Self Driving Topic

 The Volkswagen CEO came out this past week and said between 2025 and 2030....he expects self-driving cars to be a happening thing.

He doesn't say that folks will ask for the option, or that it would be affordable.  In fact, he doesn't suggest the price-tag for this option.

Will it even be authorized in US or European markets?  There's been an order given by the German government for regulations to be created in the next couple of years and prepare for this.  

So this scenario would start to unfold.  You'd walk into a Volkswagen display area, and here is X-model which features self-driving.  You'd ask questions...to find that the government has authorized it and it's an option.  Then some guy would quote you the price (probably more than $5k), and you'd just grin and walk away.

Two years would pass, and you'd now find the option is more like $2.5k, and you might be willing to pay this.

What you'd discover is that you still sit in the driver's seat, but mostly sit there with a cup of coffee....watching some episode of 'Three's Company' or reading all of your office e-mails over the forty-minute drive.  The car pulls safely into the parking lot, and detects the closest parking spot to the front door (your preferred program instruction).  

After four months of this, you are pretty much sold on the whole concept, and will never drive any car other than this. 

Eventually, you start putting the seat down and sleeping the whole way to work each day.  

After five years of this....you basically come to admit one day....you've lost all of your driving skills and can't operate a car.  

At that point, the car companies have you in a bind....you can't go back to the old way, and they can raise the self-driving option another $5k to $8k, with no real argument from you.