Unmanned Aircraft Systems in the COVID Era and Beyond: Regulatory Aspects of Safety and Brief Hints on Third-Party Liability and Data Protection with a View on Future Scenarios of Urban Air Mobility

This chapter provides an overview of Unmanned Aircraft Systems’ (UAS) development before and after the COVID-19 pandemic crisis, aiming to briefly outline their main uses. It focuses on their safety regulatory aspects, on which international and EU regulation has primarily concentrated, as promoting these devices’ safety leads to their greater social acceptance. Therefore, the primary aim of international and EU regulation to date has been trying to provide clear safety rules. Secondly, some of the most relevant and problematic aspects with regard to UAS are addressed, namely those of third-party liability and data protection. The reason for choosing to draw attention to these aspects and not to others derives from the practical circumstance that they are closely connected with the concrete uses of UAS and are raising numerous questions among interpreters. In dealing with all these aspects, for the sake of disclosure and clarity, we shall give an account, albeit very briefly, of the various regulatory levels, with a major focus on the EU one and with brief references to the international and Italian ones. Finally, mention will be made of the ecological revolution that Urban Air Mobility (UAM) represents for numerous stakeholders in offering green, high-volume, affordable mobility solutions to solve mobility issues.