I believe self-driving cars will be common place in a short number of years. We’re already seeing self-parking cars and now, self-stopping cars are coming quickly to the market. The tipping point will simply be the moment accident rates for self-driven cars fall below the current accident rates. They do not have to be infallible, just less fallible. And then, insurance rates for non-*smart* cars will begin to rise until there’s a financial reason to switch.
I just bought a car last year and I am of the opinion it will be the last non-intelligent self-driving car I will own. As for keeping our old, low-tech cars, well, once insurance rates for them are 2 to 3 times more expensive than for the newer ones, it will be a self-correcting issue.
Oddly enough, insurability might actually be a fatal flaw in self-driven cars. If something malfunctions and my "self-driving car" gets involved in a crash that causes a serious injury to another motorist or a pedestrian, then who is liable for the damages?
Since a self-driving car is so reliant on interactions between a car and other technology outside the car that are out of the control of the car's owner, I can see us getting to the point where insurance companies will refuse to insure them!
I guess only the well to do Freepers will be driving. Normal people will have to live in city utopias because throw away high tech cars are WAY TO EXPENSIVE.