97% of US contractors’ primary jobsite drones are DJI - a week before a 100% tariff lands

An Associated Builders and Contractors survey run in May and released in late August found that among contractors who fly drones, 97% named China-based DJI as their primary machine, with fellow Chinese maker Autel Robotics second. 36% of ABC members fly drones at all; of those, 81% use them for site-progress monitoring and 50% for inspections, with about 60% spending $1,000-$10,000 on hardware and 28% spending over $10,000. On 13 August 2026 a 100% tariff was imposed on drones with a maximum takeoff weight above 55lb and on systems with thermal imaging, effective 3 September. ABC’s Matt Abeles said a ban or import restriction would leave contractors "minimal alternatives based on cost and function".

What it means A reality-capture pipeline resting on one vendor in one country is a single point of failure with a dated trigger, and the date is 3 September.