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Recently, I was chatting with some friends and the subject of autonomous technology came up. We had a long and interesting conversation about its pros and it cons, some of which had already occurred to me and some which hadn't.
A serious aspect, we decided, is that jobs may go. These could include taxi drivers, who may become superfluous from a driving point of view - while the whole concept of a taxi could also become unnecessary if a rental shuttle vehicle model becomes the norm.
Delivery drivers could be under threat too, although an autonomous vehicle could not take parcels to the door and that may provide some protection for a percentage of employees. However, it will probably not be too long until robots solve that problem, too.
Conversely, there are undoubtedly important gains. The fundamental one is very human - the potential to virtually eliminate road traffic accidents. As a benefit, this simply cannot be understated. No fathers, mothers, children or friends lost to meaningless, often random accidents. After a century or more of road traffic accidents, this is almost miraculous. Also, accident reduction is, of course a huge corporate benefit from a duty of care point of view.
The other substantial benefit, depending on whether drivers are eventually allowed to sit away from the wheel altogether, is that employees will win back all the time that they currently spend driving. That run to Manchester that takes two hours there and the same time back, traffic allowing, is suddenly time that you can use productively.
During our conversation, interestingly enough, this latter point received a surprisingly mixed reaction. The fact is that I, and a lot of my friends, actually enjoy driving quite a lot of the time. Not always, of course, especially if I find myself trapped on a Friday night in gridlock, but it's a good feeling to head out to a meeting early on a summer morning when the roads are clear, to steer and accelerate and feel the car respond. Is this a pleasure that will be lost to future generations?
There is no stopping the technology, of course, and it looks inevitable that autonomous cars will become the norm at some point. Their arrival will be overwhelmingly a positive development - but it is also worth taking a moment to reflect on what may also be sacrificed.
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