People have a problem with self-driving cars.

The problem has nothing to do with driving the things, obviously. Nor is it related to buying an autonomous vehicle, as no fully self-driving cars have made it to market yet (though Teslas could be there soon). We all still have to go through the same process to be able to drive; get Driving lessons melbourne, pass the test and buy your first car. This isn’t going to change any time soon because of self-driving technology.

No, the public’s problem with autonomous cars has little to do with the cars themselves and everything to do with loss–specifically, our loss of driving. People are dealing with the arrival of self-driving cars in the same the way they deal with grief, in five stages.

We’ve been through four of those stages already:

• Denial: Cars will never be able to drive themselves!
• Anger: There’s no way a car can drive better than me!
• Bargaining: Okay, self-driving cars are coming, but can I at least have a steering wheel so I can drive some of the time?
• Depression: I’m really going to miss driving.

And now, we’ve come to the fifth stage: acceptance. To help us over that final hurdle, two new publicity campaigns have launched, touting the benefits of self-driving cars.

The first comes from Waymo, MADD, and other partners. It describes the ways in which autonomous can reduce drunk/distracted driving, offer independence to seniors and the disabled, and increase our productivity. Of course, the idea of helping the disabled move about independently and freely isn’t a new concept considering there are motor vehicle schemes such as the Motability Scheme that can offer disabled individuals access to a car for increased independence and ability to travel. The difference is these self-driving cars could greatly improve such schemes and others.

The second is seen above, and it’s more of an advertisement for Intel (which is, not coincidentally, investing a lot of time, energy, and money into developing technology for self-driving cars).

The fact that these unrelated campaigns have launched in near unison is more evidence that self-driving cars are just around the corner. Are you onboard?