Driverless cars won’t get UK green light until 2027

Autonomous or self-driving cars have been on the roads of the UK for several years as part of various technical trials, but always with a safety driver sitting behind the wheel ready to take command in an emergency. Now it has been revealed that the first ‘unmanned’ driverless cars won’t appear until the second half of 2027 at the earliest - a year later than the date promised by the last government.

It was this time last year when the previous government’s Automated Vehicles Act became law, with ministers then stating ambitions for self-driving cars to be operating on UK roads without human ‘safety drivers’ as soon as 2026. However, the Department for Transport is now winding back expectations on the timing, while remaining strongly committed to the technology.

"We are working quickly and will implement self-driving vehicle legislation in the second half of 2027", the DfT said in a statement made to the BBC, adding that the department was also exploring options “for short-term trials and pilots to create the right conditions for a thriving self-driving sector".

The Automated Vehicles Act allowing such trials came into force in 2024 followed a report by Parliament’s Transport Select Committee a year earlier that stated the development of driverless cars could generate a host of undesirable consequences, including worsening congestion, and new dangers for ‘less skilled’ human drivers. 

The legislation also took into account a review by the Law Commission which recommended that ‘users’ of driverless cars should not be held responsible for accidents or injuries caused when their vehicle is in self-driving mode. Instead, the responsibility should lie entirely with the vehicle manufacturer or operator.

Public perceptions around driverless cars have been coloured by the experiences in markets such as the US, where high-profile accidents - sometimes fatal - have resulted from insufficiently-developed tech being trialled on public roads. 

Perhaps that’s why a YouGov poll last year indicated that 37 per cent of UK residents say the idea of travelling in a driverless car makes them feel “very unsafe”.

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