The UK government has announced new regulations restricting the use of key marketing terms associated with self-driving vehicles. Published on 7 July 2026 under the Automated Vehicles Act 2024, the Automated Vehicles (Marketing Restrictions) Regulations 2026 reserve terms such as self-driving, driverless, autonomous, and automated driving for vehicles that have been officially authorised or listed as capable of driving themselves.

The regulations are designed to prevent misleading claims about vehicle capabilities, helping to improve road safety, strengthen consumer confidence, and protect the integrity of the UK’s automated vehicle authorisation process. Marketing communications that incorrectly suggest an unauthorised vehicle can drive itself may be subject to enforcement action.

List of reserved terms

The following terms will be reserved for authorised or listed vehicles:

• automated
• automated driving
• autonomous
• autonomous driving
• drive autonomously
• drive itself
• driverless
• self-driving

Terms such as “robotaxi” and “AI driver” will be regulated under the general confusion offence (Automated Vehicles Act 2024, section 79).

---

Sources: The original article was published here. More information can be found here about the outcome of the consultation “Automated vehicles: protecting marketing terms“.