In 2024, research by HPI, a supplier of technology driven data solutions found that only 22% of UK road users would trust a driverless car, with a clear gender divide—28% of men but only 16% of women. Trust declined with age, dropping to just 12% among over-65s.
A more recent DG Cities survey, Safety First? Understanding Acceptance of Automated Vehicles, found public attitudes improved significantly when safety benefits were highlighted. Support for autonomous vehicles (AVs)rose from under 50% to nearly 75% when respondents were told AVs could reduce serious injuries and fatalities.
Consultations
Three consultations were launched over the summer of 2025 calling for evidence on the following topics:
- Statement of Safety Principles (SoSP)
- Protected Marketing Terms
- Automated Passenger Services
Statement of Safety Principles
The development of a statutory statement of safety principles is mandated in legislation under Section 2 of the Automated Vehicles Act (AVA) 2024. The Department of Transport (DoT) and Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CCAV) launched the consultation to obtain input on what safety standards should apply to automated vehicles, how safety performance should be measured and how the principles may be used in practice.
Whilst the consultation envisaged a standard at least as safe as a careful and competent human driver, DWFs view is that the aim should be for an improvement in standards so that deaths and serious injuries on our roads are reduced and ultimately eliminated.
The DWF response made some further recommendations, summarised as follows:
- Mandatory software updates with no opt-outs.
- Ensure that it is clear to the user when the vehicle is in AV mode (no user in charge).
- Near misses and trigger events should also be recorded in data, not just incidents.
- AVs should be held to a higher standard than careful and competent driver.
- Data from manufacturers, insurers, emergency services and public bodies should be utilised to track performance.
- Data should be accessible, preserved and usable.
- There should be protection for vulnerable road users.
Protected marketing terms - call for evidence
The AVA 2024 introduces two new marketing offences to reduce misleading claims about self-driving technology. The first is the Protected Terms Offence, with the protected terms to include self-driving, drive itself, driverless, automated vehicle, automated driving, autonomous driving and drive autonomously. We agreed these terms should be protected, otherwise the public may assume a vehicle, say with advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) features such as adaptive cruise control or automatic emergency braking, was fully autonomous.
The second offence is wider in scope – the Confusion offence. This applies to any commercial communication likely to mislead drivers into believing a car can drive itself. DWF's overall response covered the following:
- Having protected terms would assist the public in understanding vehicle automation.
- Will also help regulators enforce compliance and prosecute misleading claims.
- Protection should extend to other languages, not just English.
We would support a standardised kite mark if it were developed
Automated passenger services consultation
The aim of this consultation is to establish a permitting scheme for automated services such as self-drive taxis and buses, with the aim of enabling commercial pilots of AV's (without safety drivers) by spring 2026 and to gather data which will inform the regulations still required for a full rollout of the AVA in late 2027. The consultation also asked for ideas on how to ensure the needs of vulnerable passengers would be met by these automated passenger services. are central to the permit.
We felt that:
- More guidance was needed on safety and how to avoid hazards.
- Data on complaints, incidents including near misses and passenger numbers and feedback must be shared by permit holders.
- Automated service would need to identify passengers needing assistance including those with mobility or visual impairments, or those with young children, using prams or buggies etc.
- A passenger app may be needed.
- Permit renewal applications should consider all available data, at five-year intervals.
Next steps
The UK government appears committed to progressing AVs but barriers remain with public confidence in the technology. Full implementation of the AV Act 2024 should occur by late 2027. By Spring 2026 we will have pilots of automated passenger services without a safety driver on UK roads. This will be a significant milestone which will tell us much about public perception of the potential benefits and risks of autonomous technology.
In our next article we will be sitting down with our in-house experts taking a deeper look at the data sharing issues. We will be asking ourselves what data insurers will need to be confident that they can manage claims involving accidents involving autonomous vehicles and to support this technology to reach its full potential.
In terms of consultations, there are more coming in 2026 including detailed consultation on the Statement of Safety Principles over the summer – watch this space!
STOP PRESS
On the 4th December, the government announced the next call for evidence on the AV regulatory framework. This closes in March 2026 and the AV ACE group will respond.
For more information contact DWF's AV/EV ACE (Areas of Core Expertise) Group: Angela Hanmore (Partner and Chair), Petty Abrams (Deputy Lead), Ruth Graham (Partner) and Mike Scott (Accident Reconstruction expert).
