The UK is in a unique position to be at the forefront of the connected and autonomous vehicle (CAV) market which has the potential to be worth £51 billion per year to the UK economy by 2030. Our specialist team of CAV lawyers are at the cutting edge of developments working on ground-breaking projects and thought leadership on legal and regulatory issues and reform. We advise on a broad range of CAV issues from intellectual property and cyber security to the allocation of risk and liability.
Our CAV team combines experience and expertise to help clients unlock the commercial opportunities of driverless cars. We advise on CAV legal issues from establishing collaborative partnerships to risk and insurance and data protection. Our team comprises experts in regulation, insurance, automotive manufacturing, intellectual property, technology, data protection and cyber security combined with industry recognised transport sector experts.
Our CAV experience is combined with extensive experience advising on low emissions vehicle technology, infrastructure and powertrain issues (including electric charging and storage networks) as well as innovative aspects of Mobility as a Service (MaaS) and demand responsive transport. Building on our expertise in traditional transport modes and solutions, together these give us a complete view to advise across current and future development of transport technology and intelligent mobility services.
We deliver technical excellence and commercially astute advice to both the public and private sectors on all aspects of CAVs and CAV technology and systems.
We are working as the supporting legal partner for a number of projects including VENTURER and FLOURISH, based in the South West, as well as national project CAPRI. As part of our work on VENTURER we have worked with AXA to produce a report on the legal and insurance implications of CAVs (PDF).
What are connected and autonomous vehicles?
The Department for Transport’s (DfT) Code of Practice describes a fully autonomous vehicle as ‘one in which a driver is not necessary’ although these vehicles will be able to carry passengers. While the reality of fully autonomous vehicles on our roads is some way off, many connected vehicles already exist on our roads. Connected vehicle technologies allow vehicles to talk to each other and to the infrastructure around them. Many people will already be familiar with connected vehicle technologies, e.g. satellite navigation, telematics and 'eCall'.
CAVs are often discussed in the context of ‘levels of automation’. The levels of automation (as prescribed by SAE International Standard J3016) describe the level of autonomous vehicle technology.