Assessing Social Acceptance of Urban Air Mobility using Virtual Reality

Drone applications are increasingly being developed for urban environments, and drones may soon become additional traffic participants in cities. Thus, drones would be a further component to existing traffic and yet another stimulus in urban areas. Therefore, it is crucial to investigate how urban air mobility (UAM) is perceived by the society. Will the presence of drones be tolerated by the general public? To address this question, a Virtual Reality (VR) study was conducted, which investigates how the factors flight height, visual density and drone noise affect the acceptance of passers-by in an urban scenario. Furthermore, it explored how people perceive the landing of an air taxi nearby. The sample of the study comprises 47 participants.The results indicate some significant effects of flight height and visual density on acceptance, but no effect of drone noise was observed. Compared to the baseline scenario without drones, the flight height and visual density scenarios with drones were rated more negative. The same applies for the air taxi scenario. After participating in the simulation, participants' worries about noise and privacy significantly decreased. More than half of the participants reported that their attitudes toward drones had changed following the simulation and tended to improve.