Dronemaker Will Prevent Its Drones From Operating in Washington D.C. No-Fly Zones

SZ DJI Technology Co., the Chinese company that made the drone that intruded onto the White House lawn, has a plan to shut down its drones if they go where they should not.

Chinese dronemaker SZ DJI Technology Co., which built the drone that crashed on the White House lawn on Monday, has a plan to prevent such incidents in the future. It will simply disable its aircraft if they get too close to no-fly zones.

SZ DJI is creating a firmware upgrade that will prevent a drone from flying into such sensitive areas. It works by connecting the drone to satellites, which prevent it from launching if it's over a restricted area. Users will have to download the update for it to work, so it's not going to prevent all of these intrusions. But it may prevent some drunk or hapless pilot from flying a drone to the president's front door in the future.

Company spokesman Michael Perry told the Wall Street Journal that SZ DJI will also prevent its drones from crossing national borders. That's something it was already working on last week, when a drone smuggling crystal meth crashed near the U.S.-Mexico border.

While Monday's drone intrusion at the White house was later determined to be the work of a drunk federal employee who lost control of a friend's drone, it prompted security concerns, especially as the area around the Capitol, the White House, and other D.C. landmarks is a designated no-fly zone.

Source: Wall Street Journal.

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