So – I’d say within in ten years time, (inter)national legislation aside – chances are high that autonomous self-driving cars will be in the public commercial space, to the extent that one might decide to go canoeing down a river, and be reasonably confident that you could tell your car to meet you when you decide to make shore.
That, will be an awesome day.
But what would that mean for the ‘driver for hire’ sector?
I would no longer need a taxi driver to get me from A to B, I can just go online and order a cab, which will drive itself from the depot to my location, take me to me destination and then return to the depot, all paid for digitally.
Oh, someone will need to fill it up every now and then.
Ah, Tesla… The car will just return to its charging/induction dock at the depot.
No humans required other than for the odd internal valet and repairs… and no doubt graffiti removal.
So… Google drive kicks the need for Taxi drivers into the layby, and Tesla remove the need for refuelling with pesky smelly hydrocarbons…
To all Taxi Drivers: Better start retraining now…
Perhaps as Software/Hardware Engineers to fix crash (literally) bugs with the driving software and hardware sensors, or to replace exploded/burnt out batteries…
Edit:
Scratch the ‘in ten years’ perhaps? http://futurism.com/uber-launching-its-self-driving-cars-this-month/