“Trusting the Sky!”

Drones offer great potential as intelligent mobility solutions, yet challenges remain to their successful integration in society. This study analyzed experts' perspectives regarding public acceptance of urban drones in the Swiss context, with the aim of improving the understanding of the underlying values affecting acceptance. Trust emerged as the key to public perceptions, and critical to establishing trust is connecting more deeply with the public through integrating trust-building mechanisms, aligning with societal values resonating with the public, and involving a wider range of experts in shaping governance strategies. As conclusion, a responsible innovation framework and more effective implementation approaches can provide additional insights into how to build trust around an accepted set of values that serve the public good. This points towards an important next step – developing a process enabling consensus to be reached and ethical standards to be established.