Embraer’s Eve aware of public acceptance issues of UAMs

There isn’t even a flying full-sized prototype, nor a complete industrial infrastructure. And the regulators have still to define the exact set of rules to approve the vehicle. Yet, Embraer’s Eve Urban Air Mobility is positive that all these crucial elements will be in place in 2026 to start a whole new chapter in aviation. Eve UAM, together with Vertical Aerospace, is in pole position to become the major player in this market. But even with Letters of Intent for 1.825 eVTOL vehicles, Eve still needs to tick a few boxes. Embraer’s Eve aware of public acceptance issues of UAMs.

During the recent Embraer Media Days in Brazil at which AirInsight was present, Eve’s co-CEO André Stein updated the media on the program. But one topic wasn’t mentioned at first: that of public acceptance of the UAM ecosystem. In densely populated megacities like Sao Paulo, Singapore, or London, people might have gotten used to helicopters flying around all day. But it begs the question if electric Vertical Take-Off and Landing vehicles (eVTOLs) will be accepted in countries – like The Netherlands – where public acceptance of flying (by environmentalists) seems to diminish by the month.

At last September’s Airbus

Summit in Toulouse, the topic of social acceptance of UAMs was also raised at the launch of the CityAirbus NextGen. Head of UAM strategy, Balkiz Sarihan, confirmed that “the voice of the citizens, the voice of the community, must be heard.” She added: “It doesn’t work if we say ‘this is great, because we as an aviation company say it is great.’ That’s the wrong conversation. It is really about talking to the citizens and saying ‘here are your mobility needs, your emergency services needs, what’s missing, tell us what is working?’ For some cities, it will be ‘no’ and for some, it will be ‘yes, but not now.’’