Presentation
Comparing Text and Voice Communications in Simulated Urban Air Mobility Operations
SessionAS3: Interface Design
DescriptionUrban Air Mobility (UAM) is being developed as a concept for moving passengers and cargo within urban areas (FAA, 2020). Although many concepts of operation for integrating UAM traffic within the existing airspace system have been proposed (e.g., Lee et al., 2025; Verma et al., 2022; Vu et al., 2025) one has not been selected for implementation. Yet, it is increasingly important to understand these operational concepts given recent near misses in terminal airspace between conventional aircraft and rotorcraft, which operate in a similar manner to some UAM vehicles (e.g., L.A. Times, 2026). This study examines how text versus voice communications with air traffic control impacts pilot performance and perceived workload and situation awareness in simulated UAM operations. We found that text-based communications resulted in more lateral deviations from the optimal flight path. Moreover, pilots perceived similar workload and situational awareness in both text and voice-based communication conditions. However, during text-based conditions, pilots expressed safety concerns regarding loss of situation awareness due to head-down time spent reading ATC messages. Together, these findings suggest the feasibility of using text-based communications. However, more research is needed on the design of such systems as well as the protocols for communication.
Contributors
Event Type
Lecture
TimeFriday, October 23rd11:30am - 12pm PDT
Location