[ChiefNotAClue]

It seems like a retaliatory move regarding the potential ban. If lawmakers are going to assert that DJI drones threats to national security, might as well disable the built-in geofencing and demonstrate the kind of threat they could be. Not saying this is right or wrong... but when the ban singles them out as a threat, and much of the competition doesn't the same level of safety features, you can imagine why they might want to retaliate.

[torginus]

I was just thinking about this, but with the Ukraine war going on, and both sides eating through tens (hundreds) of thousands of drones each day, the perception of DJI being a military company might very well be justified.

I mean, how many regular people buy drones, and how often? My guess would be one in 50 buys a new drone every 4 years. With that kind of demand, I guess Russia and Ukraine's drone demand might be equivalent to the entire Western world's

If those drones feed back camera data and telemetry, the Chinese might have access to the biggest military drone training dataset in the entire world by far.

[rawandriddled]

They install their own firmware. See 1001 firmware, for example.

Also, it's unlikely front line internet is capable of streaming the video back to DJI.