Developing a positive public perception of UAS is a collaborative effort between stakeholders

October 6, 2020 | AUVSI News

The UAS industry has an excellent safety record, but the occasional bad actor can still dominate media coverage, which can have an immeasurably negative impact on the industry’s public perception. 

“The coverage of bad incidents is so much heavier than the coverage of the everyday useful commercial flights that are happening safely,” says Miriam McNabb, CEO & contributing editor, JobForDrones & DRONELIFE, during a session titled “Public Perception of Unmanned Systems – How to Positively Shape Public Perception by Educating the Media, and Working Together as an Industry.”

An imbalance of reporting on negative incidents leads to kneejerk regulations, McNabb notes, as stakeholders and lawmakers act quickly to develop regulations to control rogue drones. This, McNabb explains, isn’t proportional to the millions of safe flights occurring for every one rogue drone.  

“We have to be really careful about this and take this seriously, because it’s much harder to undo regulations once they’ve been put in place,” she says.

Negative headlines will always garner a certain amount of attention, but these headlines should never shape the entire conversation surrounding drone technology, according to Robert van Gool, president, flyby.agency, who points out the importance of dispelling perceived negatives and debunking falsehoods, all while highlighting the positives that this technology provides.

“It really comes down to highlighting the positives and educating the public, and the media to a large extent, on all of these enabling factors,” Gool says.

To avoid inadvertently playing a role in adding to negative perceptions, it’s important for UAS operators to make sure that they do their part to follow the rules and regulations of the air. It’s also important to work across constituencies to make sure that enterprises, airspace authorities, and operators can use the airspace in ways that benefit them, and are safe for everyone.

“This is a system of stakeholders, and it is incumbent upon all of us to be good stakeholders of the low altitude airspace and to always conduct safe and compliant operations,” says Sarah Harris, editor in chief, AirMap.

Enabling safe operations so that traffic in low altitude airspace can gradually increase is an effort that requires work on all fronts. Harris notes that at AirMap, they’re imagining a world where low altitude airspace is used with more frequency than it is today, which makes an unmanned traffic management (UTM) system that much more crucial, as it would allow drones to operate safely and simultaneously in proximity of each other.

AirMap is also an approved UAS Service Supplier (USS) of the Low Altitude Authorization and Notification Capability system (LAANC) to U.S. commercial and recreational drone pilots. LAANC automates the application and approval process for airspace authorizations. A collaboration between the FAA and industry, LAANC provides drone pilots with access to controlled airspace at or below 400 feet; awareness of where pilots can and cannot fly; and Air Traffic Professionals with visibility into where and when drones are operating.

All these efforts, and more, are, and will continue to, help operators be good stewards of the airspace, and help increase the public’s trust that UAS operations are occurring safely and responsibly.

“Gradually, if we can all be good stakeholders, the public will come to accept it,” says Mickey Osterreicher, general counsel, National Press Photographers Association (NPPA).