The Impact of Self-Driving Cars on Society and the Economy.

The impact of self-driving cars’ domination on our roads. One stat suggests that by 2030, there will be approximately 27 million self-driving cars in Europe and about 21 million in the US. From the level of commitment shown by companies vigorously campaigning for the adoption of self-driving cars, one could see that they are mounding on many of these predictions.

The impact of self-driving cars–

 

The impact of self-driving cars is anticipated to be wide-ranging in many areas of daily life. Self-driving cars have been the subject of significant research on their environmental, practical, and lifestyle consequences.

One significant predicted impact of self-driving cars is a substantial reduction in traffic collisions and resulting severe injuries or deaths. United States government estimates suggest 94% of traffic collisions are caused by human error, with a 2020 study estimating that making 90% of cars on US roads self-driving would save 25,000 lives per year. While this has significant benefits, other health downsides of self-driving cars are predicted; self-driving cars are suggested to worsen air pollution, noise pollution, and sedentary lifestyles, and may contribute to shortages of donor organs.

Self-driving cars are anticipated to increase productivity and housing affordability, as well as reclaim land used for parking. However, they are also predicted to cause greater energy use, traffic congestion, and sprawl. The impact of self-driving cars on absolute levels of individual car use is not yet clear, with commentators alternatively predicting increases and decreases. Self-driving cars are one of several potential autonomous vehicles, and other forms of self-driving vehicles, such as self-driving buses, may decrease car use and congestion in ways self-driving cars are unlikely to.

The effect of self-driving cars on various employment fields is predicted to be wide-ranging. Impacts are anticipated in the healthcare, insurance, travel, and logistics fields. Auto insurance costs are expected to decrease, and the burden of cars on the healthcare system to reduce. Self-driving cars are predicted to have substantial and wide-ranging effects on transportation industries, with significant job losses in these fields.

 

The following areas would feel the impact of self-driving cars: 

 

Parking assistant- 

In the United States, there are about one hundred and forty-four billion square feet of space available for browsing. This space shows that there is ample space for parking.

When they finally come onto our roads, autonomous vehicles will bring a lot of ease and convenience to us. For instance, after arriving at the parking lot of a shopping mall, the car’s occupants can get off, and the vehicle, through its intelligent systems, would be able to park itself without the assistance of humans.

The gross maximization of parking space that self-driving cars would bring would lead to more efficient land space usage. But then, less revenue would be generated from the sale of parking tickets in cities and most suburbs.

 

The real state disruption- 

Because the introduction of self-driving cars would mean more abundant parking space, it may be a cause for alarm for real estate agents. Because of the faster and more efficient transport system, the price tags of many big houses may depreciate because people would now see reasons to use suburb houses. Also, the places dedicated to human drivers in most buildings would have to be used for other functions.

 

Law enforcement- 

The Law enforcement section would also feel the impact of self-driving cars. Washington DC in 2014 gave out about 773 tickets daily to identify vehicles that are unlawfully speeding, making up to about $37.5 million in revenues generated. With the presence of autonomous vehicles, the generation of these revenues would be affected. Also, with the introduction of self-driving cars, there would be minor disobedience to traffic rules, and this would also decrease the need for law enforcement agents, meaning that some people may have to be off their job!

 

The insurance sector- 

Human-related errors cause most car accidents to the tone of 94%. With the introduction of self-driving cars, the number of these car accidents would be drastically reduced because most of the errors of human origin would have been eliminated.

Because accidents would be very much reduced by autonomous vehicles, the insurance sector is sure to feel the impact. Most insurance companies are issuing usage-based insurance policies (UBIs) as a direct response to this. This policy would charge car buyers based on the number of miles they drove and their safety behavior into account.

 

The legal profession- 

Because the number of accidents would have been reduced with the introduction of self-driving cars, the future would witness a reduced need for injury attorneys and accident lawyers. For example, in 2005, car collisions accounted for about 35% of every civil accident trial but not so with autonomous vehicles because not of it would feature. More than 75,000 lawyers take home their paycheck from cases related to personal injury in the US alone. This is about 6% of the total number of lawyers in the country. A reduced incidence of an accident means that many of these lawyers may be out of business.

 

Hotels- 

With autonomous vehicles, fewer and fewer people would see the need to book a hotel. This is because many people would prefer to spend the night in their cars. After all, they’ll feel safer and don’t have to pay a dime. Also, more innovative interior designs of self-driving vehicles would increase comfortability making cars more desirable to spend nights.

 

Entertainment, and media- 

Auto experts and futurists have made exciting predictions about the coming of autonomous cars, and one of them is the increasing media consumption that they would usher to us. This would also be featured in the broad transformations in the autonomous cars that we would experience.

 

Food and package delivery- 

The delivery sector would witness massive gains in the wake of the legalization of self-driving vehicles. One stat from McKinsey suggests that delivery services would generate between 100–500 billion dollars every year starting from 2025 when the road becomes autonomous. A classic example of this is the Uber Eats program. The program has shown how much success would be recorded from the trucking and delivery services with the agency of self-driving vehicles.

 

The car repair industry- 

With the aid of radars, sensors, and other intelligent systems, autonomous cars would essentially eliminate the numerous accident crashes that other conventional cars would have fallen into the trap. This could also mean that the auto parts industry would be grossly affected because there would be a decreased need for new parts. For example, in 2010 alone, the auto-repair sector made more than $76 billion from selling auto parts to replace damaged ones. The coming of autonomous cars would mean that a large chunk of this money would not be featured in the economy.

 

Auto-making industry- 

PWC predicted that by 2030, electronics would make up for about 50% or more of car production costs. This represents a more than 30% increase! With the purchase of Mobileye by Intel for $15.3 billion, we can feel under our skin the gradual transition from conventional car production to a more digitalized car production. This further shows that the future of cars would have a new outlook. Also, traditional carmakers would experience tough competition from companies that use improved technology in their systems.

 

Conclusion- 

Our cities, society as a whole, and our way of living are built around automobiles. The economic disruption that self-driving cars would bring has already begun. Virtually every industry that depends on the transport sector as its lifeblood would feel the most impact, plus other sectors that do not directly depend on the transport sector.

To survive this impending disruption that this technology would bring to us, companies would have to devise strategies and advanced schemes that they’ll use to stay afloat. Government officials and auto-industry leaders are also required to develop their plans on how to make the economic disruption those autonomous cars would bring milder for the sake of job security.

 

Source- 

• https://en.wikipedia.org/
• https://medium.com/