Whack-a-drone

The US tried to ban Chinese drones. Brendan Carr can’t keep them grounded. is a senior editor and founding member of The Verge who covers gadgets, games, and toys. He spent 15 years editing the likes of CNET, Gizmodo, and Engadget. In Pasadena, California, there’s a cute red brick courtyard where one storefront isn’t like the rest. The glass doors open onto a sparse industrial hallway, which leads to a sunlit foyer with a large spiral staircase. Go up, and you’ll see a typical coworking space: open tables, healthy snacks, a collection of meeting rooms with glass walls. Follow one hallway most of the way back, and you’ll find Office 18. There are no signs of life in this tiny private office that’s supposed to be the headquarters of Odyssey Robot, an upstart US drone company. We saw three small desks and chairs, but no power strips, no monitors, no keyboards or chargers or decorations. Two of the desks were covered with sealed cardboard packages. This room is the latest proof: The FCC’s ban on foreign-made drones is a bad joke. This is where Odyssey Robot claimed to be manufacturing drones. On December 22nd, 2025, the US government claimed —…