The Automated Vehicles Bill: Let’s AV it!

• Comments on the Automated Vehicles Bill, which would set safety requirements for self-driving vehicles.

In the King’s Speech in November 2023, the king stated: ‘My Ministers will introduce new legal frameworks to support the safe commercial development of emerging industries, such as self-driving vehicles....’ This has borne fruit in the form of the Automated Vehicles Bill (the AV Bill), which had its second reading in the House of Lords on 28 November 2023.

The AV Bill implements the recommendations of a four-year review carried out by the Law Commission of England and Wales and the Scottish Law Commission. The government’s response to the recommendations was published in August 2022 in a policy paper called ‘Connected and automated mobility 2025: realising the benefits of self-driving vehicles in the UK’.

The framework applies to vehicle systems that are capable of driving a vehicle, for some or all of a journey, with no human input. This technology