Why Drones Haven't Taken Off Yet and Autonomous Cars Aren't Moving Forward: Acceptance Decides

Drones can inspect bridges, survey fields and deliver medicines. In some cities, autonomous cars already drive without anyone at the wheel. Yet both technologies are entering everyday life more slowly than many expected.

The same is true for the data centres that make AI possible in the first place. In many countries, people are protesting against new sites. In the US, the protests have become a national movement. In early 2026, the Uptime Institute reported that more and more projects are being cancelled because public opposition is growing.

The technology is there. The capital is there. What is missing is people's consent. This is where acceptance research comes in.

Technology alone is not enough

New technologies often follow the same pattern. They are announced early. Then they arrive later, more slowly and in a narrower form than promised. Autonomous driving is a good example. Since the mid-2010s, we kept hearing: "next year". Robotaxis do exist now. But only in selected cities and on precisely mapped routes.

An old rule of thumb, Amara's law, describes this well: we overestimate the effect of a new technology in the short run and underestimate it in the long run.

The reason for the delay rarely lies in the technology alone. Many companies treat new technologies as an engineering task. The social questions are asked half-heartedly or too late.

The questions behind the technology

Autonomous driving shows how complex these questions are:

• Rule compliance versus habit: Autonomous cars follow the rules. People often follow them only selectively. What happens when the two meet? Does the correctly driven car become an obstacle that tempts others into risky overtaking?

• Provoked emergency stops: If pedestrians know that an autonomous car will always brake, why should they wait? The urban planner Adam Millard-Ball studied this scenario in 2018. In extreme cases, traffic in city centres barely moves.

• Liability: Who is liable in an accident? Germany was early here. Since 2017, the Road Traffic Act has covered automated driving. Since 2021, there has been a law for autonomous driving in defined areas. What is slow is putting it into practice.

• New use cases: If nobody has to steer, the car itself changes. The interior becomes a living room, office or place to rest. This has consequences for design, features and business models.

European universities are researching many of these questions. But the transfer of knowledge into companies takes a long time. And legislators often take even longer to respond.

Acceptance has many stakeholders

Whether a technology arrives in everyday life is not decided by its future users alone. Each group has its own expectations, concerns and conditions:

• Users: Do they trust the technology? Does it fit their daily lives?

• Residents and municipalities: What does the technology mean for noise, land, water or safety on site?

• Politics and administration: Which rules, data and evidence do they need to grant approvals?

• Employees and specialist departments: Who has to introduce, operate and take responsibility for the technology within the company?

• The public and the media: Which images and stories shape the debate?

If you only ask one of these groups, you only see part of the picture.

One pattern, many fields

When people hear the word drone, most think of aircraft. Experts know that there are also unmanned land and water vehicles. The technology for inspection, surveying or deliveries is often ready for use. Open questions concern noise, privacy and safety, and for aircraft also airspace.

Drones, autonomous cars or data centres: the structure is often the same. And the real question is the same in every field: What do people, municipalities and legislators need for a technology to work in everyday life?

What acceptance research delivers

• Ask early instead of fixing late: Concerns that are known before an investment can be planned for. Opposition after an announcement is far more expensive.

• Explore openly: The most important objections are rarely on a predefined list. Open conversations reveal what really moves people.

• Connect all perspectives: Qualitative research shows the why. Quantitative studies show how widespread an attitude is.

• Develop scenarios: What could the future look like? Scenarios make opportunities and risks tangible before they become reality.

Acceptance research at CURTH+ROTH

Acceptance research has been part of CURTH+ROTH's work since the company was founded. Among other things, we have conducted acceptance studies on cloud computing and edge computing. We have also carried out foundational studies on new technologies.

For one client, we developed a scenario of how autonomous vehicles will change the interior design of cars. To do this, we attended an international conference on autonomous driving in Berlin and spoke with leading experts from science and industry.

Our approach: we involve all relevant stakeholders. We explore openly first. And we translate the findings into concrete recommendations for product, communication and dialogue.

Read more about trust in our articles "How Brands Squander Trust" and "Technology Openness Is Not Status Quo Protection".

Get in touch

Are you planning a new technology, a new site or a new offering and want to know what your stakeholders need? We look forward to talking with you: research@curth-roth.de or +49 (0) 40 3600690.

Sources: Uptime Institute: Data center cancellations rise as public opposition grows (February 2026); NPR: What's behind America's data center revolt? (June 2026); Adam Millard-Ball: Pedestrians, Autonomous Vehicles, and Cities. Journal of Planning Education and Research, 2018.