By Brian Wong, partner at UK law firm Burges Salmon
The Department of Transport’s (DfT) announcements during London Tech Week on accelerating commercial pilot projects for automated vehicles as part of steps to implement the Automated Vehicles Act 2024 (AVA) has brought impetus back the self-driving industry. The updates also included the launch of the anticipated consultation on protecting marketing terms and a call for evidence on the key Statement of Safety Principles that will underpin the new AVA framework.
The plans feature heavily as part of the DfT’s new Transport AI action plan which sets out how the government intends to use AI to simultaneously drive economic growth and improve UK transport, which we cover in further detail here.
This article follows the series that we have produced following the progress of the Automated Vehicles Act. Here, we look at where we are currently and draws out any significant developments from the recent announcements as well as what impacts there may be to timelines.
Background
We previously covered here how the Automated Vehicles Act 2024 received Royal Assent on 20 May 2024, marking a milestone in the regulation and adoption of AVs. While the regulation behind such technology has been nascent in the UK for many years, this Act set in motion the regulatory framework. However, further secondary legislation is awaited before AVA can come into force.
What did the DfT announce?
The acceleration of Automated Passenger Services (APS) Regulations
The first major announcement is that the timeline for the Automated Passenger Services Regulations will be accelerated subject to the outcome of a consultation later this summer. The DfT also intends to bring forward commercial pilots of self-driving vehicles to Spring 2026 without safety drivers. What this might look like in practice is small scale taxi and bus like services which members of the public can book via an app and of the type that have been seen rolled out with varying levels of success in some other countries. Beyond this, we might potentially then see a wider rollout in the second half of 2027 when the Automated Vehicles Act comes into force.
The proposed shape of the framework for Automated Passenger Services was covered in our previous article.
Moving this process forward will certainly be a welcome move for the industry as the DfT hopes that it can promote regulatory confidence and encourage further engagement by businesses and the public in rolling out AV technology. The press release claims that these pilots could create up to 38,000 jobs and bring £42 billion into the UK economy by 2035.
“Cutting-edge innovation, regulation and road safety” are outlined as key priorities of the pilots. This emphasis on safety is notable as AVA requires that a safety level equal to or higher than careful and competent human drivers for which the call for evidence on the Statement of Safety Principles (below) will be essential to developing.
The launch of a consultation and an accompanying draft Statutory Instrument on protecting marketing terms for Avs
The Secretary of State for Transport has the power under the AVA to protect certain terms, which can then only be used to market vehicles authorised as automated, rather than those which just have driver assistance systems. We have previously covered marketing of AVs here and it has always been a key concern of government and policymakers from the very outset. The announcement of a 12-week consultation looks to identify words, expressions, symbols and marks for this purpose, whilst also sustaining investor confidence and bolstering certainty for consumers. The key aim is to avoid misunderstandings from users about what exactly it is they may be riding or purchasing.
We previously reported that this consultation was set to commence in late 2024, so it is slightly behind schedule, but secondary legislation is expected to follow and take effect in early 2026.
A call for evidence on the Statement of Safety Principles
Alongside the above consultation, the DfT has also published a call for evidence on the crucial Statement of Safety Principles that underpins the AVA. This will similarly last 12 weeks and will consider the safety outcomes that self-driving vehicles should be seeking to achieve.
The AVA already specifies that the principles must be “framed with a view to securing that authorised automated vehicles will achieve a level of safety equivalent to, or higher than, that of careful and competent human drivers” and that UK road safety will improve as a result of their development. It is intended that the Statement of Safety Principles will be used amongst other things:
- when authorisation authorities carry out authorisation checks (pre-deployment)
- when regulators carry out in-use monitoring and regulatory compliance checks (post-deployment)
- when undertaking annual assessments on the overall performance of self-driving vehicles
However, full stakeholder feedback will ultimately inform how the safety principles might be used, how the safety standard might be described and how safety performance can be measured. Ultimately, the aim is to answer the question of what the standard of a “careful and competent human driver” will mean under AVA.
Comment
The above announcements signal the commencement of a first wave of secondary legislation to implement the Act with full implementation now targeted for the second half of 2027. This is a positive outlook for the rollout of AV technology in the UK, that notably reinforces safety as a key element. Both consultations are critical to the development of key pillars that will support the entire AVA framework – the consultations will run until 23:59 on 1 September 2025.
