Self-driving cars and insurance

Over the last 6 months many articles have been written about self-driving cars.  There was a story about Google doing some testing on self-driving cars as a natural extension of their project to video tape every street in the world. In fact, Google has more than 140,000 miles logged in with self-driving cars. A story in the Wall Street Journal yesterday (L. Gordon Crovitz; The Car of the Future Will Drive You) discussed how the Executive Chairman of Ford Motor Company, Bill Ford, spoke to a group about how in the next few years, cars will automatically be able to maintain safe distances, using a network of sensors, V-to-V (vehicle to vehicle) communications and real-time tracking of driving conditions which are fed into the vehicle's navigation system.
Self-driving vehicles are sometimes called unmanned ground vehicles (although a person is in the drivers seat) or as the auto industry calls them "semiautonomous driving technology." Regardless of the name, self-driving vehicles are loaded with technology and may one day change the world. Some are saying that these type of vehicles will be commonplace within 7 years.
The most amazing thing is that the technology is already available for the self-driving automobile to hit society's mainstream.
If this is truly the future of driving what impact could it have on insurance?
Many are saying that self-driving cars have the potential to reduce auto accidents by up to 90% and others are saying that we can reduce traffic fatalities by as much as 50%. It does not take a genius to figure out that if auto accidents are reduced by such a large amount it cannot be good for the insurance industry, the body repair shop industry, glass shops, doctors, nurses, physical therapists, lawyers, and a host of supporting industries.
Let's focus on the insurance agent. We know there is a lot of pressure on insurance agents in the current environment from the direct writers like Geico and Progressive and it could be downright disheartening to add the insult of a reduced need for insurance agent services if cars start driving themselves. Before someone jumps off the cliff and starts looking for a new career, or before we go back to texting while driving, or let the dog sit on our lap, let's take a step back at look at this whole scene.
First of all, very few of the scientific advances of the crystal ball group have ever come to pass. We have not entered the era of The Jetson's as many predicted. There will be huge lobbying efforts from dozens of industries and industry groups to reduce or eliminate the scaling of the self-driven auto. Literally thousands of laws will have to be written to address hundreds of issues related to driving. I find it extremely difficult to believe that thousands of cars will be driving 100 mph on the freeway in a tight formation less than a foot from each other.
On the other hand, how cool would it be able to relax in rush hour traffic?