Self-driving car companies could face criminal action in the UK if their vehicles fail to meet safety standards in the most serious cases.
New legislation, introduced in today’s speech by King Charles III, who arrived at parliament in a horse-drawn carriage, will create powers to fine companies and give people immunity from prosecution if they are in a self-driving vehicle.
The bill will also prohibit misleading marketing, meaning only vehicles that meet the safety threshold can be marketed as self-driving. It’s unclear whether this will have any ramifications for Tesla Inc., which markets “full self-driving capability” as a £6,800 ($8,350) add-on in the UK that, by its own admission, “does not make the vehicle autonomous.”
The framework is part of the government’s plan to create a £42 billion industry with 38,000 jobs in the UK by 2035 despite struggles to further driverless-car technology in recent years.
For some time, the fledgling industry has suffered setbacks after hyping blue-sky scenarios of robotaxis prowly roads around the world. Last month, General Motors Co.’s driverless taxi unit Cruise grounded its entire fleet days after its license was suspended in California. The state has accused the company of withholding key video footage of an accident involving one of its cars.
Last year, Volkswagen AG and Ford Motor Co. stopped backing Argo AI, effectively shuttering the company to focus on more achievable driver-assistance technology. The decision caused combined impairments for the carmakers of roughly $4.6 billion.
Late Laws
The UK is late in setting up laws compared to other jurisdictions. The state of California in 2018 approved rules allowing companies to test autonomous vehicles without human drivers, while Germany signed an autonomous driving act into law in mid-2021 and France set up a regulatory framework for automated vehicles in September last year.
The UK currently allows vehicles with limited automation to operate on the roads with approval. The bill will provide the “certainty and confidence that the private sector needs to unlock research, innovation, and investment across the whole of the UK,” the government said.
Modeling showed self-driving vehicles could provide a £66 billion boost to the economy by 2040 through increased in productivity and cost savings, it said.
Photograph: Traffic at Port of Dover. Photo credit: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg
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