alt Hacker NewsI'm in favor of tighter regulation on drone imports, both for national security reasons and to try to jumpstart a US drone industry.
Not allowing _any_ foreign made components, however, is insane, as is not even auditing DJI when they didn't put up a fight. They have to know they're just killing the small drone industry completely.
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I would love to see the US drone industry thrive, it's a major gap in both the consumer and military market.
At the same time, several businesses have and are trying to compete in this business. The amount of capital required is enormous if anyone is going to compete with DJI and the like. I personally know someone in this situation. They have a great product and some traction, but going from low quantity bespoke solutions to cost competitive large scale manufacturing costs hundreds of millions.
And the problem is, investors don't trust that the ban is going to last forever. The government could reverse the ban at any time, and that puts the US company back in a position where they can't compete with DJI, so the investors lose money. And they know that.
> CTO & Co-Founder, GovHawk.
Checks out. More legislation boosts your business.
Less drones for you, more for the military.
There is no real downsides for the current gov’t here.
Limiting competition does not jump start anything it simply introduces complacency.