Self-driving cars will mean changes in the law, says legal expert

Following the recent news that self-driving vehicles could be made legal on UK roads next year, Paul Loughlin, a solicitor specialising in motoring law at Stephensons, spells out some of the implications of what this could mean for drivers.

Says Loughlin: “Though the arrival of self-driving vehicles on UK roads is seen as something of an evolution rather than revolution at this stage, it does threaten to tear up the rulebook when it comes to motoring law. It raises questions about how much liability we can attribute to a person if the car was carrying out its functions automatically. Can a driver – or perhaps ‘user’ is more appropriate – of a self-driving car be guilty of something that the software and mechanics of that vehicle was controlling at the time of the incident? Is the driver of that vehicle to blame or the manufacturer?

“There are many questions that need to be addressed and it is clear that the law must make considerable changes in order to accommodate self-driving vehicles on our roads.”