Billionaire Boys Club Member Forum (BBCMF)

[mick]

part one/ Last Sunday, on HBO's Last Week Tonight, John Oliver offered audiences
http://www.wealthdaily.com/articles/a-second-auto-crisis-is-brewing/8313


The Real Auto Crisis That's Brewing

While subprime auto loans won't be what brings rise to next the next economic recession, though, there is a very real and looming threat to today's auto industry that Oliver and many others are overlooking. It's an event that has the potential to completely shock the American economy, not only by turning the auto industry on its head, but by deleting millions of jobs in the process.

If you've been reading these pages long enough, you probably know I'm referring to the emergence of driverless cars and autonomous vehicles (AVs). According to Barclays, AVs are expected to cut vehicle sales as much as 40% as robot drivers take over the road.

As Bloomberg Technology explains:

Vehicle ownership rates may fall by almost half as families move to having just one car... Driverless cars will travel twice as many miles as current autos because they will transport each family member during the day.

Barclays analyst Brian Johnson predicts that large-volume automakers “[will] need to shrink dramatically to survive.” Jointly, companies including GM and Ford “would need to reduce North American production by up to 68 percent and 58 percent, respectively.”

On top of lower vehicle sales, there will be a massive reduction in the U.S. workforce, at least in regards to specific job type. Truck drivers, taxi cab drivers, valet drivers, postal workers, food delivery drivers — all these positions are at threat of losing relevance.

The good news, at least, is that the market for autonomous vehicles is expected grow to $42 billion by 2025, according to Boston Consulting Group. This opens up a massive investment opportunity for those keeping a close eye on this emerging technology.

And if you think any of that sounds far-fetched, consider that Uber announced earlier this week that it has signed a $300 million deal with Volvo to provide driverless taxis. As Bloomberg reports, the goal is to replace Uber's more than one million drivers with robots “as quickly as possible,” an effort that will begin as soon as next month, when Uber reportedly begins using self-driving cars with customers in downtown Pittsburgh.