On 16 October 2019, the Law Commission of England and Wales – jointly with the Scottish Law Commission – launched a second public consultation on the regulatory framework for Highly Automated Road Passenger Services, or “HARPS”. “HARPS” is a new term that the Law Commissions have coined for highly automated vehicles that provide road journeys to passengers without a human driver in charge.
The current consultation focuses on whether HARPS operators should be subject to a national licensing scheme, and the conditions that they should meet to obtain a license. Specifically, the Law Commissions are seeking stakeholders’ views on whether such a scheme should be set up, how the scope of the scheme — and the term “HARPS operator” — should be defined, and the obligations that HARPS operators should be required to meet.