The downside of self-driving cars: fewer organs for transplants?
Self-driving cars will change the world, and according to most analysts, those changes will be for the better: fewer traffic accidents, fewer fatalities and injuries, smoother-flowing traffic, better fuel economy, and so on.
However, there are a couple of downsides. For example, autonomous cars could reduce a family’s need to own more than one vehicle, since self-driving cars can be used by multiple people throughout the day. Some estimates project that self-driving vehicles could cut new-car sales in half.
Autonomous cars will almost certainly change auto insurance, too, as premiums become much, much cheaper, making companies less profitable. That’s not a downside for most of us, but for thousands of people who work in the insurance industry, it’s a big change.
Darker side of autonomous cars?
And there’s another issue looming: according to two fellows at the R Street Institute–a conservative think tank that aims to promote “free markets and limited, effective government”–autonomous cars could spell doom for many people waiting on organ transplants.
That’s because roughly 94 percent of all fatal collisions in America are caused by human drivers. By taking human drivers out of the equation, autonomous vehicles could nearly eliminate traffic accidents.
