Carmakers are starting to take autonomous vehicles seriously. Other businesses should too
When people are no longer in control of their cars they will not need driver
insurance—so goodbye to motor insurers and brokers. Traffic accidents now cause
about 2m hospital visits a year in America alone, so autonomous vehicles will
mean much less work for emergency rooms and orthopaedic wards. Roads will need
fewer signs, signals, guard rails and other features designed for the human
driver; their makers will lose business too. When commuters can work, rest or
play while the car steers itself, longer commutes will become more bearable, the
suburbs will spread even farther and house prices in the sticks will rise. When
self-driving cars can ferry children to and from school, more mothers may be
freed to re-enter the workforce. The popularity of the country pub, which has
been undermined by strict drink-driving laws, may be revived. And so on.
