Published by international law firm Gowling WLG exactly two years before Europe's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) comes into force, the ‘Are you data driven?’ white paper explores the latest issues in data protection and driverless vehicles and what they mean for consumers, featuring input from leading experts across the automotive industry.

Carried out on behalf of the UK Autodrive – one three UK consortia launched to support the introduction of self-driving vehicles into the UK – the white paper questions whether the industry is being helped or hindered by data protection regulation.

The paper also warns of the actions that need to be taken by those developing autonomous and connected vehicles and any business that uses data. This includes making sure they have a Data Protection Officer and are closely monitoring the progress of the GDPR. And secondly, they need to have a full understanding of the personal data they currently process, and their existing compliance levels. As a result of this, they may need to update existing policies, training, privacy notices and consent forms.

Stuart Young, head of automotive at Gowling WLG, commented: “Vehicle manufacturers are going to have start thinking like social media providers – like the Google and Facebooks of this world. They will need to employ all the tools they use, like privacy notices and location-based consents, and be very aware that data protection compliance should not be taken lightly.”