Research Proposal
Dissertation title:
Autonomous Vehicles in UK
Introduction Chapter:
This chapter will explain and introduce the concept of driverless cars. Explaining different types of autonomous vehicles. Fully autonomous vehicles and semi-autonomous vehicles. It is recognised that there are in fact 5 levels of automation see: Bryant Walker Smith, ‘SAE levels of driving automation’. Creating a clear distinction between both concepts. As it is really new concept and there is not much history about it, but I will talk about how US government is allowing the different companies to preform tests in different cities and especially focusing on UK. Why is it a priority for UK to start integrating AV onto normal roads. It will be appropriate to go through the major advantages of AV and also going through some disadvantages of AV.
Chapter 2:
This chapter will solely focus on the legal issues which will be being faced by UK government. There are several legal issues and I will go in detail for individual one. Civil liability, Criminal liability. Going into details for civil liability, who will be to hold responsible whenever there is an accident? Comparing both aspects of AV and semi-AV in matter of liability. It will be appropriate to talk about automated and electric vehicles act 2018 which received royal assent in July 2018. I will look at criminal liability in details as well going through same details as in civil liability. Who will be held responsible in case of causality? Criminal liability of car accidents is being regulated through criminal law. I will discuss if there is a need to go through these laws again to make them work with AV.
Chapter 3:
Last chapter of my dissertation will focus on social, technological and insurance issues. Mostly focusing on insurance. Insurance is also one of the major issues. Current law in UK requires to have third party insurance to legally drive a car. Parliament have to go through insurance laws as well to make them work with AV because there might be case where there will be ownership issue e.g. owned by a company or individual person. It will also help the insurance companies as they will have to come up with polices. Lastly the aim will be to come up suggestion of a possible solution to resolve most of these issues. The social issue will mainly focus on privacy because of the high level of technology involved in AV e.g. 360 cameras, radars and sensors. Which will monitor their surroundings all the time and store that data. The law needs to be changed regarding the privacy.
Conclusion:
I intend to conclude that future of self-driving cars is more near then we think but there is still a lot of work to me done to make this possible. It will be lengthy and time-consuming process, but enough time given I am sure UK government will most likely overcome all the problems.