New UK law will let drivers watch TV in their self-driving cars

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The United Kingdom Highway Code is being updated and will allow UK drivers in self-driving vehicles to watch TV while their car drives them down the road. What could possibly go wrong?

The new UK rule was reported earlier this week by BBC News. According to the publication, the law is set to go into effect sometime over the summer.

Of course, the new rule will come with its fair share of restrictions. For starters, the law doesn’t let you browse Twitter while your car drives you down the road as it still prohibits mobile device usage while driving.

And the operator must always be ready to take back over driving responsibilities at any time. Early self-driving technology will likely take place mostly at lower speeds. So the driver always needs to be ready when it’s time to speed up.

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But the key restriction is that the new UK rule applies only to self-driving vehicles. There are many cars that offer assisted driving features, like lane-keeping or automatic braking. But these cars don’t qualify for the new law.

In fact, the UK currently lists zero self-driving vehicles registered for use on the country’s roads.

However, the British Department for Transportation told BBC News that the first cars meeting these requirements could be available on British roads as early as the end of this year.

This is definitely an interesting new rule. Self-driving vehicles are definitely the future of transportation and they could potentially eliminate a lot of human error that causes most vehicle accidents.

But the technology needs to be as perfect as possible and it seems like it’s a little early for a rule like this one. We’ll certainly find out when the first self-driving vehicles make their way to UK roads.

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