Self-driving cars are a level of automation that can seriously increase driving efficiency out on the road. On the other hand, these automated vehicles will eventually have a serious impact on the service industry, and according to many, this impact will hurt the workforce in certain areas.

In an effort to make economic progress, this technology can deliver better production at lower costs. At the same time, automation has also created anxiety for workers throughout history. In fact, many industries have been completely turned on their heads because of automation, and millions of workers have lost their jobs to machines.

Some industries will experience a bigger impact due to self-driving technology than others. We will do our best to predict the future to take a closer look at how these vehicles could have an impact on the service industry, whether positive or negative.

Self-Driving Vehicles and the Commercial Trucking Industry

Once automation takes over behind the wheel, many trucking companies believe that they’ll no longer need their experienced car accident lawyer because self-driving vehicles lead to greater safety on the road. No one would be happier to cut down on accidents than those in the commercial trucking industry.

On the other hand, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said in 2014 that 1.6 million Americans currently drive trucks for a living. Now that the first self-driving commercial truck has been announced, workers in this industry are suddenly fearful for their livelihoods.

The average truck driver earns $42,000 a year. That is more than $62 billion in salaries for these hard-working individuals. Automated truck driving can come along and wipe out their income and they won’t have a leg to stand on.

They’ll have to work hard to break into a new field in the future, but the immediate impact is going to be devastating to many families all across America. Unemployment rates will rise precipitously as more and more self-driving trucks hit the road, and eventually these men and women will find themselves on the unemployment line.

On a positive note, once automation takes over there will be greater efficiency, increased safety, more productivity, and less energy consumption. Overall, on a much wider scale, the positives potentially outweigh the negatives even though many drivers to find themselves out of work.

How Self-Driving Vehicles Can Affect the Field Service Industry

Unfortunately for some, self-driving cars could potentially have a negative impact on the workers in the field service industry as well. The service providers that drive for a living could suddenly find themselves in jeopardy and without a job.

To help put this in perspective, in the United States there are 160,000 transit bus drivers, 500,000 school bus drivers, 160,000 Uber and Lyft drivers, and 180,000 taxi drivers. If automation takes over, the chauffeur industry workers will suddenly find themselves in desperate need of employment, and over 1 million people will need to change careers as they get replaced by automated vehicles.

On the other hand, fatal car accidents will diminish all across the globe because automated drivers will be a lot safer than human beings. Without human error at play, ab average of 30,000 people in the US could survive each year once fatal vehicle crashes are much less a factor.

Car crashes cost about $100 billion per year in the United States alone. If they can be severely reduced through automation, this will save a tremendous amount of money, and ultimately make the world a better place because of less vehicular related accidents.

Final Thoughts

Autonomous vehicles will help improve traffic efficiency, save time and fuel, and even save lives. But millions upon millions of workers will suddenly find themselves out of a job and automation will have a negative impact on the workforce and unemployment lines. Obviously, there’s plenty of good to come from self-driving cars, but the workforce is going to get flipped on its head during the transition. So we’ll have to take the good with the bad and hope everything works itself out in the end.