Self-driving cars in UK riding on legal review

The government is to review the law before the arrival of self-driving cars on UK roads, considering issues such as whether this type of transport requires new criminal offences. The development of autonomous vehicles is at the heart of the government's industrial strategy and the three-year law review is considered necessary if it is to stick to the timetable announced in November last year when the chancellor, Philip Hammond, promised driverless cars on the road by 2021. The Treasury's post-Brexit economic survival strategy is to invest heavily in technological innovation to get ahead of more conservative rivals elsewhere in Europe. This latest announcement makes it clear that the government anticipates the UK pioneering the use of autonomous vehicles on Britain's highways in the near future. That throws up huge challenges to the existing system of law which starts from the presumption of human responsibility.