Self Driving Cars Will Eventually Rob The US Of 300,000 Jobs A YEAR!

I won't contribute. No way, no how.

The horseless carriage robbed us of many jobs (carriage builders, wheelwrights, horsekeeps, veterinarians, street sweepers, feed-sellers, etc.)

Before that, the industrial revolution (which started out making socks by machine instead of by hand) also resulted in the loss of many jobs.

By the way, when we say "loss of jobs," what this actually means is "fewer people will be needed to support the old ways, but virtually all of them will find employment in some other capacity, possibly in an unrelated field."

Self-driving cars can also potentially save most middle and lower class households lots of money. People who cannot afford a car might be able to afford autonomous "pay as you go" on-demand car use. Middle-class families with two cars might find that owning one autonomous car fills their needs. For example, after dropping dad off at the office in the morning, the car could drive home unpiloted and be used by mom all day, until it had to run back to the office to pick up dad.

Mind you, if you own a car company (or you're an exec at one), and you depend on selling lots of cars to stay fabulously wealthy, then selling fewer autonomous cars will feel like bad news to you. Ditto if you're an oil company, where fewer cars means less gasoline sold. Again, less profit in your pocket. Autonomous cars might not feel good to these people, but for others, it's a different story.


FWIW, I don't believe autonomous cars are ready for prime-time just yet. But when they get to the point of being really good in their autonomy, then they'll be a game changer!

As automation and the development of artificial intelligence will cause many more people their jobs as well.

More like 3,000,000 I say after it all shakes out.

There will be new high paying employment opportunities for maintaining and repairing autonomous cars and wing nut autonomous taxi cab drivers.
(Unless they all autonomously repair themselves!)

Everyone should tell their kids to think about becoming an electrical or mechanical engineer.

When was the last time innovation had a net negative impact on total employment? It creates more jobs ultimately. It has a negative short-term impact by displacing the skills sought after but even that is a relatively slow process. Otherwise, with the innovation we've seen in the past 10 years alone, no one would have a job.

I don't like self-driving cars because I like to drive. But as a way to free-up time, it's hard to beat, except for Scotty of course, who's already well-ahead of all of that...

There are 3.5 million truck drivers at risk. Add in limo drivers, bus drivers, taxi drivers, uber drivers, etc and the number of potential jobs at risk well exceeds 3 million. Presently only 4% of all cars are on the road at any point in time. Car sharing will become more popular greatly reducing the number of cars and thus reducing the number of people currently servicing and supporting cars. I've seen estimates that the total displaced jobs in all areas could reach 5 million.

Only if you are not planning to live very long, it is absolutely coming in the next few years to some countries. Full self driving is ~2 years out, level 5 with no driver won't be too far beyond that.

MAYBE some company will create an autonomous system that can guide a truck on the highway, but threading the needle in very congested urban city traffic with tight roads and small intersections will be the test of any system. Like the big commercial sea going vessels, there will be a 'pilot' who will have to be called in to handle the big trailer rigs in the cities.