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）的变革性空中技术，人类移动的新时代即将到来-使用垂直起飞和降落的自主或无人驾驶电动飞机（eVTOL）进行人员和货物的本地按需空中移动。“飞行出租车”和传统出租车价格的空中共乘概念预示着拥堵的减少和相对于道路、铁路、桥梁和隧道等重型基础设施的城市交通体验的根本改善。因此，AAM承诺通过在以前没有航空服务或航空服务不足的地方之间提供负担得起的和环境可持续的运输，包括沿着沿着城市内部和城际走廊的“屋顶到屋顶”的郊区目的地，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，法律的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、安全和安保以及社区接受度。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，在这些问题上，法律和新技术的“道路规则”仍然不确定。为了充分实现AAM的变革潜力，制定全面和连贯的分析来解决这些和其他问题是至关重要的（也是需要的）。本次会议旨在产生新的知识，并确定关于AAM的重要性和可行性的进一步调查领域。其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的非凡突破，为与正在进行的流动性革命有关的挑战性问题提供牵引力。 它将在两个维度上这样做。 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的和技术挑战，使安全，可靠和有效的运作日益复杂的空域。 其次，它将审查“实地”关切，包括安全和安保、治理挑战、环境和社区影响。 公平和道德的考虑将渗透到会议中，因为小组成员将评估AAM的核心想象利益-廉价，绿色，按需空中机动性-是否具有包容性，并可在所有社会人口中获得。与此相关的是，虽然妇女和来自代表性不足群体的个人在历史上参与航空，法律和科学变革创新的机会有限，但该项目旨在从最广泛的人口连续体中发出新的声音，以实现AAM作为平等获取的核心愿望。总之，通过探索法律的和技术创新在航空新时代的交叉点，该项目的影响范围将超出航空，因为它传播的发现可能有利于科学和法律交叉点的其他奖学金，这些奖学金旨在了解新技术如何破坏法律的平衡，使现有法律过时，和/该奖项反映了NSF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进行评估，被认为值得支持的搜索.

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.