When the FAA released the Remote ID rule late last year, it left the drone industry with as many questions as answers.  What about new hardware and remote ID solutions?  How will manufacturers comply?  Will drone owners be able to receive a simple firmware update?  Will the solution require a hardware solution or significant change?  What if the UAS I buy today can’t be upgraded?

At the most recent NCAUVSI “Let’s Talk Drones” session (last Friday of every month – join us to discuss all things drone with the experts from AUVSI!) this was a hot topic of conversation.  While some drone operators pointed out that compliance won’t be required for almost 3 years, by which time you may want a new aircraft anyway, other pilots were hesitant to make an investment before manufacturers declare how they plan to comply with Remote ID rules.

We asked our readers to weigh in, with a DRONELIFE Minute Survey.  There are a lot of very significant drone business surveys, and a lot of very official forecasts for the drone industry.  The DRONELIFE Minute Survey makes no claim to be either – it’s a way for DRONELIFE to share some of the prevailing buzz that comes our way from readers on a variety of subjects, and for us to track changes over time on topics that we feel would be of interest to our readers and the industry.

We asked our social media followers one simple question: Are you holding off on drone purchases until you see a remote ID solution?

The answers are split pretty close to 50/50 – indicating that while the release of a Remote ID rule hasn’t frozen drone purchases, it may have slowed them down.