No; this functionality is actually accomplished in a reasonable way, with a local database stored on the drone and checked by the drone's flight control software, and exemptions granted by uploading a signed payload to the drone detailing an unlock region and timeframe.
It's also worth noting that these restrictions aren't government imposed in countries besides China, and aren't government-linked besides a request-based "please make this location a no fly zone" process - DJI basically just exported a Chinese concept with hope of building goodwill internationally, and the no-fly zones were invented by DJI from public land use data. That's why other drones don't have no-fly zones but are still allowed for sale, there are frequent mismatches between DJI no-fly zones and real no-fly zones (both false positive and false negative), and why DJI disabled their own no-fly zone feature in much of Europe earlier this year (European mandated no-fly rules passed the responsibility to the consumer instead).
DJI's no-fly zone database is completely independent from the US government. DJI would have to be compelled to add the US as a no-fly zone, which, if their drones are banned already, seems like a rather difficult thing to compel as there's no carrot at the end of the stick.
This would have to come from the firmware in the drone looking up what the no-fly zones were. GPS is transmit-only location, it can't write no-fly zone data to a particular drone.
The drone would look it up through a connected cell phone using a web service like this:
I think (hope) it would be a hard sell to send different data from faa.gov to DJI drone lookups versus other brands, but on the other hand this complete brand ban is apparently politically possible.
There is a publicly accessible list of US no-fly-zones which a drone operator can use to program their drone's geofences: https://www.mapbox.com/drone/no-fly/#
DJI actually has some systems in place to prevent illegal flights. By default it only goes as high as the law permits and can't enter no-fly zones (as if there were a force field). Even in smaller airports, the app will alert you to fly with caution (for example, in class C airspace) You can override these limits, but, as far as I know, the event is somehow logged.
"Sense and avoid" is the current holy grail of UAV research.
Restricted zones have some interesting effects. DJI, a Chinese multirotor manufacturer, recently introduced 'no-fly zones' around airports for their ultra-consumer-level uav, the phantom 2. An unfortunate side effect, in the UK at least, is you are now unable to fly your phantom 2 in areas where it is perfectly legal to do so. I believe this limitation also effects where you can place waypoints on their more advanced autopilots.
They also prevent you flying over or near Tienanmen square...
DJI can prevent you from flying near airports, they can try the same thing with conflict zones. I assumes they do this already and this check has to be bypassed.
Since the control apps tap into GPS so they know when you're in a restricted zone, the gov't could simply make them mark all of the US as a restricted zone and the drone will never fly. I have one, I'm not happy about this.
I hope DJI responds with a firmware update preventing flight in temporary no-fly zones. Right now they respect static no fly zones, but when temporary ones get put up you can still fly inside them.
It's a real shame that large ready-to-fly drones aren't required by law to prevent arming in no-fly zones. About half of the DJI pilots I know actively prevent their firmware from being upgraded to the one that will respect static no-fly zones.
DJI products quite effectively indicate and restrict access to no fly zones. My controller starts to beep if I get within a few hundred feet of a border to a no fly zone. I haven't tested it, but I think it is supposed to come home and land if you somehow get into a no fly zone.
That said, 1,700ft is so high, no fly zones don't really mean much anymore.
No fly zones will only keep good guys out. The same is true of any regulation-based solution. Anybody can build a drone at home that ignores no-fly zones and doesn't broadcast any serial numbers, and then operate it remotely, with very little chance of getting caught.
I don't know what the answer is, other than to hope that most people continue to be mostly good.
There's a danger to this though; if drone pilots are universally expected to be warned when they fly in dangerous areas, then pilots will start flying "to the edge" and expect the technology to always keep them in line. I would be surprised if restricted areas were stable enough that drones could store a database of no-go areas and keep it up to date easily.
It would be more straightforward to set clear policy and provide a way for drone pilots to know where not to fly (e.g., provide an online map and require altitude telemetry to the controller at all times). Include a link to this information with every drone purchase.
My guess of what will happen if we go down the GPS route: Some incident with a drone will occur, and the pilot will say something like "the drone didn't warn me that I was in a restricted area".
I would be interested to know how on-demand the No Fly zones can be updated -- interesting tool to, say, ensure there aren't any amateur camera-copters floating around accident scenes, public demonstrations an the like.
DJI’s “no fly zones” aren’t the same as the FAA’s airspace classification. I can take off through the DJI app even though I’m in controlled airspace for which there is no automated approval, but can’t take off without a specific exemption from DJI if I’m in the approach path of an airport even though it’s not operational at that time and the FAA considers it uncontrolled.
maybe. it would be a lot of work to actually make the map accurate. you'd have to parse FAA airspace regulations and also federal, state, and local land use regulations. many of these might not ban drones explicitly, but be vague enough to possibly include drones. most people aren't going to be willing to pay a monthly fee for a service that tells them when/where they can fly their $200 drone.
Chinese airspace is highly regulated, especially in the cities mentioned. Theoretically, every single drone flight has to be reported and registered with multiple military and civil agencies.
DJI, in particular has a bunch of phone-home kill switch stuff built in. The FAA mandated a lot of it, and now I think they realize that, in practice, that means they're mandating that the Chinese military has indirect control over drones operated by Americans on US soil.
I think it'd be better to ban remote kill switches and instead mandate GIS databases that warn you if you're violating airspace restrictions (for drones over a certain size, where this isn't adding a bunch of complexity).
Shielding domestic drone manufacturers from international competition essentially guarantees that we'll fall behind China. That will cause a national security issue worse than the current situation.
Sometimes I wonder if the regulators are intentionally screwing the US over, or if it's just that the federal government has become unable to coordinate the actions of its own agencies.
edit: The sibling comments are great examples of why we need strong privacy laws. If it was illegal for DJI to exfiltrate the data the drones gather back to their manufacturers, then those classes of national security issues would take care of themselves, and the rules would solve the problem for all industries, not just this one company.
It's also worth noting that these restrictions aren't government imposed in countries besides China, and aren't government-linked besides a request-based "please make this location a no fly zone" process - DJI basically just exported a Chinese concept with hope of building goodwill internationally, and the no-fly zones were invented by DJI from public land use data. That's why other drones don't have no-fly zones but are still allowed for sale, there are frequent mismatches between DJI no-fly zones and real no-fly zones (both false positive and false negative), and why DJI disabled their own no-fly zone feature in much of Europe earlier this year (European mandated no-fly rules passed the responsibility to the consumer instead).
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