A new Pew Research Internet Project poll on U.S. Views of Technology and the Future has found that most respondents were pessimistic about the benefits of personal and commercial drone technology.
Among the findings:
- 63% think it would be a change for the worse if personal and commercial drones are given permission to fly through most U.S. airspace.
- 22% think it would be a change for the better.
- Opinions are more positive among men (27%), 18–29-year-olds (30%), and long-term technological optimists (28%).
- No demographic group was majority positive.
The full results of the poll are available from the Pew Research Internet Project.
Comments
Maybe someone from a non-US area can chime in on this...I live in the US and one of my clients just purchased UAV from a European manufacture. We were talking about the public view of UAVs, Drones, UAS, etc and he said Americans seem to be more afraid of them because of the media attention UAVs have received on how the US uses them ("anti terrorist", spying, etc). The perception in Europe is different (seems to be more acceptance) because they haven't been exposed to the negative attention that we have gotten here in the US.
Maybe a more educational perspective could help addressing the future of personal drones? That's what we are trying at Erle Robot.
I certainly see the benefits of drones. Love flying them, just hope that ??% does not infringe on others who fly for whatever reason.
the problem Flying monkey is that for most people that the real benefits UAV are n fields they will never see. (like Agriculture, Aerial Mapping, Search & Rescue) on the other hand personal UAVs are not likely to add much benefit to the general public daily lives.
in the end UAVs are a transitional technology replacing maned aircraft and not a transformational technology lke cell phones. because lets face it cell phones changed our daily lives but a UAV is going to be little more then a toy in the hands of the average person.
Jim you are 100% right!! That and they haven't considered the benefits UAVs bring in the form of Agriculture, Aerial Mapping, Search & Rescue, etc etc etc...
Those 63% really need to worry more about big brother tapping into their computers, social media, email, phone calls, and anything other electronic communications before they worry about drones. Just sayin.