| Summary: | Autonomous Vehicles (AVs) have developed rapidly due to the efforts of industry stakeholders such as Tesla. However, concerns remain as to how AVs may interact with English law. The strict product liability regime enacted by the Consumer Protection Act 1987 (CPA) has been identified by the Law Commission and UK Government as the civil law regime most capable of accommodating litigation involving harms caused by an AV and enabling those injured to recover damages.
Despite this, the Law Commission has highlighted the need to review the CPA in light of existing concerns and challenges AVs may present. The CPA has long been viewed by commentators such as Stapleton, Goldberg, and Fairgrieve as poorly suited to its purpose and presenting claimants with a very low likelihood of success. It appears likely the CPA will play a role in future litigation involving AVs, and so by extension, any challenges arising in litigation brought under it may have a subsequent knock-on effect upon the willingness of stakeholders, consumers and producers to trust, adopt and invest in the technology.
In light of these concerns, this thesis examines the CPA and its potential interaction with AVs to identify potential challenges and present reasoned recommendations on how their effects may be mitigated. This thesis will focus on the requirements for liability (defectiveness and causation) set out in section 2(1). Due to the critical nature of the requirements of defectiveness and causation in actions brought under the Act, the challenges to satisfying these requirements will likely arise in actions involving AVs).
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