They'll accurately evaluate risk, as you point out, and many people will have the option of much, much cheaper insurance by using a driverless car. Most people

They'll accurately evaluate risk, as you point out, and many people will have the option of much, much cheaper insurance by using a driverless car. Most people hate driving anyway, so that's a nice cherry on top as they transition to driverless cars. What happens when a majority of people have moved to driverless cars, though? The population of people who want cars that are human driven won't be representative of the general population: they'll be the joy drivers and the risk takers (there's a sexy marketing campaign in there somewhere...). Those people would represent a greater risk than the contemporary human driver, so they would pull up the costs of insurance. But that just drives the marginal human-driver toward automation, leading to a risk spiral until human cars become effectively luxury items. After some disastrous wrecks, the government comes in, rightfully blames the deaths on the small minority of adrenaline junkies who want to drive cars without the guidance and protection of Google, and bans human driven cars from public roads. The next Larry Ellison has a fleet of human-driven cars to drive on her private automobile course, but day-to-day a human driven car is seen as often as a Bugatti.