The UK's Automated Vehicles Act (AV), which is called "the world's leading" by the UK, came into force after being approved by the royal family. Royal approval is the last procedure that must be passed before any legislation becomes law.

The British government said that fully autonomous cars could be on the road in Britain within two years.

Mark Harper, the Transport Secretary, said in a statement: "Although this does not deprive people of the ability to choose their own driving, our landmark legislation means that autonomous cars can be launched on the roads of the UK as early as 2026, which will truly promote the security and economy of the UK."

Just a few weeks ago, Wave, headquartered in the UK, raised more than $1 billion from well-known companies such as Softbank, Nvidia and Microsoft to continue developing autonomous learning software systems for autonomous cars.

Like other countries, the UK allows driverless cars to run on public roads for many years, but has strict regulations for companies seeking new technology test permits. However, with the development of autonomous vehicle industry and the arrival of prime time, the demand for a new legal framework becomes obvious.

Although the initial basic work was several years earlier, the UK formally proposed the Autonomous Driving Act in a joint report issued by the Law Commission of England, Wales and Scotland in 2022. The report pointed out that the arrival of autonomous vehicles requires a new vocabulary, new legal participants and new regulatory plans. It says:

The introduction of autonomous vehicles will have far-reaching legal consequences... It requires new regulatory plans and new participants (assuming new responsibilities and obligations). Therefore, we propose to introduce a new automatic vehicle act to regulate automatic vehicles on roads or other public places in the UK.

The UK has always been eager to position itself at the forefront of the autonomous car revolution and provide funding for various autonomous car projects and safety research projects. The government has been promoting the potential safety advantages of self driving cars because they eliminate human errors on the road, but it acknowledges that accidents still occur. The report of the United States has proved this, and self driving cars have gained a firm foothold here. In fact, California has also become the hotbed of the proposed autonomous driving regulations.

This is why the division of responsibility is the core of the Act: if an accident occurs, who will bear the responsibility? The "road map" issued by the UK in 2022 clearly states that "if an accident occurs, the enterprise will bear the responsibility", "which means that human drivers will not bear the responsibility for driving related accidents under the control of the vehicle".

Each approved autonomous vehicle has a corresponding "authorized autonomous driving entity", usually a manufacturer, but also a software developer or insurance company. When the automatic driving mode is activated, this entity will be responsible for the vehicle.

The government will establish a vehicle approval system supported by a "completely independent accident investigation function". Companies approved to operate under the new regulations are expected to fulfill "continuous obligations" to ensure their vehicle safety.