DJI Issues Software Update That Implements No-Fly Zones For Rio Olympics (pcmag.com) 59
An anonymous reader writes: DJI has issued a software update this week that prevents its unmanned aerial vehicles from flying over the Olympic venues. The temporary no-fly zones, which will be in place for the duration of the games, include Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, Brasilia, and several other Brazilian cities. The Brazilian military requested DJI to prohibit its drones from entering certain coordinates in the cities, and DJI complied. "DJI is proud to work with Brazilian authorities to put temporary no-fly zones in place during this important time, in order to increase safety and security at high-profile locations and reduce the likelihood of drone operators inadvertently entering sensitive areas," Manual Martinez, DJI Latin America corporate communications director, said in a statement. "The overwhelming majority of DJI customers want to operate safely and within the law," Martinez said. "And establishing clear no-fly zones helps reduce any potential for drone operations that could distract from the upcoming events."
Makes sense. (Score:1)
None of those drones have tickets. They're not allowed. What if someone tried to infringe copyright using them?
Won't someone please think of the corporations?
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So the terrorist can win... (Score:5, Interesting)
So the terrorists win by simply not applying a software update?
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Or by using any of the non-DJI flight controllers. DJI is far from the total market.
Re: So the terrorist can win... (Score:1)
No, they win with DIY (Score:2)
I have a drone which does all of the things which a terrorist would want out of a DJI Phantom... for an order of magnitude less money. I built it myself from very cheap parts. It's an SK450 that cost me $120 all in, including the TX. It's built from a mini KK FC and a ublox GPS module on a Neewer frame with XXD speed controllers. Straight outta china, the budget SK450. Enough oomph to carry a SLR, and running Multiwii so there's no GPS restrictions. Just plot waypoints and click go. There's even a spare PWM
Wrong Fear.. (Score:2)
> so the terrorists win
Isn't it nuts? The terrorists are still winning. To stop the fear, the uncertainty, the doubt, we don't need a no fly zone. A no mosquito zone should do nicely.
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Pepperidge Farm remembers.
Easily removed (Score:2)
There are plenty of tools to get rid of their "no fly zones" in the firmware.
Honestly it's really stupid that they are doing this, the manufacturer is trying to enforce things? tomorrow GM will release cars that will not go above the speed limit and jam on the brakes when a light turns yellow.
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I'm all for hindering stupid people.
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Re:Easily removed (Score:5, Informative)
There are plenty of tools to get rid of their "no fly zones" in the firmware. Honestly it's really stupid that they are doing this, the manufacturer is trying to enforce things? tomorrow GM will release cars that will not go above the speed limit and jam on the brakes when a light turns yellow.
No, they're not trying to enforce anything, they're trying to avoid people accidentally breaking the law. I have a friend with a DJI drone, by default it goes up to the legal limit of 120m but you can easily turn that off, if you have permission or just don't care. They just don't want every doofus to try "gee, how high can this go" and crash with airplanes or helicopters or whatever through plain ignorance because if can go kilometers sideways it could also go straight up. Same thing about these no-fly zones, sure you could pretend everyone would get maps and check for airports and whatnot but seriously. You know they won't, so DJI is telling them "Hey moron, there's an airport here so this is no fly zone. Go fly somewhere else."
Re:Simply liability (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Simply liability (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09... [nytimes.com]
http://blog.al.com/wire/2013/0... [al.com]
Gun manufacturers actually have a law limiting their liability though:
Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act [slashdot.org]
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This was from a documentary several years before 9/11.
Call me when Boeing is found liable. They nev
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Even though Boeing wasn't found liable, they still had to deal with the lawsuits. They have an army of lawyers for that, I'm sure, but this isn't something a smaller drone manufacturer wants to deal with. Plus, you never know how the lawsuits might end up. Someone could argue that the manufacturer (like Boeing in your story) should've spent $5 to offer to implement geofencing and save are children.
Then there's always the hordes of people completely outraged whenever a drone flies somewhere where they think
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Your post offends me. I'll see you in court.
You don't need to have done anything to be on the receiving end of a lawsuit to defend. This isn't an issue of liability and not anything that any effort to prevent can avoid.
