Legal reforms to allow safe introduction of automated vehicles announced

26 January 2022

The Law Commission of England and Wales and the Scottish Law Commission (the Law Commissions) have ) published their joint report, making recommendations for the safe and responsible introduction of self-driving vehicles.

The report recommends introducing a new Automated Vehicles Act, to regulate vehicles that can drive themselves. It recommends drawing a clear distinction between features which just assist drivers, such as adaptive cruise control, and those that are self-driving.

Under the Law Commissions’ proposals, when a car is authorised by a regulatory agency as having “self-driving features” and those features are in-use, the person in the driving seat would no longer be responsible for how the car drives. Instead, the company or body that obtained the authorisation (an Authorised Self-Driving Entity) would face regulatory sanctions if anything goes wrong.

Further information is available on our CAV Safety Hub