Jay Obernolte: “Advanced air mobility has the potential to revolutionize personal transportation in the United States. Imagine a future…”

“Advanced air mobility has the potential to revolutionize personal transportation in the United States. Imagine a future just a few years from now where instead of summoning a taxicab, Mr. Speaker, you walk several blocks to a nearby vertiport where an autonomous aerial vehicle comes down to pick you up, hovers briefly, touches down, the doors open for you, and it takes you straight to your destination at a cost similar to calling an Uber today. That is the potential of advanced air mobility. Unfortunately, it is going to require the coordination and cooperation of many different Federal, State, and local government agencies to realize its potential. There are many thorny problems that have to be solved before that reality is available to us, for example, problems around the certification of these vehicles and problems around the regulation of the industry. Are they regulated like a taxicab operator, or are they regulated like an air carrier? Who pays for and conducts the planning for these vertiports? What considerations are there for aircraft noise? What certification standards surround the autonomous vehicle software that controls these aerial vehicles? All of these are problems that will have to be solved before this can become a reality. If we are not careful about laying the foundation for success with this industry, then, unfortunately, regulation will serve to crush this optimistic future instead of catalyzing it.…”