Law Commission report on Automated Vehicles

Comprehensive effort by Law Commissions (England, Wales, Scotland) on Automated Vehicle regulations. A lot of work, and some valuable insights.

Web site with all documents:   https://www.lawcom.gov.uk/project/automated-vehicles/

Summary of findings: https://s3-eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/lawcom-prod-storage-11jsxou24uy7q/uploads/2022/01/AV-Summary-25-01-22-2.pdf

Full report: https://s3-eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/lawcom-prod-storage-11jsxou24uy7q/uploads/2022/01/AV-Summary-25-01-22-2.pdf

Excerpt from the summary:

“Key recommendations

Throughout this project, we have strived to keep safety at the forefront of our proposals, while also retaining the flexibility required to accommodate future development.

Our recommendations cover initial approval and authorisation of self-driving vehicles, ongoing monitoring of their performance while they are on the road, misleading marketing, and both criminal and civil liability. They include:

Writing the test for self-driving into law, with a bright line distinguishing it from driver support features, a transparent process for setting a safety standard, and new offences to prevent misleading marketing.A two-stage approval and authorisation process building on current international and domestic technical vehicle approval schemes and adding a new second stage to authorise vehicles for use as self-driving on GB roads.A new in-use safety assurance scheme to provide regulatory oversight of automated vehicles throughout their lifetimes to ensure they continue to be safe and comply with road rules.New legal roles for users, manufacturers and service operators, with removal of criminal responsibility for the person in the passenger seat.Holding manufacturers and service operators criminally responsible for misrepresentation or non-disclosure of safety-relevant information.”