Automated Vehicles in the UK: What’s coming down the road in 2026?

Automated passenger services

The early focus of fully autonomous vehicle development in the United States and elsewhere has been on the potential for ride-hailing, or “robotaxis” as they are often referred to, rather than ownership by private individuals.

The Government has therefore prioritised early implementation of one specific part of the AV Act with the aim of enabling pilots of these services from as early as spring 2026. This provides for the establishment of permits for what the legislation calls “automated passenger services” and will enable operators to carry paying passengers either with or without a safety driver needing to be present.

Based on this, several businesses including Waymo, Uber (in partnerships with Wayve and with Baidu) and Lyft (also in partnership with Baidu) have announced their intention to launch services this year.

The principal benefit of an automated passenger service permit is to ‘carve out’ the service provided from existing taxi, private hire and bus regulation, thereby avoiding the very significant uncertainties that might otherwise arise regarding the legality of providing these services without a driver present in the vehicle. But in the interim phase, pending full implementation of the AV Act, such services may need to operate using certain exceptions within the existing vehicle approval and road traffic framework, depending on the configuration of the vehicles and whether a safety driver is present.

Last year the Government consulted on draft regulations to give effect to the automated passenger service regime, and we expect the final regulations to be published in Q1 2026.

Marketing restrictions

A regular theme in the work done by Government and the Law Commissions in preparing for the AV Act was the need to promote public acceptance of autonomous vehicles. Part of this is to ensure consistent messaging about what truly is an “autonomous” vehicle, and the AV Act therefore enables the Government to prohibit certain types of marketing (e.g. using terms such as “self-driving,” “autonomous”) unless the vehicles in question have been authorised as being autonomous.

The Government is keen to ensure that this consistent messaging is protected from the outset and has therefore targeted the prohibition as another area of the Act for early implementation. Draft regulations were consulted on in 2025, and the final regulations are due to be published early this year.

Once the regulations are in force businesses will need to take care when marketing vehicles with claims that suggest autonomous capabilities.

Call for evidence

In late 2025, the DfT launched a further Call for Evidence on the future development of the AV regulatory framework. This initiative, which remains open for comment until 5 March 2026, seeks to gather views on a very expansive range of issues, including:

• vehicle type approvals, remote operation, and when a human may be required to take control of a vehicle
• data collection and cyber security
• licensing criteria
• Accessibility standards
• incident investigation, sanctions and penalties

The Call for Evidence will inform secondary legislation and regulatory updates throughout 2026 and beyond; it comprises 125 questions which touch on almost every aspect of the future regulatory framework and so will be of interest to almost all corners of the industry, from vehicle manufacturers, to insurers, charities, and vehicle operators.

An additional consultation will be launched in the second half of 2026 to ensure policy fully meets the needs of the road users, the disabled community, industry and wider stakeholders.

Further consultations

Following the Call for Evidence we can expect further consultations on a number of aspects of the regulatory framework:

Statement of Safety Principles

A foundational concept in the AV Act is the “Statement of Safety Principles” – a set of principles which will guide the regulatory requirements and decision-making when authorising automated vehicles. The Government issued a Call for Evidence on the Statement of Safety Principles in 2025, and we can therefore expect a consultation on the draft principles in Q2 or Q3 of 2026.

Vehicle and ASDE authorisations

The Act introduced the regulated role of an “Authorised Self-Driving Entity” or “ASDE”, which is the entity that applies for authorisation of a vehicle that incorporates any automated driving features. The ASDE will have an ongoing duty to ensure that the vehicle drives safely and legally through its lifetime. As such, in addition to the vehicle itself requiring authorisation, the ASDE for that vehicle must also be authorised – it must meet requirements relating to financial standing, repute, and co-operation with government and other involved parties.

The details of how ASDEs will be licensed and regulated on an ongoing basis will need to be set out in secondary legislation. We expect that Government will consult on this legislation in draft, but no timeline for this has been provided.

Operator licensing

The Act will introduce a requirement for a vehicle that conducts a “no-user-in-charge” journey – defined as a journey where there is no individual in the vehicle who is exercising control of the vehicle – to be supervised by a licensed “no-user-in-charge operator” (NUICO) for the entirety of the journey (whether or not passengers are carried).

The detail of these requirements will be set out in secondary legislation. Government has not yet set out its proposed approach to these regulations, and how the obligations on ‘NUICOs’ will interact with the responsibilities of the other regulated roles created by the AV Act. This is a key area in which industry will expect Government to provide greater clarity in the coming year, particularly as partnerships between OEMs and technology companies give rise to questions over who will fulfil this role.

Handling motor insurance claims

The Automated and Electric Vehicles Act 2018 created the ability for someone who has suffered from a vehicle incident to bring a direct claim against an insurance company, even where there is no driver in the vehicle.

As acknowledged in the current DfT Call for Evidence, the introduction of automated vehicles will represent a step-change from how conventional vehicles are insured.

Government will be watching closely; the current DfT Call for Evidence seeks views on whether further regulatory intervention is required in the automated vehicle insurance arena, and on whether and to what extent operator licences should mandate the sharing of vehicle data with insurers.

Priorities for regulation

The AV Act provides, in principle, a clear and flexible framework to enable the development and deployment of AVs in the UK. But the substance of the implementing regulations was always going to have a large impact, and as these regulations are developed it’s therefore critical that Government maintains the clarity of the Act whilst supporting the overriding principle of vehicle and public safety.

For example, the implementation of the automated passenger service regime should not, because of its accelerated timetable, seek to address issues that should properly be covered by regulations under other areas of the Act. The interaction with existing vehicle regulations – in particular the type approval framework and in-use regulations – also needs to be clarified.

One further important feature of the AV landscape will be new strategic partnerships, as we have already seen through some commercial announcements. The complexity of developing and deploying AVs at scale means that partnerships are attractive options, at least for the foreseeable future and probably in the long-term. For example, most businesses specialising in autonomous driving software have partnered with OEMs to provide the base vehicle; similarly, ride-hailing apps are forming alliances with AV technology providers and fleet operators to offer self-driving passenger services. Ensuring that the ASDE and NUICO regulatory regimes support these structures will be key.

Conclusion

2026 is set to be a transformative year for automated vehicles in the UK: services are launching, expertise is developing, and the regulatory framework is being formulated. This puts the UK in a prime position to establish itself as a global leader in automated mobility.

Authored by Oliver Wilson, Richard Welfare, and Fraser Eccles.