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Pathway to Driverless Cars - Government consultation response

10/01/2017

On 11 July 2016 the Government consulted on proposals to support Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) and Automated Vehicle Technology (AVT).

Keoghs has been heavily involved in meetings with both the Department for Transport (DfT) and the Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CCAV), as well as being part of the legal working group advising the ABI on the consultation. Our consultation response can be accessed through the link at the end.

The consultation comprised of three sections:

  1. The general approach to regulatory reform. It outlined the plan to bring in a rolling programme of regulatory reform, removing barriers to the introduction of ADAS and AVT.
  2. A series of proposals relating to insurance for automated vehicles. These included a proposal to extend compulsory motor insurance for automated vehicles to include product liability, alongside more detailed proposals concerning ‘state of the art’ defence, public sector liability and hacking, among others.
  3. The consultation highlighted elements of the regulatory framework for driving implicated by the arrival of near-to-market ADAS. It sought views on what clarifications and amendments to these regulations and rules were needed to facilitate the introduction of remote control parking, motorway pilot and platooning.

The CCAV Government response confirms that:

  1. The Government will regulate on a rolling programme of reform. This will help to facilitate the introduction of innovative new technologies in a safe, agile and evidence-based manner for the benefit of UK consumers and business.
  2. Compulsory motor vehicle insurance will be extended to create a single insurer model to protect victims where the AV causes a crash in automated mode. The victim will have a direct right against the motor insurer.  The insurer in turn will have a right of recovery against the responsible party, to the extent there is a liability under existing laws, including under product liability laws.
  3. Our views expressed in support of the clarification and amendment of a number of rules and regulations have been accepted. Further consultation on specific amendment proposals will follow.

The compulsory motor vehicle insurance response is of particular importance as it raised a number of issues. The Government’s initial proposal was to extend compulsory motor insurance to cover product liability to give motorists cover when they have handed full control over to the vehicle (i.e. they are out-of-the-loop). In that way, motorists (or their insurers) could then rely on courts to apply the existing rules of product liability (under the Consumer Protection Act) and negligence, under common law, to determine who should be responsible.

We argued that extending it to product liability raised a number of difficulties and thankfully Government has listened. They now propose to supplement compulsory motor insurance to include the use of AVs, and establish a single insurer model, where an insurer covers both the driver’s use of the vehicle and the AVT.

Keoghs Comment

This will mean that:  

  • Part VI of the Road Traffic Act 1988 will be amended to require compulsory insurance to cover the driver for negligent acts and the AV if it hits someone/something whilst driving without driver input.
  • The cover for the AV will kick in to pick up damage to third party property, injury to third parties and injury to the passengers in the AV (the “claimants”). 
  • It is proposed that the claimants will have a direct claim against the insurer if the AV hits someone/something whilst driving without driver input.  This cause of action will have to be embodied in a statute as currently there is no direct cause of action for this situation in English Law or existing statutes.
  • The insurer can pursue the manufacturer for the sums they pay out if the accident was caused by a manufacturing defect in the AV.  This will, again, require implementation by statute.

We shall continue to engage with the CCAV going forwards and shall advise you of further developments in due course.

For further details please contact Matthew Rogers on the details above, or alternatively Howard Dean.

Useful links:

Pathway to driverless cars consultation - Government response

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/581577/pathway-to-driverless-cars-consultation-response.pdf

Keoghs response to consultation

http://keoghs.co.uk/keoghs-insight/client-alerts/Pathway-to-Driverless-Cars-Keoghs-Response?page=2&type_of_insight=client-alerts

(please note clients will need to be logged into the website to view this page. Please contact Sadie Riley (sriley@keoghs.co.uk if you have any issues with the log in)

Matthew Rogers
Author

Matthew Rogers
Partner
Property Risks & Coverage

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