In anticipation of vehicles with automated driving functions being introduced to UK roads next year, guidance has been published on how such vehicles should be marketed to ensure drivers understand the features and where intervention may be required.
Developed and agreed by the Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles’ AV-DRiVE Group (of which the BVRLA is a member), the principles provide an outline for responsible advertising and communication relating to automated vehicles and their capabilities. They state that:
- An automated driving feature must be described sufficiently clearly so as not to mislead, including setting out the circumstances in which that feature can function
- An automated driving feature must be described sufficiently clearly so that it is distinguished from an assisted driving feature
- Where both automated driving and assisted driving features are described, they must be clearly distinguished from each other
- An assisted driving feature should not be described in a way that could convey the impression that it is an automated driving feature
- The name of an automated or assisted driving feature must not mislead by conveying that it is the other - ancillary words may be necessary to avoid confusion - for example for an assisted driving feature, by making it clear that the driver must be in control at all times.
