Low-Altitude Economy Research

Every technology adoption model in the last decade predicted the same thing: perceived risk deters adoption. We set out to test this for urban air mobility with 2,609 respondents (93.1% recovery rate, KMO=0.951). The TAM–SEM model proved the opposite—risk perception positively drives willingness to adopt (β=0.262, p<0.001). People who see the risk also see the reward.

We cross-validated with 1,695 Bilibili comments mined via SnowNLP sentiment analysis, confirming the paradox in public discourse. The finding challenged a decade of technology adoption literature and earned a Provincial First Prize. We delivered 4-pillar policy recommendations covering airspace management, infrastructure, regulation, and public participation.