Automated Vehicles in the latest UK Regulation: The Joint Report of Law Commissions and the new “duty of candour”. The UK as the “Marco Polo” of Automated Vehicles?!

The law and regulation are making their debut in the matter of automated vehicles. Quite surprisingly, the news is from London and Edinburgh, rather than Brussels. While in the EU automated vehicles are still shrouded in mystery, the Joint Commissions of Scotland and England/Wales have, very recently, come up with a brand-new report which, once enshrined in legislation, seemingly in a very imminent future, should highlight and clarify the major issues of the liability of self-driving cars. Against this backdrop, the paper attempts to discuss both the Report, with its novel definitions (user in charge, and duty of candour, among the most intriguing ones) and the prospective legislative framework that may be envisaged.

Particularly, 'candour', a traditional concept in medical law, finds itself catapulted into a different area, insurance law, in connection with self-driving cars. Additionally, and intriguingly, the further aim of the discussion is to ascertain the philosophical and moral implications unleashed by the liability of automated vehicles: ultimately, it is not simply the algorithm that matters, rather a complex nexus of legal, philosophical, and economic dilemmas.