Law and Infrastructure: Reliability, Automation Transition, and Irregularities of “U‐Space”

ABSTRACT The European Union (EU) is making regulatory efforts to allow for the safe integration of drones into civilian airspace through automated means. Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2021/664 concerning unmanned traffic management (a system referred to as “U‐Space”) furthers that commitment. Accordingly, drone operators must avail themselves of automatic traffic‐related “U‐Space services” concerning flight authorization, geo awareness, traffic information, and network identification before entering U‐Space airspace. Using infrastructural analysis, as proposed within Science and Technology Studies (STS), this article shows that while automation is meant to ensure safe traffic, it could also challenge U‐Space safety in at least three ways: by inviting reliability concerns for U‐Space infrastructure; because of the transition from human‐centric to automation‐centric systems; and by being subject to irregularities within the EU's framework. An infrastructural analysis, therefore, helps in unveiling important factors which influence the safety of automated technologies and in critically discussing the role of law in their regulation.