The outcry of the German media didn’t take long. “Merkel shocks German car drivers,” one outlet stated. So what happened?

Angela Merkel, the chancellor of THE car nation, recently made a bold forecast. Talking about the prospects of autonomous driving, she said: “In 20 years’ time, we will need a special permit to drive a car ourselves.” Simply put: Merkel expects autonomous driving to become mandatory by the year 2037.

Merkel made the comment during a discussion with students at a research campus in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Admittedly, for Merkel’s standards, this is a surprisingly concrete claim. She is known as a politician who considers all the options for as long as possible before taking a stance. Yet now comes this precise statement – from the leader of a country where introducing a general speed limit can amount to political suicide.

But leaving that aside: What’s wrong with Merkel’s statement?

A typical argument I hear in discussions is that the fun of driving will disappear entirely with autonomous cars. However, what would people have said back when the automobile was introduced? That the pleasure of riding a carriage with real horses would disappear? That the special relationship between the carriage driver and the horses would end? That workers who depend on horses and carriages would eventually have no work? Probably. And you know what: They would have been right!