UK Government support for Automated and Electric Vehicle industry and related cyber concerns

On 22 November 2017, the UK Government unveiled plans to invest £1bn in technology projects, including £400m for electric car charging points and £75m for research on artificial intelligence. This is one of a number of ways in which the Government is seeking to support this growing industry.

In addition, the Automated and Electric Vehicles Bill (the “Bill”) was announced in the Queen’s speech earlier this year. The Bill passed its second reading in the House of Commons on Monday 23 October, was considered in a Public Bill Committee and reported without amendment on Thursday 16 November 2017. The bill will now be considered at Report Stage on a date that is still to be announced. The Bill aims to:

• specify who is liable for damages following accidents caused by automated vehicles; and
• improve the network of charging points for electric vehicles.

The Bill meets these aims by extending the application of insurance law from a (human) driver-centric model to one that will cover automated vehicles where the car is essentially the driver. The proposed powers in the Bill would also allow Government to regulate to improve the consumer experience of electric vehicle charging infrastructure, to ensure provision at key strategic locations like Motorway Service Areas (MSAs), and to require that charge points have “smart” capability.

The Bill forms a key part of the regulatory regime required for rapidly evolving automated and electric vehicle technology, a further critical element of which is ensuring the cyber security, data security and integrity of automated and electric vehicles. The Government has started to consider the cyber security of automated vehicles through eight key principles that it published in August 2017. The principles are designed to encourage the industry to work together to enhance cyber security in this sector and place responsibility for system security at board level.

The principles are summarised below:

• Principle 1: organisational security is owned governed and promoted at board level
• Principle 2: security risks are assessed and managed appropriately and proportionately, including those specific to the supply chain
• Principle 3: organisations need product aftercare and incident response to ensure systems are secure over their lifetime
• Principle 4: all organisations, including sub-contractors, suppliers and potential third parties, work together to enhance the security of the system
• Principle 5: systems are designed using a defence-in-depth approach
• Principle 6: the security of all software is managed throughout its lifetime
• Principle 7: the storage and transmission of data is secure and can be controlled

The Government has previously stated its ambition to become a “leader” in autonomous technology. Its commitment to creating an adequate regulatory and legislative framework is a clear indication of the Government’s support for the further development and mass production of automated vehicle technologies.

The Automated and Electric Vehicles Bill can be found here.

The full key principles of vehicle cyber security for connected and automated vehicles can be found here.

We recently hosted a series of panel discussions with guest speakers with a range of expertise to discuss these issues. Our latest report, Connected and Autonomous Vehicles: Navigating the Future, relays some of the key questions, challenges and potential solutions that were discussed during these sessions and that are expected to arise as this technology is developed and commercialised. The report is available here.