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Because Roi de Janero is a shithole? Even the people living right next to the Olympics are saying the same thing. And they're also saying that it's a total con job. [www.cbc.ca]
A shithole is a shithole is a shithole, doesn't matter who is saying it when it's the truth.
Even with the biggest sporting event in the world now in the starting blocks, the response to the Olympics from many in Rio de Janeiro is anger and frustration.
At an impoverished neighbourhood not far from the city's new Olympic Park, raw sewage floats down a stream behind dilapidated housing teeming with children playing by the water, oblivious to the health threat it represents.
"It's a total con job," said Mateus Braga, a local resident.
The Olympics, he said, "are so foreigners can come here and enjoy it all, while Brazilians bear the consequence of the government not spending on education, health care or sanitation."
Somewhere between $10 billion and $12 billion has been spent on the Games in Brazil, but critics say that money should have been spent elsewhere.
Journalist and author Juliana Barbassa isn't surprised at the public fury.
She's written extensively about Brazil's poverty and corruption in the shadow of the Games. Games sold as 'a giant urban renewal tool'
"The Olympics were pitched to the people of Rio, sold to the people of Rio, as a giant urban renewal tool, a way to revamp the city," she said.
"And what we got was a mega world party that cost a whole lot more than just doing those changes on their own."
Barbassa noted the many thousands of Brazilians displaced by the Games, and two years earlier, by the World Cup of soccer.
Even in the days before the Games opened, demolition crews were knocking down more housing to clear ground near the Olympic Village. Many of the displaced people have been given new housing elsewhere, but few seem happy about it.
A series of new condominium-style buildings will house athletes from around the world this month, but instead of being offered afterward as much-needed housing for the poor, they're in line to be sold to Rio's wealthy.
Half the sewage isn't treated, and even that number goes down when it rains. The hospitals don't have money for sufficient gloves, syringes, antibiotics, so they've cut the number of operations they perform in half. The police and military are corrupt.
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Brazil can't do shit. They don't even have enough money to pay their police and military; they would love to collect any duties from importing any product.
Brazil is barely a sovereign country now. Look at Venezuela - a failed state that is what Brazil will look like in a few more years if things don't change. Neither country can actually exercise their sovereignty - their borders are porous, often with the police and military cooperating in the smuggling.
i guess, (Score:1)
there will be the odd terrorist-trainee who'll get a scolding for trying to keep the bomb drones on the latest firmware.
TMA (Score:4, Informative)
At first I wondered why Dow Jones Industrial has to do with drones, but I guess DJI must some manufacturer of remote control quadcopters. Editors please make an effort to spell out abbreviations, please.
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I'm sure I can find something about geek culture you don't know, either. Not all of us are into quadcopters.
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General Atomics is the market leader in drones, followed closely by Northrup Grumman. If you don't know this you should be embarrassed to be on Slashdot.
DJI apparently makes toy remote control quadcopters.
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You should be embarrassed to be on Slashdot and not know that. The fact that your not should be even more embarrassing.
I'd be much more embarrassed to have a total grammar fail in my comment.
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I presume you mean "grammar failure".
No, I don't.
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At first I wondered why Dow Jones Industrial has to do with drones, but I guess DJI must some manufacturer of remote control quadcopters. Editors please make an effort to spell out abbreviations, please.
I don't even remember what DJI stands for... it's one of those companies like AMD, IBM, BMW, IKEA etc. that are most known under their abbreviations. If you don't know them that's fine, but spelling them out don't really make any sense in any case.
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I didn't - because I read the whole sentence and then the rest of the summary. How stupid do you have to be to not be able to do that and derive the meaning from context before leaping to conclusions?
It's not an acronym moron, it's the name of a company.
The problem isn't anything the editors did or didn't do, it's that you have the reading comprehension and common sense
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"DJI, the leading manufacturer of...." -- it's pretty simple.
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you should check out this really great site i discovered the other day. they have all sorts of informations on there you can look for. maybe they have something on there about this _DJI_ thing you're wondering about?
https://google.com/
(captcha: indolent)
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Err DJI is the name. There's no acronym. The editors did exactly as you asked already.
But, but.. (Score:1)
How will I get my C4 to where it needs to be then?
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How will I get my C4 to where it needs to be then?
With Amazon Prime, of course.
I hear they are even looking into using drones now to do speedy deliveries in limited areas.
Oh, wait...