DJI drones are also common, the issue has largely flown under the radar.
So, should Kiwis share America’s security fears of the Chinese-made drones?
DJI is estimated to control about 70% of the global consumer and commercial drone market.
Every day, across New Zealand, its drones undertake a range of tasks, improving efficiency and saving time.
They survey, film, inspect, spray and even wash buildings. They are used in fighting fires, assist in search and rescue and have military applications.
The Herald contacted DJI and Ferntech, a major supplier of DJI drones in New Zealand, seeking information on DJI’s share of the local market. Neither had responded at the time of publication.
For Kotare Consultants, which has offices in Taupō and Cambridge and a team of surveyors, engineers and planners focused on land development, DJI drones have become a core part of the business.
Cambridge-based managing director Ciaran Murphy says the company started using them five years ago and he has personally flown the company’s drones for close to a decade.
“I’ve always used DJI,” Murphy says.
“They’re at the forefront of the technology and they’re also accessible, commercially. They’ve done a good job for us.”
Kotare’s drone models have evolved from early Phantoms to the larger Matrice equipped with LiDAR, producing highly detailed terrain modelling.
“It’s really about the efficiency but also the massive amount of data that can be captured in a short period of time,” Murphy says.
“And we can access areas that are, from health and safety points, a lot of risk for our employees.
“These are environments that used to be considered inaccessible – we can approach those a lot easier.”
However, DJI could be added to the US Federal Communications Commission’s “Covered List” on December 23 as part of new defence legislation.
If that happens, the company would be blocked from selling or importing new wireless products into the US, effectively shutting it out of the American market.
It is expected drones already in use would not be grounded but future sales, imports, repairs and software updates would be restricted.
Critics of DJI say the drones and other company products could collect sensitive data that might be accessed by the Chinese Government.
DJI denies the allegations.
The company has been in Washington’s crosshairs for years. It was placed on a Department of Defence list in 2022 as a “Chinese military company”, a designation the firm also disputes.
To avoid the looming restrictions, DJI needs one of several US security agencies, such as the Department of Homeland Security, to conduct a formal audit of its products to assess whether they pose a national security risk.
No department has undertaken an audit.
DJI says the situation is driven less by security concerns than by geopolitics and trade tensions.
On its official blog called Viewpoints, the company says it is willing to be scrutinised.
“Removing DJI from the US market without just cause or due process would only harm the hundreds of thousands of drone operators who use our products for civilian, creative, and commercial purposes,” the company wrote.
“Domestic manufacturers are not producing drones for these users so they will be left without access to the reliable tools they need to conduct their work.”
Kotare Consultants has never experienced cyber security issues with DJI equipment and is comfortable with how its data is handled, Murphy says.
“We as a company have never had any cyber concerns of our own or any concerns about the data, or how it relates to our systems.
“It’d probably be a small, niche, amount of applications in this country where this probably should be a concern, possibly policing, military, that sort of thing.”
In New Zealand, a Five Eyes intelligence partner of the United States, no DJI restrictions are on the horizon.
A spokesperson for the National Cyber Security Centre, part of the Government Communications Security Bureau, says agencies here assess technology on a case-by-case basis rather than automatically following overseas bans.
Decisions on using certain technologies should be made using the New Zealand Information Security Manual, which requires risks to be identified and mitigated.
The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment said various government departments were responsible for their own due diligence using the Government Procurement Rules.
“Rule 26 sets out a risk assessment tool to support agencies to identify if there are national security risks in relevant goods and services, including their applicable use and potential access to sensitive data,” said New Zealand Government Procurement general manager Michael Alp.
The Herald contacted several government agencies, including New Zealand Police, the Defence Force and the Ministry for Primary Industries. None raised concerns about their use of DJI products.
New Zealand Police confirmed it uses DJI drones for search and rescue, photographing scenes, investigations and tactical operations.
Tactical Operations Superintendent Penelope Gifford said the drones had proven effective across all work groups.
“NZ Police continually assess the use of DJI products and work closely with our international partners, as some of them shift from using DJI to other products. At this time, NZ Police consider DJI to offer the best, cost-effective products on the market that offer a range of functionality suited for use by police,” she said.
Victoria University Wellington cyber security researcher Dr Ian Welch says the debate highlights a broader issue around trust in technology, regardless of where it is made.
Consumers were always advised to be vigilant and assess the risk and reward of various devices, he says.
“It comes down to your particular risk, what it is that you’re recording . . . what are the implications of it?
“Like if I’m using it for a military application, would I use a Chinese drone? Maybe I’ll think twice about that.
“But if I’m a surveyor or I’m a tradie and I’m checking the roof, it’s probably not so bad.”
For businesses such as Kotare, a disruption like a ban on DJI products would be problematic.
Murphy estimates the company has about $100,000 invested in DJI equipment and associated software.
Replacing it with equivalent technology, including hardware, software and setup, would cost close to $300,000.
“We’ve had to invest quite a lot of time to get the systems just right and what happens when you change the hardware, you change the software,” he says.
In the US, the forthcoming ban could be dire for many businesses and operators who rely on DJI craft.
In an interview with PC Magazine, DJI’s head of global policy Adam Welsh said about 450,000 US individuals use DJI drones to earn a living and it was estimated to be a US$116 billion ($201b) industry.
In a survey of members of the Drone Service Providers Alliance, two-thirds expected to go out of business without access to DJI drones.
The looming US ban has sparked frustration online, with many questioning the security rationale and worrying about expensive equipment becoming unsupported.
DJI is urging customers to lobby congressional representatives and senators to reverse the December 23 legislation.
Mike Scott is an award-winning visual journalist with more than two decades’ experience telling stories across multiple media platforms.
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