Driverless Vehicle Consultation

As technology develops and fully automated vehicles become closer to being a reality in vehicle fleets and on the roads there are a number of issues that need to be resolved.

As part of a three year project the Law Commission of England and Wales and the Scottish Law Commission recently launched a preliminary consultation looking at the legal and safety aspects of driverless vehicles. This preliminary consultation covers such factors as:

• how safety can be assured before automated vehicles are placed on the market,
• ongoing monitoring and maintenance requirements
• criminal and civil liability; and
• the need to adapt road rules for artificial intelligence

The preliminary consultation runs until 8th February 2019, you can view the documents and respond to the consultation using the Law commission website at: https://www.lawcom.gov.uk/project/automated-vehicles/

The Law Commissions intend to consult further on the regulation of automated vehicles in public transport and mobility as a service in 2019 with a view to delivering final recommendations by March 2021.

The Law Commissions are statutory independent bodies which aim to ensure that the law is as fair, modern, simple and as cost-effective as possible.