Autonomous cars are coming, this video of a Tesla in autonomous mode makes the point

The take-up of autonomous cars will be super-fast when it becomes clear they are safer than traditional cars — and this video illustrates the point.

Why would you not prefer an autonomous car if it could be proven they are safer than cars driven by the bipedal ape we call humans?
Part of the problem is the so-called Lake Wobegon effect —named after a radio series based on a town where the men are all more intelligent than average and the women more beautiful than average. We think we are better than average — it is human nature. As Svenson found in a survey he carried, of the US students he questioned, 93 per cent thought they were better than average drivers. Sixty-nine per cent of Swedish students thought they were better than average.

In other words, even when data proves autonomous cars are safer than people- driven cars, many will react by saying "yes, but I am a really good driver. The change will probably be forced by insurance — the cost of insuring an autonomous car will be much less.

But this video illustrates what will become an ever more popular narrative this decade. The video shows a Tesla car in autonomous mode, avoiding a nasty accident — be warned, the accident is quite shocking.

When autonomous cars do begin to emerge, the global economy will see one of the biggest disruptive shocks in a century. The rise of autonomous cars will lead to car sharing, and car-sharing will lead to lower car output and less importance attached to the type of car that we travel in.

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