I wasn't a fan when they first came on the market circa 2010 with their Flamewheel kits. Their FCs were great though but like Apple, a closed eco system. Then came the Phantoms, then Mavics, FPV hardware and their proprietary long range link Lightbridge which evolved into OcuSync today. They produced consumer products that were well ahead of competitors. Rumor has it that when GoPro wanted a share DJI attempted a partnership like they did with Hasselblad but GoPro snubbed and came up with their own platform. It crashed and burned. 3DR tried and they failed as well. It appears that the US market reacted by politicizing the consumer "drone" market - closing it off to foreign competitors.
Now to get a comparable "drone" that DJI has a US consumer spends easily over $1k instead of a fraction. i.e. Mini 2-4s.

https://dronedj.com/2026/02/24/dji-us-ban-lawsuit-fcc/

The problem is they are mapping wherever they fly and sending the data back to the CCP.

Hopefully soon enough it will be cheap to print and wire up our own drones with parts that are made in the USA

The problem is they are mapping wherever they fly and sending the data back to the CCP.

Hopefully soon enough it will be cheap to print and wire up our own drones with parts that are made in the USA

examples?