Pricey Elon Musk,
As a reporter who has lined the Drone Trade for 9 years, first with DroneDJ, now with DroneXL, I’m writing to you on behalf of drone professionals, leisure pilots, and First Responders. The U.S. drone sector faces a disaster, and we consider you—by means of your management at SpaceX, Tesla, X, and xAI—are the one to resolve it. With Chinese language drone big DJI susceptible to being pushed out of the U.S., we lack home options to help vital operations, from saving lives to making sure nationwide safety in potential drone conflicts.
A Rising Void within the U.S. Drone Market
The potential exclusion of Chinese language drone maker DJI, a dominant participant within the world drone market, creates a major hole. As we harassed in a current dialogue on X the stakes are excessive: “Immediately banning @DJIGlobal drones will value loads of lives within the US. Fewer individuals can be saved! Fewer first responders can be saved secure!”
This assertion displays the truth that drones are very important for search-and-rescue missions, catastrophe response, and legislation enforcement operations. For instance, drones geared up with thermal imaging can find lacking hikers in dense forests or spot wildfires earlier than they unfold, typically masking areas of as much as 5 sq. miles in a single flight. With out dependable drones, these capabilities diminish, placing lives in danger.
Previous U.S. efforts to fill this void have faltered. GoPro’s try and enter the drone market with its Karma drone failed on account of technical points and poor market match, resulting in its discontinuation in 2018. Skydio, as soon as a promising U.S. drone maker, exited the buyer market in 2023, unable to compete with DJI’s scale and pricing.
As we defined on X, “At the moment, no US drone maker, together with @SkydioHQ and @BrincDrones, would be capable of fill the void.” This underscores a harsh fact: the U.S. lacks a drone producer able to assembly each client {and professional} calls for on a home, not to mention a worldwide stage.
Why You, Elon, Are the Reply
Your monitor file proves you possibly can succeed the place others have failed. With Tesla, you entered the fiercely aggressive U.S. automotive business and constructed an organization that now leads in electrical car manufacturing, delivering over 1.8 million automobiles globally in 2024 alone. This success stemmed out of your capability to mix deep monetary sources, cutting-edge engineering, and unwavering dedication—qualities the business desperately wants. The U.S. drone business wants somebody such as you. Somebody with deep pockets, engineering expertise, and dedication to begin an actual US drone firm!
The Want for a Self-Sustaining U.S. Drone Chief
The U.S. drone business doesn’t want one other firm propped up by packages like Blue sUAS or Inexperienced sUAS, which depend on legislative help and lobbying to outlive. As an alternative, we want a producer that may “fly utilizing its personal wings”—one which competes globally by means of innovation and effectivity.
Think about a U.S. drone firm underneath your management, producing unmanned plane with superior AI autonomy, long-range capabilities (assume 20-mile flight ranges), and modular payloads for all the things from agricultural mapping to army reconnaissance. Such an organization may rival worldwide gamers, making certain the U.S. isn’t left weak in future drone conflicts, the place unmanned programs are already reshaping warfare.
A Name to Motion
Along with your current commitments in Washington, D.C., easing, main one other enterprise aligns together with your confirmed capability to handle a number of enterprises. The drone business is a problem worthy of your skills, and the stakes couldn’t be increased. As somebody who has witnessed the business’s struggles firsthand, I can say with confidence: nobody is best positioned to succeed than you. Will you step as much as construct the U.S. drone firm we urgently want?
Sincerely,
Haye Kesteloo
Founding father of DroneXL
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