China-based drone manufacturer DJI announced Monday that the latest firmware update to its “GEO” geofencing system reclassifies Restricted Zones (aka No Fly Zones) as Enhanced Warning Zones. The change means that drone operators are now responsible for monitoring their aircraft to ensure they do not encroach on FAA-designated flight restriction areas, as opposed to the automatic GPS-derived “fencing” that would not allow the drone to enter the restricted airspace.
A major incident is what caused the change, in my opinion. As I understand it, a DJI drone took out a water bomber working to put out some California fires. DJI changed their software to put the onus on pilots so they authorities couldn’t claim it was due to faulty software
It’s likely to lead to more incidents though, since just about anybody can operate them and will do dumb things with them. The geofencing at least limited the acts of stupidity, imo.