The UK is in a unique position to be at the forefront of the connected and automated vehicle (CAV) market which has the potential to be worth £42 billion per year to the UK economy by 2035. 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. We have led on the development of emerging regulation and CAV standards.
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, 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 have been the legal partner on numerous Government-funded CAV projects and been authors or technical group members for a number of CAV papers, publicly available specifications and glossaries for the BSI.
What are connected and autonomous vehicles?
The Department for Transport’s (DfT) Code of Practice describes an automated driving system as one that “uses both hardware and software to perform all of the dynamic driving tasks” when activated. While the reality of fully automated 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 and have the potential in themselves to improve safety and driving experiences. Many people will already be familiar with connected vehicle technologies, e.g. satellite navigation, telematics, intelligent lane control and speed assistance 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 automated vehicle technology.