Drivers will not have a job in the future.

Tesla has released the Cybercab, a self driving taxi. Waymo too. In Singapore, grocery chain FairPrice is testing driverless vehicles to deliver their goods to their warehouse. Grab also is testing out self driving vehicles for taxi services. Is driving going to be replaced by AI? Yes.

Abstract painting of self-driving technology replacing a human driver

Generally, people want to go to point A to point B. Do they care if it’s driven by a person or AI? Eventually nope. What do I mean eventually? A self driving car will be scary for us who are used to seeing a human driving a car. Eventually, we see how safe it is and we will get use to it.

This is just like how e-commerce was scary to most people at first, but now it’s a norm. When e-commerce company like Lazada was launched, most people think it was a scam.

“You pay money online and they deliver it to you? How you know it’s not a scam? What if you paid, but there is no item delivered?”. This was in the 2014-2015. My colleagues were not confident in buying online. However, it took sometime for people to try and gain trust, and now its the norm to buy online.

Therefore, there will be a period of “trusting” of these self driving cars. Then, there will be future generations who will be born when self driving is a norm, and thought that cars has always been self driving. We will then tell them, “you know, there used to be a person driving a car?”. And the future generation will be shocked.

This is not a story, but the reality I believe that is coming soon. Reason? AI driving is safer. AI don’t get drunk while driving. AI can work like a good attentive driver 24/7. AI won’t get tired or sleepy. And if 1 car improved in their driving, all cars improved. Insane.

Since there is no human needed, the cost savings will be passed to consumers (hopefully). Would you rather have a cheaper ride? Of course! Do you care if the ride is self driving or by a person? Most of the time, if it’s safe, it doesn’t really matter. You just want to be arrived at your destination safely.

Being a driver will be a thing of the past.