COST/BENEFIT ANALYSIS OF SELF-DRIVING CARS

These cost/benefit analyses are always going to have major elements of subjectivity, in my opinion.  With self driving cars, I don’t think the fact it will eliminate jobs for some (most?) people who get paid to drive is an economic negative.  I think logically it’s pretty easy to see that making cars self-driving isn’t really any different from mechanized farming.  I doubt anyone would argue today that the cotton gin or the mechanical combine should have been banned to save the jobs of the people who did those tasks manually.  I don’t mean to disparage people who drive for a living, or make light of the disruption to their lives that may result from vehicles becoming autonomous, but how is eliminating driving as a manual occupation really any different from eliminating picking corn or processing cotton as a manual occupation?