Czech society and drones: experience, norms, and concerns

Abstract

Understanding societal acceptance of drones is key to their operational incorporation to flight space. For this reason, this study measures experience, norms, and concerns related to drone operation on a quota representative sample of the Czech public and provides an overview of the situation. It finds out that a majority of Czechs already has some level of personal experience with drones and that Czechs are quite confident about high quality of drones’ performance in regard to manoeuvrability, video recording, or low noise levels. Despite these, more legislative regulations and their stronger enforcement are favoured by the majority. Public acceptance of a particular type of flight operations is then highly dependent on the operators’ institutional background. Operations by police and firefighters are supported significantly more. Finally, it is shown that privacy is the driving concern compared to safety or noise in the Czech Republic. Given these, it seems reasonable to focus further communication with the public about this issue, particularly on the introduction of technological capabilities, societal effects of drone operation, and the current legislative framework related to privacy rights and new technologies rather than on promoting drone operation safety.