When the self-driving-car revolution firmly takes hold, there will be carnage, according to Wolf Richter of the Wolf Street blog. Not the car-crash kind — though that is a prevalent fear — but on the employment front.

“The magnitude of this problem is breathtaking,” he wrote. Citing government figures, he says that 4.1 million jobs (the stat of the day in our daily Need to Know before-the-bell column) are at risk, including chauffeurs and drivers of trucks, cabs and ride-share vehicles.

‘There will be delays, setbacks, and gruesome accidents. Some people will call for putting an end to this. And others will refuse to get into those cars. But this is happening.’

Wolf Richter

“These people can’t easily switch to writing software. There’s no room for them in manufacturing. Even the fast-food sector is getting automated, as are many other jobs, including writing stories for the major wire and news services,” Richter said. “It all might be happening faster than society is prepared to deal with it. And we’re not even talking about it!”

The potential savings will outweigh the human cost, as companies fight for profit margins, he explained. Drivers are one of the biggest expenses for transportation companies. And they have to sleep and take vacation. Not so their autonomous replacements.

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