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Urban air mobility is a hot topic in the drone industry. I’ve seen images, test flights, prototypes, and Birchport plans all over the place.
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But as the actual implementation approached, a panel of state and local transportation departments, community engagement consultants, and air traffic control experts discussed the questions stakeholders wanted answered.from the floor of Amsterdam Drone WeekA California Perspective on the Implementation of Urban Air Mobility.
Yolanka Wulff (JD) is Co-Founder and Executive Director. Cami, Community Air Mobility Initiative. CAMI is a non-governmental organization dedicated to engaging with the community and bridging the gap that may exist between the ideas of new technologies, such as urban air mobility, and the actual people who are expected to use them. It is a for-profit organization.
“Acceptance is not the same as engagement,” Wulff points out. “We accept that we have to pay taxes. That’s what happens to us. But in terms of collaboration he needs to think about UAM.”
That collaboration is critical once the actual planning of the UAM infrastructure begins. Ramses Madou is the Division Manager for Planning, Policy and Sustainability at the Department of Transportation in San Jose, California. Madou said that for UAM to engage with already expanded resources at the city level, it needs to better define value for citizens.
“[UAM] It’s literally landed on us – and we’re not fully prepared to deal with this right now. Should we spend time figuring it out? We don’t want to do that. ”
“First, we have to find the use case and the value. We are still looking for exactly what it is. Is it in a delivery space? In transit?
We in the city are the ultimate ground truth for this technology. And we have to raise those voices. ”
Matt Friedman is Chief of the Caltran Office of Aviation Planning. He says it’s up to local communities to decide where to place infrastructure, but recognizes the need to think carefully about the intersection of airspace access and land use policies. Using existing airfields for city air travel may seem like a simple idea, but Freedman says that in California’s housing-short cities, new homes are being built on available land near airfields. It is pointed out that there are many cases where These new homes could be adversely affected by his UAM traffic at low altitudes. “We want him to meet two important needs, but we don’t want to create new problems when solving old ones.”
Freedman also comments that both safety and fairness are important considerations for the placement of transportation infrastructure, including Bertyport. “In California, we learned from developing the interstate highway network that where we put our highways has a lasting impact on our communities. We want to consider the economic prosperity that the
Ultimately, Wulff’s goal with CAMI is to enable technology providers and the community to work together to develop UAM. As Ramses Madou points out, it’s not easy and people need to take the initiative to make it happen. “The aviation industry is very tenuous. It’s not a world that is used to dealing with noise complaints and non-land use local issues,” he says. “But now vehicles are getting closer to the land and flying more places. This is new territory and there are new integrations between systems that previously didn’t have to work together, so it’s like, ‘Be there. It’s up to people to say “I need to.” ”
these are [UAM vehicles] Will it actually be profitable? we don’t know yet. ”
“We need to figure out what the real problems these vehicles might solve and talk to the industry to tell them that this is what they need,” said Yoranka Wolff.
Miriam McNabb, editor-in-chief of DRONELIFE and CEO of professional drone services marketplace JobForDrones, is a fascinating observer of the emerging drone industry and drone regulatory environment. With her 3,000+ articles focused on the commercial drone space, Miriam is an international speaker and recognized figure in the industry. Miriam holds a degree from the University of Chicago and has over 20 years of experience in high tech sales and marketing new technologies.
For drone industry consulting or writing, please email Miriam.
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