Maybe its a good thing, maybe not. A big fundamental shift will take place if this new driverless car reality comes to fruition. Firstly, it will completely devastate the auto industry, gas stations, drive-thrus, taxi drivers, and truckers. Uber and Lift drivers will have to re-enter the job market putting further strain on the unemployment rate. Sure, stockholders of the companies that introduce these new vehicles will prosper but there will be a lot of people out of a job on the other hand. I'm not saying this is going to be a terrible reality but I think we need to consider both sides of the coin carefully. Do we want to support this technology or not?

Yes, but the need for the introduction of universal basic income will be all the more pressing. The auto industry and all the industries that depend on put together is huge.

The car manufacturing industry itself will, among many, suffer greatly. The number of cars required to meet all our transportation needs will be much smaller with autonomous driving and the automobile becoming just another part of Mobility as a Service. Carpooling Uber style will go up in popularity but maybe not as much out of choice but to a significat degree out of necessity because the overall unemployment rate will increase together with wage cuts. That will also mean less new road capacity built and less necessity to maintain existing roads. The potential economic impact of autonomous driving will be hard to adequately predict.