Do you think urban transport using UAVs would have a significant impact on pollution reduction?
Sorry for MS "commercial" but I think about tinkering with the AirSim framework. I suppose that the most pressing issue to solve within UAV technology is air traffic control and navigation of these vehicles to ensure safety.
You could run something like a tool liberay with UAVs. That would be usefull and allow for a larger warehouse outside the city center.
However currently we have postal service and food deliveries as something similar to UAV services. Those do not cause much traffic. Most of that is people going from A to B without really transporting anything.
The better question would be why do you think it could?
For example, by reduction of traffic jams โ unless you believe that this can be achieved by that most people will abandon their cars in favor of public means of transport, but sadly, hoping that is quite naive. UAVs could deliver parcels so many people would not need to sit in a diesel car to go shopping.
In many places, people use their cars significantly less due to the quality of public transport and walkable/bikeable communities. Less cars on the road results in less traffic overall. It may seem naive to someone living in an American suburb but perfectly reasonable to someone living in Copenhagen.
How would that be different from current delivery services? Yes they also use roads, but they are not numerous enough to be the cause of traffic jams, so that wouldn't make a difference in that regard.