Consultation Launched on UK AV Legislation
A three-month consultation has been launched on the UK’s autonomous vehicle legal and regulatory framework.
The Law Commission, the country’s extra-governmental legal review body, says the consultation will focus “on safety assurance and legal liability”, along with what alterations to the law may be necessary for the nationwide deployment of AVs. It will discuss whether there should be corporate liability for makers of AVs that kill or injure people, and how to guarantee “safety … before automated vehicles are placed on the market, as well as ongoing monitoring and maintenance requirements once they are on the road”.
The exercise will also examine how to keep AV occupants, drivers, and pedestrians safe, possible adaptation of existing motoring legislation, and the apportioning of responsibility for traffic offences and collisions. The consultation forms part of a wider exercise commissioned by the Department for Business’ and Department for Transport’s Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles which concludes in March 2021. In 2019, the Law Commission is due to launch “consultations on the regulation of AVs in public transport and mobility-as-a-service”.
