Owning a car will be a lot like owning a horse. You will only be owning it for sentimental reasons” Elon Musk.
We all love our cars and the thrill of driving, however, we are not great drivers, and the accidents stats show that. In 2016, over 37 thousand people died in a motor vehicle accident. On top of that, every year we see over 5 million crashes with over 2 million injuries. The cost to society in loss of life, healthcare and damage to property are simply too high.
Given the fact that autonomous vehicles can eventually cut accidents to a fraction of the above, driver licenses and car registration will become more expensive over time. This eventually creates an incentive for people to stop purchasing and driving their vehicles.