Ten million driverless cars are expected to hit the road by 2020, according to a recent Business Insider report. Google and Apple are racing to join the automotive industry. Traditional car manufacturers are investing billions of dollars in R&D. There are many reasons to believe that the car of the...

Ten million driverless cars are expected to hit the road by 2020, according to a recent Business Insider report. Google and Apple are racing to join the automotive industry. Traditional car manufacturers are investing billions of dollars in R&D. There are many reasons to believe that the car of the future will be autonomous. If so, we should expect people to identify less and less with their vehicles.

In the future, they say, cars will drive themselves. You'll call a roving robo-taxi, tell it where you want to go, and check out mentally in the back seat. People will be human cargo--as unengaged in the journey as a smiley-faced Amazon box awaiting delivery. Driverless vehicles are the logical conclusion of megatrends--the century-old march of automation, perfected by artificial intelligence. Carmakers and tech giants are racing to get on board. In the media, autonomous cars are no longer the answer to a question but the starting premise.

Ten million driverless cars are expected to hit the road by 2020, according to a recent Business Insider report. Google and Apple are racing to join the automotive industry. Traditional car manufacturers are investing billions of dollars in R&D. There are many reasons to believe that the car of the future will be autonomous. If so, we should expect people to identify less and less with their vehicles.