Some Industries will be ruined by driverless cars

June 21, 2018, Kitchener, Ontario

Posted by: Robert Deutschmann, Personal Injury Lawyer

Driverless cars remain much safer in daily testing that’s been ongoing now for several years and millions of kilometres than human driven cars. The few accidents that have happened have been almost entirely based on the human error of other drivers. The irrational fear of people about the cars remains strong though. The car makes don’t appear to be perturbed by the human resistance to the vehicles (it may be futile…).

The Financial Review reports that experts like Tesla’s Elon Musk , Tony Seba and James Arbib all predict that their will be a huge uptake in the technology by 2027 (which is only 9 years away). While this date and the true acceptance of the driverless technology are up for debate, one fact is certain, the new technology will disrupt and devastate certain industries. I’ve written about some of the industries in past posts, but there are some obvious ones at this early stage.

1. Insurance - Car insurance is based on assessing fault and gambling that insurers collect more in premiums (and the interest on investing them) than they pay out. In a regime where accidents become almost impossible what will happen. Revenues will evaporate.
2. Taxis – They are already reeling from ride share services like Lift and Uber. What happens once the drivers are replaced by an autonomous fleet that is also programmed to make the most efficient routes in real time to maximize the number of rides and to provide the quickest service?
3. Transport Truck Drivers – trials have already begun in certain states with driverless trucks. Imagine the number of jobs that will be lost in an industry that employs 200,000 in Ontario alone.
4. Car dealerships - without the need for personal cars the existing network of dealerships will not stay in business for long. The best hope for car manufacturers is thought to be in creating their own ride share services and supplying their own fleets.

About Deutschmann Law

Deutschmann Law serves South-Western Ontario with offices in Kitchener-Waterloo, Cambridge, Woodstock, Brantford, Stratford and Ayr. The law practice of Robert Deutschmann focuses almost exclusively in personal injury and disability insurance matters. For more information, please visit www.deutschmannlaw.com or call us at 1-519-742-7774.

It is important that you review your accident benefit file with one of our experienced personal injury / car accident lawyers to ensure that you obtain access to all your benefits which include, but are limited to, things like physiotherapy, income replacement benefits, vocational retraining and home modifications.