If you are lucky enough to own a drone, it’s more than likely that it’s made in China.
But then that shouldn’t come as a surprise seeing that the country is the world’s manufacturing hub and the biggest toy manufacturer. Not that drones are toys per se.
Media reports on “drone wars” have caused much moral debate.
Recently newspaper China Daily reported China was one of the largest exporters of military or combat drones and was preparing to place a new model, the TYW-1, on the international market.
It was developed by one of China’s top institutes for science and technology, Beihang University in Beijing.
The BZK-005 is widely used by the People’s Liberation Army and has performed many operations, the newspaper reported. The drone will be placed on the international market in 2018.
But China is also home to the Da-Jiang Innovations, a company based in Shenzhen which is leading the commercial drone industry.
Forbes has even accorded founder and chief executive of the company Frank Wang the title - “billionaire drone overlord”.
Wang is the world’s first consumer drone billionaire. He founded the company in his dorm room while at university in Hong Kong. He has been fascinated with radio control aircrafts since he was a boy. His hobby has become his life’s work.
DJI’s drones have been used in Hollywood blockbusters like the latest Star Wars film and Game of Thrones. Its drones are also used in the agriculture sector to spray crops. According to a report by PricewaterhouseCoopers, the global market for commercial applications of drone technology is estimated at about $2bn (R26.84bn) and will swell to as much as $127bn by 2020.
The report said that in Switzerland, drones have replaced postal carriers in hard-to-reach mountain regions. Drone-based applications are also used in the movie industry to generate special effects. It can be used for marketing, photography and movies.
The media have covered stories on drones broadcasting live aerial footage at events like the Golden Globes; relief workers using these vehicles to map the destruction during disasters like Nepal’s 7.8-magnitude earthquake and helping scientists gather information on climate change.
Facebook have indicated its own UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) will provide wireless internet to rural Africa. Last month Amazon did its first public demonstration of a drone delivery of some of its products in the US.
As this tech trend continues to spiral many countries are hard pressed to put drone codes in place. There have been many reports of drones disrupting air traffic around the world. These flying objects have even brought the US’s White House security into question when a drone landed on the lawn of the president’s home. In China, there are various regulations. Police even resort to hardline tactics using anti-drone guns that jam the control signals, forcing the trespassing drones to land automatically.
In South Africa, the Civil Aviation Authority has warned that most urban areas are no-fly zones for drones. So you can’t fly your toy in the back yard. The penalties are stiff. Failure to adhere to civil aviation regulations could result in a 10-year prison sentence or a R50 000 fine. But human rights organisations and activists have expressed concern over the possible infringement of privacy laws, specifically that the state would have increasingly greater capability to collect information on its citizens. Other concerns are that individuals may also infringe on privacy. They warn drone technology,
regardless of its purpose, has the ability to collect and process all sorts of information. So as more of these air-bound robots populate our skies, law-makers have their work cut out. Much more than the ability to jam these devices will be required.
Melanie Peters is the Live Editor of Weekend Argus. She is on a 10-month scholarship with the China Africa Press Centre. Instagram: mels_chinese_takeout