Conclusion: Trust will be the real test

While AVs present new and evolving risks, those risks should not obscure the potential benefits: automated driving could reduce collisions caused by human error and improve mobility, data could enable faster claims decisions, and AI could improve fraud detection. 

But those benefits depend upon trust.

“In order to build trust in anything, you need to know there's a level of accountability. And to have accountability, you need that transparency.”

Tom Leggett, Research Manager, Thatcham Research

Consumers need to understand what a vehicle can and cannot do. Victims need confidence they will be compensated. Insurers need access to the evidence required to meet their obligations. Manufacturers need protection for sensitive information. Regulators need sufficient information to assess safety.

That may ultimately be the thread connecting almost every issue explored throughout this series.

A transition that requires collaboration

Perhaps the clearest conclusion from our discussions is that no single stakeholder can solve these questions alone. Government, manufacturers, insurers, compensators, infrastructure providers and the legal sector will all have a role in building an effective framework.

There is an opportunity for the UK to build those relationships while that framework is still developing, rather than retrofit solutions after deployment.

The challenge is not simply to put AVs onto Britain's roads. It is to create an ecosystem in which they can be safe, secure, sustainable, repairable, insurable and accountable. The car may be the most visible part of that transformation, but it is only the beginning. Behind every automated journey will sit a complex network of data, infrastructure, organisations and legal responsibilities. 

Understanding that network - and agreeing how information moves through it when things go right and when they go wrong - will ultimately be every bit as important as achieving safe automated driving.

“Let's work together.”

Alina Liebholz, Future Mobility Strategy Lead, The MIB