Nordic Study on Public Acceptance of Autonomous Drones

Drones are new phenomenon in public spaces. Adoption of this kind of new technologies requires public acceptance. Drones and other unmanned aerial systems may have various impacts on people’s living environments. Furthermore, public is exposed to disadvantages of drones. Public acceptance may be expressed as positive or negative attitude by majority of the citizens towards the new technology or service or as rapid adoption of it in everyday life. In various parts of the globe, in cities and in rural areas drones as emerging technologies are perceived differently, although similar kinds of concerns also appear. Public acceptance studies of drones have been conducted mostly in highly urbanized environments like in Singapore and in European cities. This paper presents results of a Nordic survey study (N = 1000) conducted in Sweden and in Finland. The survey aims at understanding the level of acceptance of different uses of drones in public spaces and the main concerns and benefits related to emerging UAM technologies. The study shows that even though the general attitude towards drones is quite positive, privacy and safety are the main concerns by Nordic citizens. Also, for what purpose and by whom drones are operated, affects the acceptability significantly. The study concludes that there is a need for regulations that safeguard public interests in addition to considering privacy in design, and quiet environmentally friendly drones.