Conference: Advanced Air Mobility: Will Law Lift or Ground a New Era of Human Transportation?

随着投资涌入被称为先进空中交通（AAM）的变革性机载技术，人类移动的新时代即将到来。先进空中交通是指使用自动或无人驾驶的垂直起降电动飞机（eVTOL），在当地按需运送人员和货物。与公路、铁路、桥梁和隧道等重型基础设施相比，“飞行出租车”和传统出租车价格的空中拼车概念预示着拥堵的减少，并从根本上改善城市交通体验。因此，AAM承诺通过在以前没有航空服务或服务不足的地方之间提供经济实惠且环境可持续的交通，包括沿着城市和城际走廊的“屋顶到屋顶”郊区目的地，使飞行民主化。从表面上看，工程挑战是实现清洁、可靠、高速空中交通网络的最大障碍。但事实上，法律和监管问题是最大的阻力。这些问题包括财产问题（例如，空域和土地使用）、管辖权和联邦制、安全和保障以及社区接受度。还涉及一些辅助问题，包括网络安全、人工智能、犯罪和警务，以及社会和经济公平，这些问题的法律和新技术的“道路规则”仍然不确定。为了实现AAM的全部变革潜力，制定针对这些问题和其他问题的全面和连贯的分析是至关重要的（也是需要的）。这次会议旨在产生新的知识，并确定有关AAM的重要性和可行性的进一步调查领域。它的目标是通过收集跨学科的观点，就如何（重新）校准民用航空运输的法律监管框架以及航空工程方面的非凡突破，为与正在进行的机动性革命相关的挑战性问题提供牵引。它会在二维空间中这样做。首先，它将研究“地面上”的问题，包括评估已知的和预期的法律和技术挑战，以实现日益复杂的空域的安全、可靠和高效运行。其次，它将审查“实地”关注的问题，包括安全和保障、治理挑战、环境和社区影响。公平和伦理的考虑将贯穿整个会议，因为小组成员将评估自动驾驶汽车的核心设想利益——廉价、绿色、按需空中交通——是否对所有社会人口都具有包容性和可及性。与此相关，鉴于女性和来自代表性不足群体的个人在历史上参与航空、法律和科学领域变革性创新发展的机会有限，该项目有意突出来自最广泛的人口连续体的新声音，以实现AAM作为准入均衡器的核心愿望。总而言之，通过探索航空新时代法律和技术创新的交叉点，本项目的影响范围将超出航空领域，因为它所传播的研究结果可能有利于科学和法律交叉点的其他学术研究，这些学术研究旨在了解新技术如何破坏法律平衡，使现有法律过时，以及/或需要创建新的规则和框架来解释开创性的发明。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

A new era of human mobility is on the horizon as investment pours into transformative airborne technologies referred to as advanced air mobility (AAM)—the local, on-demand movement of people and goods by air using autonomous or uncrewed electric aircraft that take off and land vertically (eVTOL). “Flying taxis” and the concept of aerial ridesharing at traditional taxi prices portend a reduction in congestion and a radically improved urban mobility experience relative to heavy-infrastructure approaches such as roads, rails, bridges, and tunnels. AAM thus promises to democratize flight by offering affordable and environmentally sustainable transportation between places previously not served or underserved by aviation, including “rooftop-to-rooftop” suburban destinations along intracity and intercity corridors. Engineering challenges ostensibly present the highest hurdles to achieving clean, reliable, high-speed, air mobility networks. But, in fact, legal and regulatory issues present the greatest headwinds. These include problems of property (e.g., airspace and land use), jurisdiction and federalism, safety and security, and community acceptance. Also implicated are auxiliary issues including cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, crime and policing, and social and economic equity where law and the “rules of the road” for new technologies are still indeterminate. To realize the full transformative potential of AAM, formulating comprehensive and cohesive analysis addressing these and other matters is critical (and wanting).This conference seeks to generate new knowledge and identify further areas of inquiry with respect to the significance and feasibility of AAM. Its goal is to provide traction on challenging questions relating to an ongoing revolution in mobility by gathering perspectives from across disciplines about how to (re)calibrate the legal-regulatory framework for civil air transport alongside extraordinary breakthroughs in aeronautical engineering. It will do so in two dimensions. First it will study “above the ground” issues, including an evaluation of known and anticipated legal and technical challenges in enabling the safe, secure, and efficient operation of an increasingly complex airspace. Second, it will examine “on the ground” concerns including safety and security, governance challenges, the environment, and community impact. Equitable and ethical considerations will permeate the conference as panelists will assess whether the central imagined benefit of AAM—inexpensive, green, on-demand aerial mobility—is inclusive and accessible across all social demographics. Relatedly, whereas women and individuals from underrepresented groups have had limited opportunities to participate in the development of transformative innovations in aviation, law, and science historically, this project is intentional about featuring new voices from the broadest demographic continuum so as to effect the core aspiration of AAM as an equalizer of access. In all, by exploring the intersection of legal and technological innovation in a new era of aviation, the reach of this project will extend beyond aviation as the findings it disseminates could benefit other scholarship at the intersection of science and law that seeks to understand how new technology disrupts legal equilibria, renders existing laws obsolete, and/or requires the creation of new rules and frameworks to account for pioneering inventions.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.