“Trusting the Sky!”: Expert Perceptions Regarding Public Acceptance of Urban Drones

Introduction

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), commonly referred to as drones¹, offer the potential to transform urban mobility infrastructure, provided that they are smoothly integrated into urban life (Wang et al., 2023; Wang et al., 2025; The BRIDGE Lab, 2023a, 2023b, 2024). Such integration hinges, on the one hand, on acceptance by the general public, and on the other hand, on involvement of stakeholders who manage drones’ development, deployment, and operations. Scholarly work has examined public acceptance of drones in different contexts and use cases (Cetin et al., 2022; Kellerman & Fischer, 2020; Komasová, 2021; Miethe et al., 2014; Sabino et al., 2022; Smith et al., 2022; Tan et al., 2021), much of it using surveys or interviews with the public to gauge attitudes and acceptance factors related to drones.

Unlike existing studies, our research adopted a broader lens regarding drone implementations by tapping into expert perspectives, such as those gleaned from key stakeholders (Wang et al., 2025). Experts provided a distinct angle on public acceptance, as they offered insights regarding how the public’s attitudes to drones may inform design and policy decisions (Wang et al., 2025). The question was posed: Do experts view public attitudes as a foundation for exploring and defining values, or simply as a way to identify the path of least resistance in how drones are developed, deployed, and managed?

The current study is situated in a research project consisted of three components: (1) reviewing academic literature to map out existing discussions around urban drone acceptance (Wang et al., 2023); (2) surveying a cohort of Swiss drone experts to understand their perspectives on acceptance issues and the operational challenges they have faced (Wang et al., 2025); and (3) undertaking semi-structured interviews with some experts from the same cohort to delve deeper into the underlying values at stake (current study). The study aimed to answer three research questions: (1) what factors, both negative and positive, have influenced societal acceptance of urban drones; (2) based on these factors, in what ways experts have responded to public attitudes toward, and perceptions about, urban drones; and (3) whether these factors could be used to develop ethical standards to facilitate future development and integration of drones into society.

The latter question is important since, as many authors have pointed out, there can be a wide difference between a technology being socially accepted and being ethically acceptable (Asveld & Roeser, 2009; Grunwald, 2000; Hansson, 2003; Taebi, 2017; van de Poel, 2016). Policies and design choices prioritizing social acceptance have often followed the path of least resistance, aiming at a smooth rollout of technology to avoid backlash. In doing so, however, they have neglected ethical acceptability, i.e., whether that technology has aligned with moral principes or values. At the same time, it has also been acknowledged by the community that a purely normative focus—one that ignores empirical input—risks overlooking the impact of relevant real-world conditions, thereby potentially perpetuating bias and discrimination (Landes, 2024; Simon et al., 2020; Taebi, 2017).