Planned Highway Code changes to ensure self-drive vehicle safety

The Department for Transport (DfT) has today announced planned changes to the Highway Code covering the use of self-driving vehicles.

The planned changes follow a public consultation and are focused on safety surrounding the revolutionary technology involved, ensuring motorists understand their responsibility to resume control of a self-driving vehicle when prompted to.

Furthermore, while future drivers of self-driving vehicles – the first wave of which are expected on UK roads later this year – will be able to view content on built-in screens as they are driven, the Government has clarified that use of a mobile phone during transit will still remain illegal.

The planned changes to the Highway Code will be announced in due course, while the Government continues to develop the legal framework underpinning the use of self-driving vehicles alongside industry, regulators and safety organisations.