Theft and Highway Robbery
Surely one major flaw is that a driverless vehicle is easily stopped by someone with a Transit van. Just get in the way a bit, force it to the hard shoulder, crack open the back and make off with a new washing machine, etc.
Won't work with this trial, there's still drivers onboard. Forcing a manned vehicle off the road and stealing from it would be robbery, a conviction for which attracts a theoretical life sentence. Plus there'd be a dangerous driving charge, etc.
But it's easy to coerce an unmanned vehicle to the side of the road, and with no one on board it's merely theft; much lighter sentence. And getting in the way of a self driving truck is unlikely to be an offence, otherwise absolutely everyone would count as "being in the way".
Biting the hand that feeds IT
