Partner Ernest Aduwa comments on driverless cars and criminal liability in City AM

Speaking with City AM, Partner Ernest Aduwa comments on the UK’s plans to introduce driverless Waymo taxis, highlighting the complex legal questions this development raises around motoring offences and criminal liability.

Ernest’s comments were published in City AM, 21 October 2025, and were republished by Daily Star.

“The news that we could see fully autonomous vehicles on our streets by 2026 is not just a technological headline, it is a profound challenge to the very foundations of that legal framework.

“Our current system of motoring offences is built upon a fundamental, and until now, unshakeable principle, the principle of human agency. Every driving offence requires a culpable human mind behind the wheel. The arrival of true driverless cars, where no human is monitoring or controlling the vehicle, shatters this principle and forces us to confront a legal vacuum.

“If a fully autonomous car is clocked travelling above the speed limit, who is to blame? Is it the owner of the vehicle, who may simply be a passenger, perhaps even asleep? Is it the manufacturer? Or is it the software engineer who wrote a specific line of code? The same question applies to offences like driving without due care and attention, or the more serious charge of dangerous driving.

“These offences are defined by a standard of driving that falls below, or far below, that of a competent and careful driver. They require proof of a human’s failure to meet that standard. How can we apply this to a machine that has no capacity for care, attention, or competence in the human sense? It is a square peg in a round hole. The offence, as currently defined, simply cannot be committed by a driverless car in automated mode. This creates a situation where a vehicle could cause significant danger on the road, and under our existing laws, there may be no one to prosecute.”

“We are at a critical juncture. Technology is accelerating towards us, but our laws are standing still. Parliament must therefore act with urgency to create a new, bespoke legal framework for autonomous vehicles that must clearly define legal responsibility, mandate a robust and secure data recording system that is immune from tampering, and establish a clear pathway to justice and compensation for any victims, ensuring they are not lost in a labyrinth of corporate blame-shifting.

“The cars may be driverless, but our responsibility to legislate for them is one we must fully own.”