Motorists may not be at fault for driverless car crashes

MOTORISTS may not be held responsible if their driverless car crashes under new laws as the Government seeks to prepare the UK for the roll-out of autonomous vehicles.

Ministers have launched a three-year review to examine the legal obstacles in the way of the development and use of self-driving vehicles.

It will look at the allocation of blame for driverless car crashes and at the scenarios in which a driver or manufacturer will be deemed responsible. The review will also look at whether new criminal offences may be needed amid fears that they could be hacked and operated by offenders remotely.

Philip Hammond, the Chancellor, said in November that he wanted fully driverless cars on the roads by 2021.

Edmund King, the president of the AA, said: “It seems essential that cars of the future will have to be fitted with aircraft-like black box recorders so that, in the event of an incident, it can be determined ‘who’ was driving – the car or the driver.”

Driverless cars may be the latest cause of tension for motorists, after it emerged that two out of six crashes with such vehicles in California involved humans – who were not the drivers – attacking them. The state will allow robot cars with specific permits to be driven on public roads without a human driver on board from April 2.