Navigating The Moral Maze Of Driverless Vehicles: Safety, Risks And Regulation

Driverless vehicles continue to raise difficult legal and moral questions around safety. What are the regulatory implications for this fast-paced industry?

Autonomous vehicles (AV) that require no input from human occupants are currently being tested on public roads. Experimental prototypes, still closely supervised by people, are already mixing with ordinary traffic in parts of the US, Canada, UK, Sweden, Germany and Japan.

Technology giant Google alone has clocked up more than 2.2 million miles of autonomous testing¹ since it began developing its technology in 2009. It has now launched a new company, Waymo, to commercialise the technology. Other participants - including manufacturers like Volvo, parts suppliers such as Bosch and service providers like Uber - are pursuing their own ambitious development projects.