Grapeape

Recently I've been thinking about the impact self-driven cars will have on our hobby; specifically, our ability to enjoy driving our Porsches. I've read estimates indicating we will have 10mil cars on the road that have self-drive features by 2020. Does this mean fully self-drive by 2020 and will we see the full impact in our lifetime? Probably not, but I feel self-driven cars will be the norm and the hobby as we know will not exist.
A few thoughts that come to mind:
- Insurance premiums will sky rocket for anyone wanting to drive an "antique/collector" car on public roads and decline in value.
- If 2 self-driven cars are in an accident, and the accident is deemed a software malfunction, the software or manufacturer is liable unless it is found that you as the owner did not load recent software updates.
- I assume insurance premiums for a self-driven car will decline for the owner but increase for the vehicle manufacturer and Software Company.
- Logically, manufacturers will cover the cost of their insurance premiums within the purchase price of a self-driven vehicle.
The future of our hobby is bleak, at least for generations to come, please convince me otherwise.

clevelandporsche

I don't think it will change much. The vast majority of the cars on the road today have no relation to our hobby. Camrys, Optimas, and minivans are not enthusiast vehicles, and very few are being raced, autocrossed, or even obsessively detailed. Unless manually-driven cars are outlawed, our hobby is safe.