From April 2021, in line with the Automated & Electric Vehicles Act (AEVA) 2018, the Secretary of State will be required to hold a list of vehicles able to safely and lawfully drive themselves in at least some circumstances for insurance purposes. Manufacturers will be required to check the eligibility of a vehicle’s UK Automated Vehicle (AV) status before providing data to DVLA for first registration. DVLA will only capture the compliance of vehicles in accordance with the AEVA Act as part of its registration and licensing process, and not how the vehicle is used or any variations of automation.
A new ‘Automated Vehicle (AV)’ field will be introduced that will be populated with a ‘Yes’ if applicable. The field will be optional so may be left blank. This information will be output on the Vehicle Registration Certificate (V5C) as well as some enquiry services.
Although the DVLA will be able to capture this information at registration from 14 April 2021, they do not have any timescales of when manufacturers will start providing this data.