Engineers are making flying-car dreams come true. But for aerial passenger vehicles to become part of the new mobility ecosystem, creators and operators must convince skeptical consumers that airborne drones are both useful and safe.

WOULD you climb into an air taxi? The question isn’t purely speculative: In a previous article, Elevating the future of mobility, we discussed how passenger-bearing vertical takeoff and landing vehicles are expected to soon expand transportation into new modes.1 Creators intend to make urban science fiction a reality, reducing hourlong commutes to minutes in the air, improving productivity, reducing pollution, and improving the overall quality of life by replacing at least some driving in cities around the globe with autonomous aerial passenger vehicles.

Engineers have long worked on solving technological problems: For such aircraft to be viable, they would seemingly need to accommodate two to five passengers, be energy-efficient, and be far quieter than a traditional helicopter. It’s a tall order. But ultimately, the biggest barrier to the elevated future of mobility likely isn’t technological—it’s psychological.

In short, most consumers are skeptical of the idea of travel in these new short-range autonomous airborne vehicles, even after 90 years of onscreen portrayals—beginning with 1927’s Metropolis—to get them used to the idea.2 This shouldn’t surprise anyone—people have always hesitated to be the first to climb aboard new forms of transportation, whether hot air balloons, steam trains, gas-powered automobiles, prop planes, or self-driving cars. And to consumers, aerial vehicles seem, understandably, more inherently hazardous than earthbound vehicles.