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6 ways driverless cars will transform the economy
Driverless cars are bound to change more than just how we get from A to B.
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Getting self-driving cars on the road will change everything from job availability to productivity, experts tell Tech Insider.
Here's a look at six ways fully autonomous vehicles will impact the economy.
Increased productivity will come in many forms, Luc Noiset, an associate economics professor from Kennesaw State University, told Tech Insider.
Driverless cars will improve traffic flow and reduce accidents, that means less time commuting to work and less time in court for traffic tickets, he said. You could even work while in the driverless car since you don't have to pay attention to the road.
"On the labor side, we are going to need much fewer police and traffic court administrators. That’s probably over a million or so workers that will need to change jobs," Noiset said.
That's a sentiment echoed by David Kirsch, an associate professor in the University of Maryland's Robert H Smith School of Business.
"There will be a lot of displacement for sure," Kirsch told Tech Insider. "These tend to be cab drivers, truck driers, local delivery services like mail drivers — probably the lower end of the education spectrum with relatively few opportunities."
Brent Goldfarb, another associate professor at University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business, told Tech Insider that the adoption of driverless cars will be gradual, meaning job displacement will also occur gradually.
"I know there's a lot of claims that there will be a sudden shift in our infrastructure — I don't see that," he said. "It is true that this will displace unskilled labor at some point. But we do seem to find more things for people to do. This is an old problem that has happened throughout history."
With driverless cars will come driverless trucks. That's something Mercedes-Benz and a new startup by former Google employees are both working on.
Cutting the high labor cost associated with having people transport goods across the country will lower the cost of some goods, Noiset said.
The rise of autonomous cars could also mean the death of parking lots and garages in cities. If robot-taxis are always on the move, there simply won't be a need for tons of parking.
It's actually why many companies pursuing driverless cars are interested in on-demand services, one example being General Motors $500 million investment in Lyft.
If there's less demand for parking, areas typically reserved for that service could be transformed into housing or office space, Goldfarb said.
Noiset said there will be no more driver liability insurance with the advent of driverless cars.
While this might sound far-fetched, Volvo has already declared it will take full liability if one of its driverless cars gets in an accident.
Noiset added that having product liability, instead of driver liability, will most likely be the route insurers take.
"Like kids on a hoverboard that bursts into flames, that's a flaw of the manufacturer, and to the extent something goes wrong in car its going to be a flaw of the manufacturer of the car," he said. "So cars will still need to be insured but the manufacturers of these cars."
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