DJI warns Transport Canada that Canada is falling behind

Two weeks ago we wrote about the 9 question DJI Knowledge Quiz that DJI will launch in the U.S. This is a mandatory quiz that every owner of a new DJI product needs to answer before they can fly their new drone for the first time.The questions will appear in DJI GO 4, DJI’s main flight app, which runs on smartphones and tablets connected to drone remote controllers. DJI worked together with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to develop the quiz questions and correct answers for the United States market. Now, DJI would like to develop a similar safety quiz for the Canadian market and DJI is actively reaching out to work together with Transport Canada to do so.

Canada is falling behind other countries

At the Unmanned Canada 2017 event, DJI’s Brendan Schulman warned Canada that it was falling behind other countries when it comes to promoting drone innovation and the benefits it brings, such as helping businesses operate more efficiently, protecting workers from risky tasks such as tower inspections, and helping police and firefighters protect life and property. Schulman urged Transport Canada to work more closely with the drone industry to develop reasonable regulations and technological solutions to promote drone safety.

“This is to require our customers to pass a test showing that they understand what the rules are for safe operation,” Brendan Schulman, DJI Vice President for Policy and Legal Affairs, said Thursday at the Unmanned Canada 2017 conference outside Toronto. “We did develop our U.S. edition for this with the FAA’s assistance and collaboration. We very much welcome Transport Canada to work with us on what those questions and answers should be, and make sure we’ve got the right nuance.”

“We don’t want to just debate views. We want to come back to, what is the risk that we need to mitigate, and what data do we need? And if there’s data we can provide, consistent with not revealing trade secrets and confidentiality, we’re happy to collaborate on that and figure it out,” Schulman said. “We’ve already done that around the world. Let’s try to provide some information about the systems that could inform reasonable and scientific rulemaking, and not data based on just browsing YouTube.”

Consult with industry players such as DJI

When Transport Canada announced new drone regulations in March 2017, it had not consulted with any industry players, according to DJI, even though the government agency literally had DJI products on display.

“When your products are literally on the table, it’s good to have some conversations before things happen,” Schulman said. “We commend Transport Canada in amending the Interim Order making things a little bit better. We are pleased to report that since March we’ve had many good conversations … and continue to work together to find what that right balance is between the safety rules and also the rules that allow and permit innovation to flourish.”

DJI is actively working to make drones safer and to make drone pilots fly safer. Both Aeroscope and the DJI Knowledge Quiz are some of the new initiatives launched by DJI. Unmanned Canada 2017 is Canada’s only national convention of its kind, sponsored by Unmanned Systems Canada, the national nonprofit association representing public and private innovation in unmanned vehicle systems.

Photo credit: UnmannedCanada