The government is keen to permit autonomous (“self-driving” or “driverless”) vehicles to use the roads from next spring (2026).
They are particularly mentioning their use in rural areas.

There is currently a Consultation in place, ending 28th September https://www.gov.uk/government/news/next-steps-for-self-driving-vehicles-as-future-passengers-help-shape-self-driving-vehicles-law

Worryingly, there is no mention of regulations to safeguard animals - including dogs, livestock, horses, or wildlife.

I am composing a response high-lighting this omission, and would like to suggest that others may wish to do likewise.

I would imagine that an autonomous vehicle would be safer around horses etc, it's a few lines of programming, you must pass at no more than 10mph, give them x amount of space, whereas humans push the rules or ignore them completely.

There is, as far as I can see in the legislation, no requirement for those few lines of programming to be written, not only for horses, but for livestock (thinking of the New Forest, Exmoor, other moorland and common land grazing areas), dogs (and cats!), and wildlife from deer of all sizes to swans which mistake tarmac for water.

A study from the University of Sydney https://arxiv.org/html/2507.16258v2 found that most research and development work on autonomous vehicles (and autonomous robotic delivery vehicles) look almost exclusively at human conditions and requirements.