UK – Further to the Fusion Processing interview in this month’s issue – in which the UK’s autonomous vehicle legislation is briefly discussed – we thought it made sense to append a summary of the law and what it means for the future deployment of self-driving vehicles on British roads. Perhaps the most important takeaway from the text of the ‘Automated Vehicles Act 2024’ is that drivers will not be held liable for how the vehicle behaves while it is in self-driving mode. In a press release announcing the passage of the act into law on 20 May 2024, the British government said that, “[f]or the first time, corporations such as insurance providers, software developers, and automotive manufacturers can assume this responsibility [i.e., for how the vehicle drives]”.

Autonomous vehicles have, in fact, been permitted for use on public roads in Britain for over a decade. In 2013, the government authorised the testing of “automated vehicles” in public; five years later, the ‘Automated and Electric Vehicles Act 2018’ was passed, which placed the liability for any damage caused by an automated vehicle on the insurer. But these provisions did not allow for anything more advanced than certain active safety/semi-autonomous features in a manually-driven vehicle, nor for anything more ambitious in scale than a tightly-controlled demonstration or limited service featuring an autonomous vehicle. The 2024 act (herein referred to as the “act” or “AV act”) was drawn up in response to public consultation and the recommendations of a joint report by the Law Commission and the Scottish Law Commission, with a view to expanding the use of vehicle automation and allowing operators to make commercial use of the technology.