Automotive bosses could face up to two years in prison for overstating the ability of autonomous cars under new legislation proposed by the UK government last week.
The  is intended to provide a foundation for the regulation and enforcement of autonomous car safety in England, Scotland and Wales. Some small parts of the law would also apply to Northern Ireland.
Provisions in the bill would protect those behind the wheel from blame if the car kills or injures anyone else while in automated mode, but it would also enshrine responsibility for car-makers to meet rigorous new safety requirements and would make companies responsible for how their self-driving vehicles behave on the road.
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The bill would also impose strict penalties on firms that overstate the ability of their cars and imply that they are fully self-driving if they aren’t certified to do so in England, Scotland and Wales. The bill as it stands would make it a crime to use certain “restricted terms” when marketing a car that isn’t truly self-driving. These terms – which can be symbols, words or expressions – would be chosen by the UK’s secretary of state for transport, making them legal to use only in marketing fully self-driving cars. The actual list of terms hasn’t yet been published.
The AVB would also create another crime, involving any “confusing” communication regarding the autonomous abilities of a car that isn’t fully self-driving. Both crimes would carry a maximum of two years in prison, as well as a fine.
Such a move may be a response to the existing marketing of certain vehicles. In the US, car-maker Tesla has been criticised for using terms such as “full self-driving” and “autopilot” when marketing features that include lane-keeping and automated cruise control, but crucially still require constant oversight from the driver. Tesla and its CEO, Elon Musk, are facing ongoing alleging that these features were falsely advertised. Tesla didn’t respond to a request for comment.
at technology-focused law firm decoded.legal says that companies in the UK can already be sanctioned for misleading advertising by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) and, in serious cases, by intervention from local Trading Standards bodies – but that the AVB would make it a criminal matter.
The motivation for this may be partly down to concerns that misleading messages could come from outside the UK, which would be difficult to sanction via the ASA or Trading Standards, says Brown. Criminal cases could be more effective across borders.
“Making it a criminal offence marks it out as being specifically harmful – there is a similar regime in place for offering to treat, or offering a remedy for, cancer,” says Brown.
He says that the legislation could be seen as covering not just car-makers, but also dealers, leasing companies and even financing providers.
A Department for Transport spokesperson told żěè¶ĚĘÓƵ: “Safety is at the heart of our Automated Vehicles Bill, which is why we’re introducing new regulations to prohibit misleading marketing practices, as recommended by the Law Commission. This will help protect consumers and the public by ensuring only vehicles that meet rigorous standards can be marketed as such.” The spokesperson didn’t respond to questions regarding the likelihood of company executives going to prison.
