The Law Commission of England and Wales and the Scottish Law Commission have published joint report making recommendations for the safe and responsible introduction of self-driving vehicles.
It suggests the creation of a new Automated Vehicles Act which regulates vehicles that can drive themselves and creates 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 would face regulatory sanctions if anything goes wrong.
The person in the driving seat would therefore no longer be a driver but a “user-in-charge” who cannot be prosecuted for offences that arise directly from the driving actions...