DJI Spark Owners Must Update Firmware By September, Or Their Machines Will Be Bricked (suasnews.com)

garymortimer shares a report from sUAS News: News has arrived of a mandatory firmware update from DJI. Owners of DJI's latest and smallest quadcopter must update their firmware by September the 1st or their machines will automatically ground themselves. The Firmware update apparently is to stop in flight shutdowns that have been occurring. So no bad thing to fix, a safety issue. Perhaps questionable is DJI's ability to brick other peoples property if required. The "Kill Switch" option is already causing consternation in user groups.

Comments

Re:So what is the kill mechanism?

[ShanghaiBill]

Anyone know how the kill is implemented?

I have DJI Mavic, not a Spark. Mine uses a smartphone as the controller GUI. When I connect my phone to the drone controller, the app will sometimes, but not always, check for updates. If an update is available, it is downloaded and installed, without any opportunity for opting out. Some of the downloads may be legally required, such as data for restricted airspace. Others, as in this case, are safety issues, so I don't see why anyone would want to opt out, or why anyone should be allowed to, since they may be endangering other people.

Nitpick: The headlines use of the work "brick" is misleading. The drone cannot be flown until it is updated, but it is not "bricked". As any true nerd knows, when something is "bricked" it is permanently and irrevocably disabled, which is not what this is.

Re:And the Army is really buying these things?

[fustakrakich]

What is the alternative?

Best drone ever... single motor, caged prop so you can safely bump into things, spherical shape so it can upright itself or even roll along the ground. Unfortunately the market has spoken, so there are very few of them.