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Views sought on insurance for driverless cars and other transport proposals in new bill

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Views on applying the insurance law regime to driverless cars are sought by a Commons committee as part of its consideration of a bill intended to modernise the transport system for businesses and passengers.The Public Bill Committee is now accepting written evidence on the Vehicle Technology and Aviation Bill, which is currently passing through Parliament.The application of “intelligence” to cars is gathering pace and there is a strong push by manufacturers to develop automated vehicles which will drive themselves.

Currently, insurance law is driver-centric: all (human) drivers have to have insurance in order to provide compensation for third parties for personal injury or property damage due to a driving related incident. The UK government’s view is that such principles need to be extended to cover automated vehicles when the car is the driver and the ‘driver’ is sometimes a passenger.

The intention behind the legislation is to emphasise that if there is an insurance “event” (accident) the compensation route for the individual remains within the motor insurance settlement framework, rather than through a product liability framework against a manufacturer.

The committee is expected to meet for the first time on Tuesday 13 March 2017. It will stop receiving written evidence at the end of the committee stage, which is expected to be not later than 5.00pm on Thursday 23 March 2017.

The bill also makes provision for: automated vehicles (AV), electric vehicle, infrastructure, air traffic control regulations (NATs), ATOL, road vehicle testing, misuse of lasers and courses offered as an alternative to driving fixed penalty notices.

Different parts of the bill extend to the various nations of the UK. Parts 2 (electric vehicles) and 3 (civil aviation) and clause 22 (laser offence) extend to the whole of the UK. Part 1 (automated vehicles), clause 21 (vehicle testing and fees) and clause 23(1), (3) and (6) (alternative courses for road traffic penalties) extend to the whole of Great Britain. Clause 23(2) (alternative courses for road traffic penalties) also extends to Northern Ireland.The bill and the explanatory notes are available on Parliament’s dedicated bill page, along with five impacts assessments looking at the bill as a whole and four key aspects.

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