"Our team has come to the realization that a prosecution of our craft along traditional lines will fade to irrelevance, ultimately ending in extinction," begins the existential note "Death of an Auto Analyst," by Adam Jonas, head of global auto research at Morgan Stanley.

Driverless cars and the end of individual ownership are coming faster than anyone thinks, he says. A great disruption is coming, and the message to his industry is clear: adapt or die. "In the internet of things, the automobile is the ultimate 'thing'. Without embracing the change, we have no future as auto analysts," he writes.

Jonas doesn't say exactly when he expects steering wheels to be a thing of the past, but he compares the coming change to the switch from horse-drawn carriages to automobiles. He also sees a world in which everyone rents a car instead of owning one and more tech companies jump into the auto industry.

"We can debate the curvature of the journey, but to us the destination is crystal clear," he says.