Identifying the Factors Affecting the Use and Adoption of Urban Air Mobility

Recently, technological advances have led to the development of new concepts for the operation of on-demand fully-automated vertical take-off and landing aircraft (VTOL) for intra-city pas- senger transportation, also called as urban air mobility (UAM). Despite a growing interest in UAM, several barriers obstruct its implementation, such as community acceptance. Although many studies focus on the acceptance of ground autonomous vehicles, only a few target users’ perceptions of urban air mobility. The aim of this study is to identify the factors affecting the user’s adoption and use of UAM. A survey was developed to assess perception in terms of stated time adoption, including choices such as the first five years of UAM’s implementation, a time frame starting its sixth year, unsure, and never. The obtained results were evaluated using first exploratory factor analysis, followed by the development of choice models, including both multinomial logit models (MNL) and ordered logit models (OLM), where stated time adoption served as a dependent variable. Findings revealed the importance of safety and trust, affinity to automation, data concerns, social attitude, and socio-demographics in adoption. Factors such as time savings, costs of automation, and service reliability were strongly influential as well. There was also an indication that skeptical respondents, i.e. choosing “unsure”, had similar behavior as late adopters. The summarized results helped in adapting the Technology Acceptance Model to be applied in an urban air mobility context. The findings provide meaningful insights with recommendations and policy implications.     «

Recently, technological advances have led to the development of new concepts for the operation of on-demand fully-automated vertical take-off and landing aircraft (VTOL) for intra-city pas- senger transportation, also called as urban air mobility (UAM). Despite a growing interest in UAM, several barriers obstruct its implementation, such as community acceptance. Although many studies focus on the acceptance of ground autonomous vehicles, only a few target users’ perceptions of urban air mobility...     »