Public Perception of Drone Delivery VT Research

Public perception of drone delivery has, until now, been relatively poor.  Studies in the U.K. and elsewhere have indicated that at best roughly half of people living in communities surveyed didn’t see the point.

That’s because they’d never seen or received a drone delivery, apparently.  New research from Virginia Tech Mid-Atlantic Aviation Partnership (MAAP), a federally-designated drone test site, and Lee Vinsel, an assistant professor of science, technology, and society in the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences, focused on the community of Christiansburg, VA: the first community in the U.S. to implement residential drone delivery service. MAAP and Wing launched the drone delivery program under the  UAS Integration Pilot Program (IPP): the trial continues under BEYOND.

When Christianburg’s 22,000 residents were asked about drone delivery – having actually been able to see and use a commercial drone delivery service – answers were resoundingly…