UAM Commercialization: The High Wall of Insurance Flying taxis, a future mode of transportation soaring across urban skies, are garnering high expectations from many. This innovative mobility solution, known as Urban Air Mobility (UAM), is no longer just a concept from science fiction movies but is increasingly becoming a realistic possibility within our reach. The development of this technology is progressing rapidly worldwide, with electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft being hailed as its symbolic frontrunners. However, for this dream-like technology to truly integrate into our daily lives, there are still many hurdles to overcome. Among them, the most complex and often overlooked major obstacle is 'insurance'. While technical safety and regulatory approval issues still need to be resolved for UAM commercialization, industry experts point to insurance as one of the biggest factors hindering this innovation. According to a report by Cleantechnica on May 3, 2026, the most crucial figure to watch for the launch of the first commercial eVTOL may not be the pilot, regulators, or corporate executives, but rather the 'insurance underwriter'. Even if an aircraft completes its test program and receives regulatory approval, securing insurance underwriting emerges as another significant challenge. As a completely new category of transportation, distinct from ground vehicles like cars and existing aircraft, eVTOLs possess many characteristics that do not fit within traditional insurance frameworks. eVTOLs operate at low altitudes in urban areas like cars, yet simultaneously move in three-dimensional space like aircraft. This implies that in the event of an accident, liability issues will complexly involve not only passengers but also people and property on the ground. For instance, eVTOLs present a unique risk profile that cannot be fully covered by either traditional car insurance or aircraft insurance, including the potential for collision with people or buildings, the extent of ground damage in a crash, and the risk of mid-air collision with other aircraft. Furthermore, eVTOLs are powered by electric batteries and equipped with highly automated systems, exposing them to new forms of technological risks such as battery fire hazards, system hacking due to cyberattacks, malfunctions caused by software errors, and emergency responses in case of communication loss. These risks are difficult to adequately assess with existing insurance product risk evaluation models. Operational complexities, such as decisions to suspend operations during bad weather, securing emergency landing sites in dense urban environments, and managing airspace when multiple eVTOLs operate simultaneously, also make insurance underwriting more challenging. In this regard, a review of the international insurance market reveals that insurers consistently raise concerns about the lack of data to analyze the risks of new technologies. This is a particularly sensitive issue as new technologies approach their first commercialization attempts. According to Cleantechnica, many insurers are taking a highly conservative stance because it is currently difficult to accurately predict the scale of potential losses from related accidents, which acts as a major risk in the early stages of the UAM industry. From the insurers' perspective, they face a dilemma: having to estimate accident probabilities and average loss sizes without accumulated actual operational data for eVTOLs. The basis for setting insurance premiums is historical accident data and statistical analysis. However, eVTOLs have little commercial operational history, making it impossible for actuaries to obtain reliable loss rate data. As a result, insurers are either setting conservatively high premiums by assuming worst-case scenarios or, in some cases, outright refusing to underwrite policies. This imposes an unbearable financial burden on UAM operators, leading to delays in service launches or even the risk of business plans being scrapped. Furthermore, varying regional regulations add additional complexity to the insurance underwriting process. While UAM is being developed with the global market in mind, insurance regulations in each country are likely to be implemented differently, foreshadowing significant difficulties for international expansion. For example, while UAM services are being actively discussed to some extent in regions like the United States and Europe, discussions in the Asian market are still in their early stages. Country-specific differences in insurance regulations mean that operators providing multinational services must prepare separate insurance products for each country, significantly increasing operational complexity and costs. A More Complex Problem Than Technology: Structural Insurance Hurdles Moreover, with varying limits and scopes of liability set differently in each country, there is legal uncertainty regarding which country's laws and insurance re
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