Google Inc (GOOG)’s Robotic Car Effect on Auto Insurance

Obstacles include regulatory hurdles, the cost of insuring cars switching from drivers to manufacturers — something car makers would be loath to do, in large part to due to the uncertainty and chaos of no previous existing model for it, to getting the average person to accept a computer driving them around, and those fuming that they paid 30k for a new car just a couple years earlier, and damned if their going to lose out on their investment.

However, the trend to me seems clear. The pace of innovation and disruption is only increasing. Film went the way of the dodo when the digital camera arrived. Travel agents, newspapers, and high-commission stock trades were done in by the Internet. PC’s are rapidly being replaced by tablets and mobile phones. And few people in those industries were prepared for the massive shifts.

It’s my belief that car insurance in its current form will disappear, and at minimum, the vastly cheaper rates of insuring a fleet of driverless taxis will take away a substantial amount of the float insurance companies use to generate their profits.

If nothing else, I’ll certainly miss those funny GEICO commercials.

The article Google’s Robotic Car Effect on Auto Insurance originally appeared on Fool.com is written by Margie Nemcick-Cruz.